(Part 2) Cheraw Country Club Pool, 2431 Old Cash Road: September 2023
Continuing from where we left off in Part 1, the pool at Cheraw County Club was usually open during the summer between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend. When I was small, before I had started playing golf, I remember going to the pool with my mom. Every now and then, we'd all have to get out of the pool, whether that was when the lifeguard was going off shift or having to do some cleaning. That is when I would take my putter and a couple of golf balls and go to the putting green. Getting a Pepsi from the fountain in the pro shop was always a treat.
I also remember taking swimming lessons in this pool. The lessons were over a span of a few days and usually started soon after school was out for the summer. Surely I wouldn't have mastered the dead man's float if it weren't for Coach Porter. Thank you.
When I started playing golf, after walking nine holes on summer days (definitely in the morning!), I would usually jump in the pool to cool off. And that was usually a jump off the diving board, as I don't think I ever was successful at executing an actual dive from the diving board. I'm pretty sure that most attempts resulted in a belly flop (ouch!).
Seeing the pool in recent years has been sad. I remember how the pool would be packed on the weekends when I was a kid, but in the last few years, when I was either driving by or playing golf, there were maybe only a handful of people at the pool.
The most recent owner converted the old bathhouse into a room to rent. The little apartment at the bottom of the clubhouse, with the door facing the pool, may have been rented out as well. If I recall correctly, that is where the greenskeeper at the time used to live. The bricked-in patio with the grill and fireplace is also new, although I think there was a covered patio of some sort in that spot at one time.
There are still quite a number of pictures I have left to post, though I think that Part 3 will cover the rest of those. That's it for the pool. You can always go swim at God's pool across the street at the state park.