Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-11-01
Californians
Use Swimming
Pool as Rink
But Those Florida Guys
Put on Thinking Caps
BY DAMON RUNYON

WE SUPPOSE our constitu-
W ents down in Dade County,
Florida. are painting for the
news that we promised them on
the habits and customs of the
residents of southern California
and their way of life as COM
pared with that Of the denizens
Of the Southland. We have
learned that there is great dis
similarity.
For instance, there is the mat
ter of the swimming pool which
aboundS in both localities.
In Dade County. IL is found
chiefly on Miami Beach, usually
abutting the warm waters of
the Gulf Stream, and its pur-
pose is 10 make rich men think.
The swimming pool in Dade
County is more conducive to
thought than among the rich
anywhere else, and we will tell
you why.
WHEN a rich man builds or
W buys himself an ornate
home on Miami Beach with the
ocean as his front yard. he inn
mediately builds a swimming
pool unless there is already
pool there, in which case he
merely enlarges it. Then over
the cocktails and caviar some
evening. some one says to him:
"Why do you have a SWIM
ming pool when the whole ocean
Is so handy to your door"
This is the point where the
thinking sets in. The rich man
considers the question carefully
and says to himself:
"Why do / have the swimming
poole"
Thereafter he puts in days
and nights walking around his
basin of water or sits in a deck
chair gazing into its limpid
chlorine tinted depths thinking:
'Why do I have the swimming
poole"
The ocean waves purling DER
the white sands of his private
beach a few yards away echo,
"Why?"
QUT for this momentous prob
- lem, which also applies 10
Palm Beach, the rich might have
nothing TO think about, except
FD.R., and no rich man of any
sense would permit his, thoughts
to wander TO F.D.R. when in the
vicinity of his swimming pool.
The temptation TO throw himself
in would be too great.
In fact. since F.D.R. came into
office many of the rich in Dade
County have had their swimming
pools boarded over just as a pre-
caution.
We do not know who intro
duced the swimming pool TO
Dade County. but we assure you
il was not the Seminole Indians.
II may have been some fellow
from southern California who
was thinking in terms of the
double unitarian value of the
southern California swimming
pool, which is used in Summer
for dunking the torso and as an
ice rink in Winter.
IN SOUTHERN California the
Il swimming pool is indigenous
10 Hollywood. Beverly Hills and
the San Fernando Valley. men,
toned locally as just the
valley"
This is a wide sweep of pleas
ant falkland. north of Los Angeles
dotted by estates of movie mag
mates and stars and homes of
members Of the proletariat
The members OF the proleta-
riat do not have the swimming
pool, OF course. They have the
bathtub that does not permit of
any one but a killiputia n
stretching out full length, or the
old oaken bucket so dear 10 our
childhood.
At least there is one thing in
common 10 the proletariat of
SOUTHERN California and OF Dade
County. Florida.
We investigated the rum o r
that some of the southern Cali
fornia swimming pools. especi-
ally those of the movie stars. are
jewel crusted. and we find this a
canard. They are not so preten-
tiouS as h os Q of the rich in
Miami Beach or Palm Beach.
We did not see a swimming
pool in southern California in
W h il h you could battle more
than so elephants at the same
time. while il is we'll known that
the government deStroyers often
dock in the most modest private
swimming pools of Miami Beach
and that once batt1eship mad
vertently dropped anchor in a
pool in Palm Beach. We heard
il said il was former Ambassador
Joe Kennedy's pool. but it may
have been Joe Widener's.
Copyright 1871 by King Features
Distributed ny International News Service
o5 YEARS AGO To-Day