Discuss Detroit » Archives - January 2008 » Mobile urban swimming pool « Previous Next »
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Goose
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Username: Goose

Post Number: 56
Registered: 02-2005
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 12:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

not sure if this is just a figment of my imagination from when I was younger, but I seem to remember a mobile swimming pool used to come to our block once or twice a summer, fill up with the fire hydrant, and then it was like $1 to swim for an hour, the truck looked like a gravel hauler and you swam in the back, from what I remember it parked at the end of our street on Chatsworth right in front of Clark elementary....

i just recalled this passing a gravel hauler on the freeway this morning....

am i delusional???
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Miketeevee
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Username: Miketeevee

Post Number: 34
Registered: 07-2005
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 1:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That would be the Channel 2 Swim Mobile. I remember the promos that ran in the 70s announcing the locations where the Swim Mobile would be. Pictures are online. Just google it.
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Hardhat
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Username: Hardhat

Post Number: 225
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 1:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

At one point it was the TV-2 Swim-mobile, as I recall.
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Detroitpetanque
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Username: Detroitpetanque

Post Number: 52
Registered: 09-2006
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 1:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Are you sure it wasn't a Septic Tank Pumping Truck and the guy was trying to make a few extra bucks on the side?
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Detroitplanner
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Username: Detroitplanner

Post Number: 1550
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 1:19 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The Swim-mobile was operated by the Dept of Recreation and advertised by Channel 2. You were considered a big shot if you had the swim mobile set up on your block if you were growing up in the mid-70's.
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Goose
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Username: Goose

Post Number: 57
Registered: 02-2005
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 1:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

yes, thats when it would have been, lived on Chatsworth until 1976...... that also recalls memories of the summer when the fire hydrants were opened up and some sort of attachement was set so the water sprayed 50 feet into the air....
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Urbanpioneer
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Username: Urbanpioneer

Post Number: 34
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 1:26 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I've seen the pool in use as recently as three or four years ago. It's a parks and recreation item and could be rented fairly easily. Don't know if they still have it
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Blksoul_x
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Username: Blksoul_x

Post Number: 129
Registered: 06-2007
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 1:44 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember the swim-mobil. It was free to the public...not sure how it was funded. I remember parents where skeptical about allowing their kids to swim in those tanks. The water was usually a brownish green color. The neighborhood bullies/tough kids were usually the first to dive in.

There was also a play-mobil and a book-mobil.

blksoul_atcha!
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Paczki
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Username: Paczki

Post Number: 52
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 3:09 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hey Blksoul I resent that remark about the bullies and tough kids. I was in the swim mobile maybe in 1970 or 71 with my friends when it was parked on Ferry Street. We were a bunch of pre-teen white catholic school girls. From what I remember we really didn't do much swimming it was more like standing around in a crowded bath tub.
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Eaglelv
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Username: Eaglelv

Post Number: 43
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 6:57 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember swimming in the Swim mobile in the early 70s at the corner of Manistique and Essex. There were two stores on each corner back then on Manistique, one was in the basement of an apartment bldg the other a larger meat market. I lived on the 1st block of Chalmers and remember that hot summer day well when we all walked up and took a dip.
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Sbradke
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Username: Sbradke

Post Number: 51
Registered: 05-2007
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 7:03 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yep, I remember the swim-mobile as well as the book-mobile on Sussex in the 1970s.
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Detroitjim
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Username: Detroitjim

Post Number: 7
Registered: 02-2008
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 10:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The portable pond was, until recently, parked in a fenced lot next to the Parks&Recreation repair garage @Mt.Elliot&Huber.
It wouldn't surprise me if it has found its way to the scrap yard since I last saw it.
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Whittier70
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Username: Whittier70

Post Number: 21
Registered: 02-2008
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 10:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember the swim-mobile when I was a kid, when they left that day the workers left the fire hydrant wrench behind on the ground and as soon as they left the kids had the fire hydrant running full blast that day, as well as many other times throughout the rest of the summer.
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Detroitplanner
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Username: Detroitplanner

Post Number: 1552
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 11:32 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My brother would take dumps in the swim mobile.
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Karl_jr
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Username: Karl_jr

Post Number: 204
Registered: 06-2007
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 11:55 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/ph otobook/swim.htm
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Hamtragedy
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Username: Hamtragedy

Post Number: 93
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Saturday, February 16, 2008 - 3:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember all of us throwing up pool water one evening after spending an afternoon in the swim mobile.
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Eaglelv
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Username: Eaglelv

Post Number: 44
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Saturday, February 16, 2008 - 5:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Detroitplanner
Did you ever get your brother poddy trained? Hopefully things worked out.
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Viziondetroit
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Username: Viziondetroit

Post Number: 1444
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2008 - 11:15 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

^is that the same as potty trained? :-D
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Detroitplanner
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Username: Detroitplanner

Post Number: 1553
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2008 - 11:55 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

for petes sake it was a joke!
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Detroit313
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Username: Detroit313

Post Number: 612
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2008 - 7:45 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Funny sh#*t!
LOL

<313>
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Eaglelv
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Username: Eaglelv

Post Number: 45
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2008 - 8:27 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The humor involved in my response however slight is funny, babyruth anyone?
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Gsgeorge
Member
Username: Gsgeorge

Post Number: 582
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2008 - 9:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

this thing is awesome. someone should bring it back.


swimmobile

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