Edison Swimming Pool
Edison Park
Hammond, Indiana

Clean, close, safe... One of Hammond's three city pools.

The still water waits for the neighborhood kids to spend another summer day at "the pool".

This 1963 summer photo was taken at the Hessville Swimming Pool in Hammond. 
Typical of the kids running, slipping, falling, ingesting water up their noses, running, dunking,
coughing, screaming, more falling, splashing, yelling, and getting sunburned in the process.
These kids had fun for 10-cents a day! Good memories! Good friends! Good times!

Jerry Betts, Dave Bowers, Bob Dibblee, Tom McCain, Richard Barnes worked together as lifeguards at the Hammond Pool system.
Betts, Dibblee and Barnes were in the HHS Class of 1959. This photo was taken at the Hessville Pool in the summer of 1960.

Lifeguard Jerry Betts teaches another generation of swimmers at the Hessville Pool in Hammond, Indiana.

	Jerry Betts learned to swim from Nick Powell at the Hammond Civic Center, worked as a lifeguard for several years and managed the Hessville Pool. Jerry went on to become a popular elementary school teacher in Hammond.		Rich Barnes also learned to swim at the Civic Center and was a lifeguard at Edison, Douglas and Hessville Pools. Barnes had a track scholarship at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, following graduation from HHS.

An active summer program from Hammond Park Superintendent John Higgins, provided children with many summer
activities. Trampolines were popular but became a thing of the past when children started injuring themselves.
Being a kid in Hammond was a time of daring and taking chances. No one knew anyone who was a lawyer
so kids fell down, broke arms and legs, healed in a few months and were back at the park.
It was a great time to be a kid in Hammond, Indiana.