Happy 100th Birthday Santa Monica Pier!

 Last weekend we went to Bass Pro in Springfield. 

Sweet Hubby thought there would be a big blowout event for the Holiday weekend, 

but no. Nothing really very special.  

But while there I wandered down to a newly remodeled area, the fishing and boating area. 

It looks really nice, but there was something oddly familiar when I saw the sign hanging above the 

GPS counter. 

This sign:

 And why was it familiar?

 Well it looks like a knock-off 

of...

The Santa Monica Pier sign!

 

The fabled end of Route 66 and in my hometown of Santa Monica.  

My parents moved to Santa Monica before I was born. 

I grew up there and went to Samohi.

The Santa Monica Pier is very familiar to me.

Isn't it pretty at night?

So pretty:

It's still a wooden pier.  

You can drive your car part way down and park on the pier.  

The wooden planks make a clackity slap sound as you go.

Did you know it's illegal to jump off the pier?

It is and I did once.

Right there off that lower platform:

But I didn't get in trouble, quite the contrary.

See that part that juts out on the left?

My dad used to launch his boat off the Santa Monica Pier.

He would tow the boat with his big ol' yellow Buick down to the end, 

and then the operator would lift the boat up and over the side with a big boom launch 

and down down down to the water below.

Uh, that's not there anymore.  

But I remember!

I saw on the news this week that the Santa Monica Pier is 100 years old this week!

As she looked back in 1909 on opening day:

 

The Hippodrome wasn't on the Pier yet:

That wasn't until 1916:

Do you recognize the carousel from the movie, "The Sting"?

 

 And this is the Municipal Pool at Santa Monica City College 

(they've since dropped the City part).

I took swim lessons here when I was 5. 

I remember screaming bloody murder. 

I probably thought that everyone was trying to drown me.

I spent many summer afternoons swimming there. 

Many summer afternoons!!!

 

I was a member of the Mermaids, a type of swim club for girls. 

Which is how I got to jump off the Pier!  

In one of the swimming/lifesaving classes I took as a Mermaid.

I think the name Mermaids for the club was taken from the Santa Monica City Seal:

I remember other extra privileges that came along with being a member of Mermaids. 

We had unlimited passes to swim at either of the city pools whenever they were open to the public.

We got to go down below the pool deck and watch both pools through the underwater windows.

  I learned life saving and different strokes. 

One year I took diving lessons in this pool and even dove off the High Dive... once. 

I didn't do heights very well back then either.

Hey!!! That's not the pool I swam in... 

 THIS is:

The old facility, considered "hidden" on the Santa Monica College Campus, consisted of an outdated pool and diving well.  It was demolished in December 2000. "The old facility which had been there for 40 years was a much-loved and used facility that had completed its life." Santa Monica Mirror   

I digress.  

Any how, Happy 100th Birthday Santa Monica Pier!  

We've had some good times!