Saturday, June 21, 2008

Tibbets 1928

























I don’t go back as far as those picture…I was a locker boy there 63-67, but went there as a kid many times before that. My mother took me there when they still had
hot dogs upstairs and you could eat them on the balcony overlooking the pool,
That day they smelled so good, but I had to eat a cheese sandwich because it was Friday.


The hot dog stand that became Tropic Frost on Yonkers ave by the Dunwoodie
Golf course was just a truck on the Tibbets side where the motel is now…
People would come and get water from the spring pipe near the RR trestle
over Yonkers ave….


The direct bus to the Tibbets circle was working then, but I usually took the number 7 bus and walked in from Yonkers ave. or could also walk in from Rumsey Road.

That day I had a great time because you could still use a snorkel and fins,
And the most fun was finding money, medals, etc. at the bottom of the pool.

26 comments:

Locker Boy said...

You could buy soft ice cream
and popcorn front right facing the
pool that became the police
station with a real county
sargent and the summer special cops
who were mostly seminarians...

I hope you will click COMMENTS
and tell us what you remember

carol said...

My Mom and I walk on the Tibbetts trail daily (along with my dog) and I also run there as well. I love the place and it has so much history to it. My Dad, who passed away 4 years ago at age 83, use to tell me many a tale of how he use to swim there as a child. When he got older (teenager) he and his friends would sneak in by climbing down over the concrete wall and then go swimming in the pool at night! I remember asking him how on earth he could see (it does tend to get very dark there with all the many trees) to which he replied that it was no problem as they on huge bright spotlights at night that were overlooking the pool. They do have large bright lights on surrounding the pool area but of course those weren't the ones that my Dad was referring to. Im not sure but on the east & west side of the pool there are two gazebo houses and it looks to me that they once could have housed a large spotlight in the front on each one. I don't seem to recall them but inside these gazebo houses (on the ceiling) there are small boxes with wires in them so Im assuming that was used for lighting years ago. If anyone remembers this let me know.

Last year they opened up 3 newly build soceer fields and one football field. They've also added a large parking lot right next to it. I must say that they've fixed up the place really nice and it's always constantly busy!! Also newly added is a brand new trail that extends all the way to Cook field and ends down at Vancortlandt. You can still walk beyond Cook field but there is no paved path. Alot of bike riders enjoy this new trail as well as many walkers/joggers who just want to "get away" from the crowds for a bit. We usually take this trail on the weekends as during the summer season weekends are jammed packed with picnic goers and my dog tends to get a bit nervous with all the loud music and crowds. On this new trail are also 3 paved paths that will lead right back down to the "regular" Tibbetts trail. The place is kept immaculate!

In another 19 years Tibbetts will be 100 years old (pool & bathhouse) and I hope it's around for many many more years to come too!

Carol

Locker Boy said...

Thanks for taking the time to
write such a detailed memory...
You broke the ice!
I am hoping more people
will feel comfortable posting now.

Anonymous said...

Use ANONYMOUS to Comment
if you don't have one of
those accounts...
IT NOW WORKS AGAIN...
Thanks to Eddie Moran letting me
know

Anonymous said...

TIBBETS WAS THE PLACE TO GO ON A HOT DAY. IN THOSE DAYS, WE 10 YEAR OLD, WE COULD WALK TO TIBBETS FROM McLEAN AVE, AND SPEND THE ENTIRE DAY PLAYING IN THE POOL. (A 45 MINUTE WALK) WE WOULD ONLY LEAVE WHEN IT WAS TIME TO GET HOME FOR SUPPER. THEN WE WOULD WALK BACK TO THE FIELD TO PLAY BALL. TIBBETS WAS A FEQUENT PLACE TO VISIT ALL THROUGH MY YOUNG YEARS, TEENAGE YEARS AND MY ADULT YEARS AS WELL. AT 61 YEARS OF AGE I GO THEIR NOW TO WALK AROUND THE LAKES. I SMILE AND THINK OF ALL THE GOOD TIMES WE HAD IN THE PAST. I THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS SITE, AND I WILL VISIT THE SIGHT OFTEN TO LOOK AT THOSE WONDERFUL PICTURES AND TO BRING BACK THOSE WONDERFUL MEMORIES.

Anonymous said...

