I guess I can kind of understand where the city is coming from on this but the uncomplicated simplicity of the pond was/is a key element in my memories of it from growing up.
Sure, when I was a kid I was told I had to look out for shards of glass while "swimming" in it and maybe most days it wasn't as sparkling clean as it seems to be now but one didn't need to wear a bathing cap to keep one's hair out of the pool filter like at most other public pools and heck, you didn't even need any proper bathing attire at all if you only happened to have what you had on on hand...
My friends and I enjoyed many fun afternoons and evenings in our teens roaming through the park and frolicking in the pond.
(A particularly memorable time being in the middle of one of a great late night summer rainstorm, and before any one chastises me on the dangers of lightening and standing in a body of water during a storm, if you had been there for the loveliness of the whole evening, you would have done the same thing. There were other little gaggles of friends of the same mindset there as well so, I know the night, and the pond, tempted other normally more rational people as well.)
Anyhoo....I was surprised to find the pond still closed the following morning:
I guess the city really is, at heart, trying to beautify the area and make it more touristly hospitable as this new addition clearly attests (note the signs in the pond) :
Can't say I don't miss the simple pleasures tho, back when fun ruled the day and regards for personal safety came in a distant second.
I'm quite a bit older and unfortunately a lot more sensible than I used to be but whose looking out for the teenagers? The ones on their way home from Rocky Horror in Harvard Square in the middle of a refreshing summer rain storm? Or the ones simply to broke to have other stuff to do on a sunny afternoon?
Let's hope for thier sake, that they temporarily forget how to read the signs....
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