E-mail from "The Board Man" to "John Boy"
6/13/2005
William E. Porter Memorial Swimming Pool
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 Aside from working 25 years in the automotive industry, as a Designer / Engineer for Ford Motor Company, General Motors and Cummins. Developing Air Conditioning systems for Ford, Braking Systems for GM and shoehorning Cummins Engines into Dodge Trucks for Cummins, little is known of my previous secret identity that has been hidden away from everyone in Shelbyville. My greatest claim to fame would be that " I am the man standing on the end of the diving board at Porter Pool in the postcard that has been sold at the Grover Museum and Stuckeys for over 40 years from 1962 to the present".  The only other postcard from Shelbyville was of a dog peeing on a tobacco plant and the inscription saying, " Has your cigarettes tasted different lately?" Not much of a comparison. Oh well, what do expect for 25 cents? Click here or on photo to enlarge and for additional info.
I had always gone to the Pool on opening day because my best friend Danny Poe was a life guard, and I helped them the previous year close up and drain the pool. Mr. Kuhn and Mrs. Hotopp said we were a couple of cutups.
We would clown around on the tower and the diving boards when ever he got a break from sitting on the Guard Seat. The pool usually would not have very many people swimming if it was a little cold outside.
Anyway, I remember the day the Shelbyville News photographer (Stan?) took the pictures. It was on the first day of the pool's opening that year approximately June the 1st of 1961 right after graduation.
Stan had to stand on the tool box in the back of his old pickup truck to be able to see over the8 foot high fence. He had taken several pictures of me diving from the spring board. He then asked me to go out on the end of the board and "act" like I was going to dive into the water. I walked out to the end of the board and had planned on doing a backward dive or a half-ganer, and before I could turn around, he took he picture. I thought he had gotten the whole procedure and then I didn't see it in the paper, so I forgot about it.
In 1974, Donna (my wife) and son Billy (age 5) went to the Grover museum for a children's program, and when they came home Billy said, "Dad, I saw you at the museum, and you were at the pool too". I asked him what he meant and he repeated it again, "I saw you at the museum, and you were at the pool too"!! Donna said he kept saying he saw me there at the museum. I thought that maybe he was mistaken, but I told him we would go back to the museum the next day and he could show me. Saturday we got up and had breakfast and he was excited that we were all going to the museum together.
We went into the museum and he headed for the front room right away. There was a table with a lot of brochures and cards of various landmarks to see around Indiana. He picked up a card and handed it to me, saying "See? There's Dad"!!
I looked at the picture and was dumbfounded. I was amazed that he had recognized me. In 1961 I weighed 130 pounds. I looked at the card and realized that Stan was using a fisheye lens on the camera and it made me look like I was heavier. I had weighed myself this morning and I weighed 155 pounds. Exactly how much I looked like I weighed in the picture !!!
I think I have that post card around here somewhere, if not, I can pick one up at the Grover Museum. Catch ya later, John Boy. Bill "The Board Man" Lovitt
P.S. My sister Carolyn and brother Richard are on and behind the 2nd Pier in the picture.
P.S.S. Remember how difficult it was to swim all the way across the pool twice just to get the pass to allow you to go to 2nd Pier? But when you accomplished it, you were BIG STUFF!! Yahoo!! |
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