I remember as a kid going to Tibbetts in the summer on Saturday mornings it was free up until noon time. We could take the number seven bus from the square but most of the time we elected to walk up over the Ashburton Ave usually going across the Ashburton Aquaduct and then cutting thru Oakland Cemetery, all this so we would have the money to buy what we then called a Custard, which is now referred to as soft ice cream. It was always a big choice a custard or a hotdog from "Goombah Gus". I also remember running in the school boys race in the fall, it took place in front of the pool building on the big field, Do they still have that? In the winter when we were a little older I can remember Ice skating on the "2nd Lake" what a great memory. I would imagine that liabilty problems have probably put an end to that. Later in life I can remember taking my daughter there to run around on the big lawn and walk down by the lake to see the geese etc, in the winter to go sleigh riding. It's a wonderful park and I hope It will always be there for the people to enjoy.

Anonymous said...

my mother would not allow us to go swimming in the pool because it was to much money as she would say (but as i got older and started to work i and my freind would go) so we went to tibbets to picnic and we were allowed to go to the sprinklers but some times they would be off so we would go watch others in the pool or go see the BIG GOLDFISH(sunnys)next to the snack bar

Anonymous said...

I was 15 when I started working there in 1961, six days a week for minimum wage which I believe was abouy $1.25 an hour then. If it rain, no work/no pay. It was hard work on hot days when it was very crowded; campers would come twice a week for morning swims when it was either free or reduced admission.
The bosses had their favorites and many including Cazzolla were either related or owned their jobs because they kissed someones ass. All in all it was a good experience, alot of fun and for many of us, away to either help our families or earn some money for our pockets

Locker Boy said...

Cazzolla did not buy my story that I lost my County badge that you could use
to get in the other parks free. It was true, it fell into the Brook at the
little bridge on the way to Yonkers Ave. right around the time I quit.
I never got along with him, and was tempted to give his son John
an F when I had him later as a student in Longfellow in 1969,
but he was too nice a kid.

I think I put somewhere that my name is Ed Reilly...I wonder who
you were if you where at Tibbets around the same time that I was a Locker boy.

Dave said...

I apprecieate all of your comments.

I grew up around tibbets in the 70s and 80s. We would walk the train tracks from Yonkers ave and beyond all the way to van cortland. How great was that? You would never get lost.

Seeing the lake frozen in the summer was such a wonderful sight. The pool was always a nice place to visit. I spent days and days skipping the rocks near the little bridge close to sedgewick and tibbets rode.

Whenever I visit yonkers I always visit tibbets. It is one of my favorite places in the world. I take whoever I am with there and they are amazed at how nice of a park it is. I hope it stays that way.

Its nice to hear they are making an investment in this park. I was near one of the falls about two years ago and was sick at the number of bottles floating in the water. I hope they preserve that place. I am not much of a conservationist but this is one place that is worth keeping as it has so many visitors.

Anonymous said...

Can anyone remember running through the cold showers before going into the pool....and my grandmother was the matron of the Ladies locker room, Mary Weeks...I had so many shower caps and tubes after the summer was over, I couldn't stand it.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for such a great page and great memories. I am a little sad they are making into a water park but thank you for your pictures so I can always remeber the way the pool looked before the change. I am 37 and went there all my life and I remember the cold showers in the locker rooms. The park is beautiful and this page will keep some of my best memories of summer in my mind. Thank you again

Anonymous said...

Here is a link to
a Video of Yonkers
Getty Square 1920 Photos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMERtvIVd08

Anonymous said...

wow tibbetts. my life changed 4 ever in the summer of 1976,,, all those nights just me and my first love,,,,

G R A said...

I grew up in the area, 7 yonkers Avenue to be exact.My father, brother,and myself walked past gus' hotdog truck and to the closed off stairs that lead to the train tracks to hop the wall onto the tracks to shortcut it to the pool. Off in the distance was Sullivan and Sons Coal and Ice. remember when they delivered door to door?
Remember the Locker rooms where they hande out the metal tags that were eventually phased out to coin opperated lockers? The paddle boat rides? The row boat rides? The diving boards where we all learned how to 'spring' our friends. We sprung so hard we cracked one of the boards. . . lol
I remember walking down the stairs to the pool(and it was like it was yesterday)and putting two fingers at the edge of my mouth to whistle
(because the acoustics in the tunnel were fantastic} a County Cop kicked me square in the ass, and it hurt. I bet it hurt him too, in the ears, he was probably hungover.
Came summer and I was at the pool everyday, so much that everyone thought I was bleaching my hair. They didn't realize it was the combonation of the chlorine and the sun. I joined a gang there one summer TBK Tibbetts Brook Kids we were the steadies at the pool, so much that we used to get free passes from the lifeguards and Nurse weeks.
I work for the Park system these days, know a lot of people who worked the pool in the past and the present.This is an excellent site, my compliments to the originator

TUCCI said...

