Ambridge pool pin courtesy Linda Kastriba Kuhni |
For those of you who aren't familiar with Ambridge's Borough Swimming Pool asking "what is that?!", it's a bathhouse pin.
Instead of swimmers taking their clothes to the pool area with them, most would "check" their clothes in the bathhouse. Swimmers would grab a wire basket when they entered the bathhouse. After changing into swimsuits, they'd take the basket to a counter where "checkers" would exchange the basket for a pin. The basket would then be put on a shelf area numbered to match the pin. Most swimmers pinned the pin to their swimsuit for safekeeping. When the swimmer would be ready to go home, they'd go back to the counter and exchange the pin for the basket with their clothes.
Although, apparently not everyone gave back the pin. Linda Kastriba Kuhni, who took the photo above, says that the pin belongs to her husband, and #15 was his baseball team number. He wanted the pin so much, he abandoned the t-shirt he'd worn to the pool so he wouldn't have to give up the pin. Her husband has been carrying the pin on his key ring ever since.
You can read more about, and see photos of, the Ambridge Borough Swimming pool in these blog articles. Yeah, I write a lot about the pool.
- Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool, Part 1
- Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool, Part 2: Getting there--the trek to the pool
- Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool, Part 3: The bathhouse--the girls' dressing room
- Pool, Part 3: The Bathhouse -- The Boys' Dressing Room
- Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool expansion: the solons' inspection
- Ambridge today: Pool steps
- Ambridge today: the pool bathhouse once stood here
- Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool, Part 4: hot summer fun in the three pools
- The happy beginning and the sad end of the Ambridge Pool with the unfortunate series of events that led to its closing and razing
- The Ambridge Pool slide
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