Eugene Hines - On his memories of A.D. Clark Pool (clip)
Interviewed on August 29, 2025
Eugene Hines (EH): I am Eugene Hines and my family moved here to Chapel Hill in 1948. I was one year old. So I wasn’t born here but I moved here when I was one. So, I can remember when we didn’t have a pool. We didn’t have most of the buildings that you see behind me. But before I continue with that story, let me introduce someone who was born here in Chapel Hill, who is my wife now, Judy Hines. Judy Booth, when she lived here, so you may remember her if not remember her but her older sisters because she is the youngest. Stand up Judy or at least wave your hand.
Judy Hines (JH): And I came to the pool…
Patricia “Pat” Jackson (PJ): Hold up, hold up! We got to hear your story on the mic.
JH: Oh it’s just…
PJ: Uh-uh-uh, we got to hear it on the mic! We wanna know what had happened!
EH: That’s right! And she’s got some stories too, that she’s told me at home that I want her to share with you.
PJ: Exactly!
EH: But I loved to swim being from Wilmington, I was in love with the ocean, with water anywhere. And When I grew up here in Chapel Hill, the pool was not here but I did try to play baseball on what was a dirt field where you have grass now. That was red mud when it rained but it was red dust when we were playing on it. Same thing for the basketball court. It was not cement. It was red dust back in those days. I lived up on Rosemary Street as a teenager and would come down here and play basketball, play baseball, hang out at the recreation center. Even before then, and maybe my wife will share that story, I went to kindergarten in the basement of the Hargraves Center. There was a kindergarten run by Mrs. Robinson in the basement of the center. Some of you that are my age or near may have also attended that kindergarten. I know Judy did, and actually we were in that kindergarten at the same time. I have a picture to prove that fact. She doesn’t like for me to show it though. However, before this pool was built, many of the guys, including myself, would go to one or two of the local creeks around Chapel Hill. There was one on the north end of Chapel Hill and one on the south end. The one, I guess that is on the North end of Chapel Hill, was on the other side of Northside Elementary School. And as we passed, I think that was the 88 or the catfish.
PJ: That was the 88.
EH: Two swimming holes were 88 and Catfish holes, and they were actually areas where water had collected running through a stream. And we’d go sneak down through people’s yards, and Judy has told me some stories about her sneaking down there and partaking of some of the fruit hanging on other people’s orchards on their apple trees and we could see through the woods, Umstead Pool. That was a White-only pool, it was a private pool, you had to have membership, and only whites were members there. So as we were going down to the swimming hole, we’d stop and look out at Umstead Park at the pool and watch people swimming and just wish that we could be there. And then we’d go on down to the muddy creek and swim in the creek. So, when this pool was built it was a much safer environment, because I’ll share with you, in my experience swimming in those creeks, I got severely sick and found out, when my mother took me to the doctor, that sewage was running through that stream. So, I had ingested some of the sewage swimming in that stream. Now once this pool was built, I actually learned to be a lifeguard in this pool. Nate Strowd, I don’t know if anybody here is old enough to remember Nate Strowd, but he was one of the earlier lifeguards that taught me swimming and also how to be a lifeguard. Now, although I am one of the earlier lifeguards, I think in 1964 when I was a junior in high school, I want to share some words from someone who preceded me, Rudolph Jackson. Dr. Rudolph Jackson now, was a life guard here in 1963.
Since he lives in Atlanta and could not be here, he wanted me to share some words from him about his memories being a life guard here. So, “Greetings to all and I’m sorry that I cannot be with you today. Based on my experiences as a life guard and swimmer in Georgia, (that’s where he grew up in a town called Waycross, Georgia.) I am really grateful to Mr. Peerman (who hired him) for giving me a job at the Center. During the early morning, I alone cleaned trash from the water and used long brushes to clean the sides and bottom. I also used this time to swim laps around the pool to music from the piccolo inside the building. During the afternoon, the kids from the community arrived to have fun, splashing and diving. This was the perfect job.”
I echo that sentiment. This was the perfect job for me. Being from Wilmington, loving water, having the opportunity to be here, continue that process of teaching younger kids how to swim and those that wanted to be lifeguards to teach those that job, that skill who followed me in 1964/65 when I was a lifeguard here. Just one other thing now and I’ll give up the mic, I hope that you will continue this tradition, continue collecting the stories about the previous lifeguards and I was talking to some of my neighbors around there, sitting around the table, Roberta, about the history that has been collected about the builders here in Chapel Hill. My father was a plasterer and came to Chapel Hill to learn the plastering trade from my relative Fess Register who owned a plastering company. So, a lot of the buildings on campus, a lot of the houses that had plastered walls were built by the Registers, my father, and those that learned that trade. So, we have a rich tradition here in Chapel Hill of builders, of developers, of people that I’ve mentioned, Dr. Jackson, he’s married to my cousin Francine, Dr. Francine Jackson, and I guess the only one that still lives here now is Dr. Charlene Jackson, who is a professor at UNC. So, thank you again. And It’s good to see those of you that I have known for years and be interested in meeting more of you and feel free to come ask me additional questions about my experiences here as a lifeguard, and please do ask my wife to tell you some stories.
