And I knew a co-worker (also white) whose family was too poor to give him ten cents to go swim at the municipal pool. So he swam in one of the rivers of our area that had a beach. He didn't drown either.
Glad you didn’t drown! Around here, (Cape Girardeau, Mo) people seem terrified of swimming in the Mississippi—tales of undertow and deadly currents. As someone who grew up next to an ocean, I find this fear kind of puzzling. The river isn’t as big as the Pacific, no waves, no rip currents. But the fear of swimming in the river is real and it is nearly universal. There is nothing resembling a beach on the river anywhere near here.
My point was the City of Cairo closed their municipal pool (with I assume life guards) rather than let blacks and whites use it at the same time. I have heard (but wasn’t in the area at the time, so I don’t know this to be a fact) that blacks got to swim one day a week, after which the pool was drained and refilled.