Many of the best qualities of Aspinwall revolve around its size and walkability. Among Pittsburgh's many communities, few are as easily walked, with as many wonderful locally owned businesses. Unfortunately, Community Swim Club is not within this walking range, except from the 500 bus, delivering to the bottom of Powers Run Road, after which you would need a swim! However, I like to think CSC helps create its own small Aspinwall-like neighborhood in O'Hara, and many Aspinwall residents are integral members of the CSC community.
My family is lucky enough to live right behind the swim club. We worried at first, when we moved here five years ago, about having our backyard facing such a busy spot, but CSC is a great neighbor. We moved here from the bustling, tightly knit neighborhood of Hyde Park, Chicago, where it is aptly said that one can neither hide nor park. Though I was glad to be leaving the big city, I worried about moving in and having to make friends in a Suburb. Suburbs like Fox Chapel and O'Hara have the reputation of being impersonal, places where neighbors all have their own yards, so their kids don't have to play together. We were leaving a city where everyone played at the playgrounds and in apartment courtyards, because single-family lawns were hardly big enough to mow, much less build swingsets and play structures. Here, I knew there were playgrounds, but did people play in them? Where would we make friends, and what places would we go, knowing that a good friend would be there or would show up soon?
Within two weeks of our first summer, walking into CSC as guests while our application was processed, we had started finding familiar faces, people I was glad to see, even while I was still a bit foggy on everyone's names. We became members, and by the end of summer, we had friends we knew we'd see at school. Throughout our first winter, despite regular trips to the library and Boyd community center, I still felt lost in the large and bustling O'Hara Elementary social scene, but the pool friends seemed to be for real. One dad I'd talked to a few times, who I saw that first lonely November during a trip to Giant Eagle, waved to me and said loudly "I almost didn't recognize you with your clothes on!" The laugh lasted me a good while, and when CSC opened again our second summer, I felt more at home in Pittsburgh than I had in months.
Like any community, CSC has its own personality. I like how many of 
the teenagers find their own way there, on foot, many walking through our yard, but retired, senior members also walk through our yard, sometimes leaving cherry tomatoes for our daughters en route. CSC poolside is not about bikinis or tans, but about shared laughter, shared food and drink, and the relaxation of walking in the gate and feeling like we belong there. The swim team record has improved dramatically over our years here, the spirit of fun has been present through winning seasons and losing ones both (with a dynasty of Langue brothers setting a great tone in the head coach position). The lifeguards, like all teenagers, probably have private lives I don't want to know about, but at the pool they're great role models: friendly with kids of all ages, safety conscious, friendly with each other, fit and responsible. I know who is likely to bring what drinks, who makes funny announcements for birthdays and other embarrassing occasions, and who else likes to show up on rainy days and swim when the pool is quiet.
And although CSC isn't a public pool, I think of it less like a country club and more like a co-op. We, the members, own it together. We take care of it, and sometimes each other. We work together, we invite friends, we play together, and we celebrate together. For the weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day, we have a community where we're all welcome, to enjoy the weather, the time away from school routines, and the companionship. And we're all the healthier for it, even if we only occasionally swim a lap.
Nancy Gift is the author of A Weed by Any Other Name and maintains a blog at http://weedsandkids.blogspot.com.
