The Multnomah Villager

I got a request from Mara in my email this morning on behalf of the Silent Auction and Concert to benefit the therapy pool at the MJCC. And here’s the post!

You may have heard about the MJCC Therapy Pool users having to raise funds to keep their (our) pool open. While the MJCC underwent its 12 million dollar renovation, the therapy pool was in danger of closing due to lack of funds.

The pool members rallied and raised enough money to keep the pool open through August 2007. They’re having a silent auction and concert by June Howell and the Deadbeat Daddies at the MJCC’s auditorium on

Sunday April 22
1:30 - 4:30 pm
MJCC 6651 SW Capitol Hwy

Tickets are $36 and can be purchased with a credit card by calling 503-244-0111. H’ors doeuvres and desserts will be served; there will be a no-host bar.

Bid on vacations in Hawaii, Sunriver and Long Beach Washington, or gift certificates from Seasons and Regions, Alba Osteria, Otto and Anita’s as well as many other goods and services. Many Multnomah and Hillsdale merchants have donated generously to this silent auction.

I’d really appreciate a mention on your site. The therapy pool has been open for over 80 years. Through the decades, the pool has been a place for any Portland resident with a disabling condition or injury - regardless of
race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, or economic circumstance - to maintain health and physical conditioning. It would be a great loss to the community if this jewel was to close.

They’ve really done a lot of work over at the JCC, and the facilities are really going to be great when everything is done. I’m there quite often, well downstairs anyway, since Jr. V goes to Kids Corner after school, which he enjoys.

Here’s a link to the MJCC Therapy Pool Webpage and this is a link to the MJCC’s main website.

Anytime we have 90 degree weather, the Villager begins to think longingly about sleeping at the office, or a nice air conditioned hotel room. I’d consider a tent in the backyard, but traffic’s kind of heavy down my street at night, and our neighbors have been in a party mood lately. So other means of cooling off are required.

Enter Wilson Pool. We were out of town when the Grand Re-Opening happened, and that sounded a little crowded for our tastes anyway. So today was the day. After waiting impatiently for the noon opening time, we headed up the hill to Wilson High and approached the parking lot. This is when we were remiminded that the Hillsdale Farmers Market had recently relocated to the same general area. This made parking somewhat of an adventure. In fact it’s a good thing the pool doesn’t open before noon, or there would be no place to park at all.

We headed up the path behind the end zone of the football field and took our place in line. We were a little suprised at such a long line so early. Little did we know. That’s Jr. Villager there in the hat, having discovered one of his favorite school friends ahead of us in line.

The pool has two main areas, the “regular pool” where a person would swim lapes if there had been maybe around 600 fewer people there, and the kids area seen above. The kids area is split into sort of four “themes”. There’s the shallow end with a large umbrella over the water (cool) and the little froggy slide, which Jr. Villager would not go down, since it sprays water at you at the top. There’s the big water slide - not as big and fast as the one at the Southwest Community Center Pool, but good enough for today. And then there’s the “current channel” and this cool vortex which was great at first, until too many people clogged it up. And last there is the deeper end of the shallow area where buckets periodically pour water onto the carefully positioned heads of “unsuspecting” parents.

Thoughts:

• We should have come for the grand opening, it could not have been more crowded than today
• The shallow end under the umbrella could stand to be about 6 inches deeper
• The water is VERY warm, since the pool is so shallow - however, this is also a result of the run of sunny days we’ve had in a row, so you know how that goes
• The entrance/exit process to the vortex is not graceful. Especially with four or five 12 year old kids thrown into the mix
• Apparently, you’re not allowed to take the rafts that they have into the “current channel”. I think there’s been some false advertising here.
• Did I mention there were a lot of people there? We saw LOTS of people we know and the kids area of the pool became so crowded you literally could not move freely.

Apparently the best time to go is around 5PM on weekdays. It ain’t cheap. You’re looking at the standard fee of around $3 something per person (exact details on the site). Good news is (sarcasm) that a family membership can be bought, giving you all-you-can-swim until September for $163. Given that this is July 17th, you better prepare to swim a LOT, if you want to get your money’s worth on that one.

According to Portland Parks & Recreation, Wilson Pool is the most popular outdoor pool, and the only one on the west side of Portland. I think we’ll stick with the Southwest Community Center Pool though, which is more our “home pool” anyway, but Wilson Pool made for a fun Sunday field trip to Hillsdale.

One last note: This would be a pretty cool pool to have at your high school. My school had this whirpool bath in the guy’s locker room that one football player at a time could sit in. Kinda looked like a cattle trough. That’s the closest we got to a pool at school.

Only in Portland do you think to yourself, “It’s kinda cold and wet outside… I know, let’s go to the pool!” Jr. Villager and I piled in the car and headed over to The Southwest Community Center Pool today for “family swim”. We were not alone. Well, We met one of Jr. Villager’s school friends there, and quickly ran into another one in the water. I’m telling you, half of SW Portland was at the pool today. It was a mob scene in there!

If you haven’t been to the Southwest Community Center, you should consider a visit. The center is quite large, although it only takes up about a quarter of Gabriel Park’s 90+ acres. I was just thinking to myself last night how big the park was before the center went in, and it’s still huge. If not Portland’s largest park, certainly high on the list. But I digress.

We stashed out towels in one of the cubby holes and hit the water. The center features a full-on lap pool, but that’s not really the point. The point, especially for those of us with small kids, is the activity pool. There’s a sloping bottom entrance and an expansive shallow end with one of those Rube Goldberg water squirting contraptions that will look familiar to anyone who remembers the game “Mousetrap”. But the main draw is The Big Blue Slide. Oh yes, this is a major waterslide. This ain’t no 70’s era ladder-and-slab slide, oh no. We’re talking about a serious slide. One that adults can enjoy. Gotta carry kids below 48″ on your lap, but you can still pick up speed. This thing is tall. So we went down the slide a few times, and hung about in the water.

If you think I’m joking about going to the pool to warm up, I’m not. The pool is heated to 89 degrees (says the website) and it’s true. It’s rather bath-like in there. Just the thing for a chilly summer day. Don’t you just love Oregon summers? However, the heat, and the pool’s popularity remind me of the big downside of the pool - it is heavily chlorinated. Goggles are highly recommended.

Lots more stuff goes on at the community center. I’ll write about it sometime. I remember when the things was approved, Mrs. Villager and I were rather upset that “they” were stealing so much of our park for this huge center, but in retrospect - it’s been great. The City did a great job. As you would expect in present-day Portland, it’s all puffed up with eco-features and political correctness, but in the end it’s just a great place to hang out.

Except for the chlorine. Man, it’s hard on the eyes.