This morning, I drove by our local pool store, like I do every morning. However, this morning it brought back fond memories…

---

I was the Chlorine Girl starting at the age of nine. For three years, I worked for my folks after school, on weekends and during summers as they set up and ran various pool stores in sunny Florida. Child labor laws? Ha! Not when it’s family! Honestly, it was a fun job for 50 cents an hour. I did more than just fill chlorine jugs…but boy, did I fill jugs!

Customers would come in, greet my Dad or Mom and bring their empties back to me. I would fill them up and place them on the cart, then wheel them up to the register when they were ready. To this day, I can not stand the smell of chlorine!

It was always fun when our customers would bring in pool water samples. I felt like a little chemist, measuring out the water into the vials, adding drops, shaking it, then reading out the results. Sometimes it’s the nerdy things I did that make me smile!

On the flip side, I would also pretend to be this grand host, putting on the best of the best poolside parties. We sold patio furniture and all those outdoor housewares…Tervis, Stotter Ware, napkins and such. I learned different ways to fold napkins and created all sorts of ways to make tablescapes. It was silly girl fun, and probably why I have our dining room set with napkins and placemats to this day!

If I wasn’t working while at the store, I was doing homework either at one of the tables if it were quiet or back in the office. Working was way more fun! Good times…

Well, thanks for letting me journey down memory lane a bit today. Have a great one!