Tibbets pool. We used to walk there from radford street and Livingston ave. I practically lived there summers of 1966-1972. I can still smell that Godawful pizza coming from the concession stand that was somehow strangely addicting! Does anyone remember "fishing" with a drop line for the "legendary" snapping turtle lurking under the Southwest footbrige at the end of the second lake? Great memories!!

Rich said...

Joe Lapchick lived nearby. My brother was his paperboy. He'd invite us in to show us his memoribilia. We'd walk to the bottom of Wendover and then walk though the large drainpipe to Tibbetts. Lots of fun back then.

Rich said...

I remember ice skating back when the lake still froze solid most winters.

I recognize a bunch of family names in earlier posts. Friends or acquaintances of older members of my family. I was born in 58 but my brother and sister are 8 and 10 years older and would know some of the names.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Locker Boy said...

Lapchick was a handsome lifeguard when I was there
and went out with a famous
folk singer Buffy St. Marie
if I remember correctly.

If you have Facebook,
I put up an Album of
Tibbetts Photos
copy and paste this into
your browser address window:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2173509&id=6110917

Unknown said...

like Rich(i think i know you rich) said.....Joe Lapchick lived in the neighborhood(he was 2 houses from mine)....so did Gene Krupa. I did the same walk, to the bottom of Wendover rd, then through the large rainwater drain pipe that ran under the Saw Mill Parkway and came out in Tibbets....hmmmmm makes me think of simpler times.

Mark M

Anonymous said...

remember going through the pipe under the saw mill at wendover road

Anonymous said...

I am 69 years young and I remember as a youngster going to tibbets from about 1948 till 1957. All the post on this site bring back great memories. We would walk from Ashburton to yonkers ave and walk in from there or up Rumsey road to the foot bridge over the Parkway and rail road tracks. The old putnam steam loco were running and we would stand on the bridge when one went under.
I fished in the lower lake near the boat house, and also looked fore the turtle.

Ed Reilly aka Lockerboy said...

All of the discussion of Tibbetts has moved to my Tibbetts Album and Wall Posts on Facebook where I am
South Yonkers Photos

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000638040174#!/profile.php?id=100000638040174

Neil R. said...

This is being posted in February 2011 which would seem to be a little late for this Tibbets Brook blog entry but I couldn't help myself.

In 1955 I lived on Rumsey Road. I was in 9th Grade at Hawthorne Jr. High. My friends and I often wlked down through the woods and over the bridge to swim aty the pool.

It was just before graduation in June 1955. I played trumpet in the Hawthorne band and we were scheduled to play for the graduation ceremony.

The weekend before graduation two of my friends and I went to Tibbets. While fooling around at the pool, I pushed one of my friends in and then dove in after him. Instead of hitting water, I hit his head and broke my nose. I spent the night in the hospital and ended up playing with my nose in a cast. That summer my father, a U.S. government employee, was transferred to DC. My days in Yonkers, always to be remembered, had come to an end.

Pat Fennessey Cala said...

I didn't know the pool was that new to Yonkers. The PAL start having meets in August. I swam every summer, must have between 1945 and 1949. I did well would swim for CYO and YWCA . We lived next to the JCC and they let me use the pool, so I registered for JCC. I entered each of three events. My maiden name is Fennessey. I won all 3 events and the Team Trophy.
The next day the Herald Statesman Sports page said in headlines: Fennessey wins for JCC. Before the registration for the meet our local Catholic priest asked my father to swim for the CYO. I told him I was swimming for the JCC.
That was Yonkers, you were free and had fun, no one went to Jail. We did things without our parents nearby.
Never was there when they had the volleyball you mention or the soccer field.
We just walk home going to Yonkers Ave. and as we passed that creek, we would take off our shoes and play in the creek.
But you show a new pool, miss the original one.