William Gattis - On his memories of the A.D. Clark pool (clip)
Interviewed on August 29, 2025
Patricia “Pat” Jackson: Alright, alright, alright, coming to the mic at this time, Mr. William Gattis! Alright!
William Gattis: Now, I hope I’ve got some nice things to say to you all because when we got the pool, unlike Eugene, I came to look in the pool. Now, there were those kids back when I was young, who came to the pool, they participated in the pool, got in, and that kind of thing. But my main thing was to come over to the pool and, it was afternoons, to look inside the pool to see the others play. I was very impressed by the lifeguards. There were some young men from Lincoln who were role models for me because, one, they were young, they were gifted, they were handsome, and they were people that I wanted to emulate. I remember Major Geer, for example, was one of the lifeguards. So, I would come over and I would watch him. He was a great student and I was admiring the kids in the community and what they were capable of. Now my main aim for being at the Center was to play basketball. That was the way that I’d unwind in the afternoon after school. I played with a lot of guys who, in my estimation were capable of going to the NBA but for one reason or another they didn’t get that opportunity, but they were just that good and my affiliation with the Center overall would be an opportunity after school to have a safe place to come, a safe place to play, to be around people who were my friends. We had games for example in the Center like ping pong. We had horseshoes. We had a little merry-go-round and, as Judy said, we had the swing. And Eugene played baseball, but I wasn’t one of those who played baseball, my favorite activity…
