The Norwich YMCA is closing. It’s a great loss to the Norwich community.
But I come not to grieve for the town, I come to grieve for me. For the past 20 years or so, unless I’ve been in court, I have made my way at lunchtime to the Y’s excellent swimming pool to log another mile. I would venture to say that I’ve swum more laps in that pool than anyone else. Before it opened, I would get up early in the morning to swim at what was then the Mystic Community Center, sharing a lane with as many as three other swimmers at 6:00 o’clock in the morning. At the Norwich Y I could swim at high noon; always with my own lane, often alone in the pool. Not only that, but when other people were in the pool, I was almost always far faster than them, a real shot in the ego for someone who nearly always came in dead last during a less than lackluster competitive career.
Of course the fact that the pool was so often near empty was emblematic of the problems that led to the closure. I was always mystified about the fact that so few of the folks who worked in downtown Norwich took advantage of the facilities at the Y. Come April 30th I’ll have to find some alternative to my daily swim. If I was a little older I could just throw in the towel and retire completely but that’s not a viable option at the moment, as indeed, given the state of my 401(k) it may never be.
I have quite speedily skipped the first three stages of grief, zooming right through to depression. There I’ve been stuck, at least since this morning when I first heard the news. Acceptance will come, I am sure, but right now I’m singing the blues.
One Comment
Hi John,
I echo your feelings about the Norwich YMCA. It is an institution that cannot be allowed to fail. For me, it was the pool for lunchtime swims in the 80′s like you are doing now, taking the first classes in Yoga offered by Sylvia Olkin at the Y in the 70′s, providing my children with world class swimming lessons so they could both become excellent swimmers and water safety experts, and for my husband, endless games of first squash and then raquetball, from young man to senior class status, and much much more.
I have contacted Dodd’s office and for this issue and others I am trying to get him on our cable tv show. His website shows all of the federal money he brought to Ct. including $750,000 for the Mark Twain House. The YMCA is no less worthy of funding to stay open.
I am thinking and hoping that the announcement of its closing is a cry for help and attention and that there will be a groundswell of advocacy to get enough funding required for it to stay open.
Having said that, my husband and I have always felt that a new YMCA in a more central location for New London county would attract more attendance – but there just wasn’t the wherewithall to get that done. Have you spoken to Mike Lahan about this issue?
Love to hear from you. Regards to Mary.
Sheila
Post a Comment