For years, kids enjoying the YMCA at Nags Head have dreaded “The Whistle.”
Not the quick “tweet tweet” that reminds them to walk, not run. Not the sharp “bleeeet” when play gets a little rough. Not even the shrill blast that announces the closure of the pool when distant thunder is heard over Tyrell County.
No, “The Whistle” they dread is for the mandatory time-out imposed on otherwise well-behaved pool children for a period known as “Adult Swim.”
Darla Hood, 8, of Kitty Hawk put it succinctly: “I hate Adult Swim.”
For ten agonizing minutes of every hour, YMCA lifeguards at the outdoor pool force dozens of kids to exit of the water so two or three elderly patrons can hog the pool to themselves. The practice dates back to 1585 when the original colonists forced Virginia Dare to get out of the community swimming hole for a few minutes every day to check for water moccasins. The practice evolved over the centuries, becoming longer and more regimented with the passage of time. Even though a water moccasin has not been seen at the YMCA since its construction in 2003, the attitude of successive YMCA directors has been “If it was good enough for Virginia Dare, it’s good enough for these kids.”
Four hundred and fifty years of ageism came to a screeching halt last Saturday when a group of parents spontaneously organized to protest the Adult Swim time. Taking a page from the great civil rights struggles of the 1960’s, at the first Adult Swim whistle of the day the parents quickly created handmade signs from random pieces of cardboard, burned their bras and marched arm in arm into the warm waters of the lower pool chanting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Adult Swim time has got to go!”
YMCA lifeguards responded by turning the pool’s water cannons on the protestors, but as usual water pressure to the canons was so low the stream barely reached beyond the nozzle. Eventually YMCA director Bryan Penderson agreed to meet with the demonstrators and acquiesced to their demands. “Adult Swim” was consigned to the dust pile of historical injustice where it belonged.
“I was so proud of my dad, standing up for us kids like that,” said Carl Switzer, a rising First Flight seventh grader. “Adult Swim gave me the PTSD-ADHD and now maybe I can finally get better.”