Radio Springs revisited

Editor's Note: This column originally appeared in the March 1, 2012 edition of the Nevada Daily Mail

I can't resist. After Richard Carpenter wrote such a nostalgic column about the pavilion at Radio Springs and Donna Logan followed up with a Letter to the Editor on the same subject, I wanted to put in my slightly older two cents' worth about one of my favorite spots in Nevada.

Until I was a teenager, when we went swimming in Nevada, we swam in the actual lake. There was a small sandy beach and for a little way out in the water there was sand under our feet, but further out (they tell me, I was too scared to go out that far) it was a mud bottom like any farm pond in the area. There was a very tall sliding board out in the lake. At least it seemed tall to me at that age. It obviously wasn't in the best repair, because one of our swimming experiences was ruined when my sister Ellen's swimming suit got caught on a nail in the slide and ripped the bottom. I think it may have scratched her bottom also, but it was the indignity of having exposed herself that bothered Ellen the most.

We got the suits at the bathhouse along with the numbered baskets to put our street clothes in. We also got a bathing cap. You can imagine how pretty we looked in those itchy one-piece suits. I think they were a sort of khaki color. I was afraid of the bathhouse when I was little because you could see those big orange and yellow spiders underneath through the cracks in the floor. You could look through and see the shallow water under the bathhouse.

We preferred to go to Fort Scott because they had a nice big concrete pool before Nevada had theirs. (When we drive past on 69 it looks like it is still the same pool.) They had a sliding board with two humps in it in the deeper part of the shallow side. I loved that.

But it wasn't long before Nevada had its own concrete pool, with three sides out in the lake and attached to the park on the north end. This is the same pool that Richard and Donna remember. It was still there when I took my oldest son for swimming lessons.

Our Ellis community and the Ellis Domestic Science Club had frequent basket dinners up on the west hill of the park. I don't remember there being a shelter house there then, but I think there were tables that could be moved to make a long table to put the food on. My friend Joyce Kafer and I would climb all over the rocks on that hill while they were setting out the food, but after we ate and sufficient time had elapsed for safety we would go to the lake to swim.

When we were a little older and had dates we would walk over the bridge to the pavilion. I remember the boys always wanted to stop at the top of the arch of the bridge, lean over the rail and spit into the water to watch the fish come to their spittle. I didn't find that very romantic, but it seemed to be a custom.

One time the Johnson boys were playing at a square dance in the pavilion, and we enjoyed the cooler setting than our neighborhood living rooms. I don't remember dancing to the jukebox but I must have at some time.

We also had the east hill open for public use then, and that was a nice place to walk away from the rest of the group.

My older siblings remember coming to Radio Springs Park and staying overnight in tents when the Chautauqua was there. We have pictures of some of them at a picnic table, as well in a rowboat out in the lake. I don't ever remember there being boats in the lake except maybe someone fishing away from the swimming area.

I still like to park at the lake and eat a drive-through lunch if I happen to be in town, alone at lunchtime. That is a different type of parking than some I remember from the past however.