When I was 4, mother enrolled me with Gloria in YWCA swimming.  Dad remembers he and mother went down to watch us swim by sitting in the balcony of the Y swim pool.  We learned fast.  Soon were on advanced team.  I was one of the dwarfs in a program portraying Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs.  Had to swim the length of the pool several times.  In at least one part there were oncoming swimmers in our lane and we had to dive and swim under water while they swam above.  

 

Mom and Dad frequently took Gloria and me to Lincoln Park Lake to swim after Dad came home from work.  It was free.  Had a small sand beach.  It was fun to go there.  Gloria and I were both good swimmers and we would swim out in the deep water.

 

Occasionally the family would go to Springlake Park to swim which cost money.  It was really nice.  They had a very nice pool with several diving boards, a huge spray on the shallow end, a top which you could spin by pulling on a center wheel which looked like a steering wheel.  They had a large wooden wheel which looked like a water wheel and which you got on and walked facing away from the pool till you were forced into the water because you couldn’t walk fast enough.   Later they added a sunbathing area south of the pool.