[The following article appeared in the Tuesday, May 13, 2003 issue of the Hayward Daily Review newspaper.]

Southgate community group has provided neighborhood recreation for nearly 40 years!

By Michelle Meyers
Hayward Daily Review STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, May 13, 2003 - NOTHING and everything has changed in the 40 years since a group of homeowners opened Southgate Swim Club, a small oasis tucked between Southland Mall and Interstate 880.

Club founder Clarice Roberts, who still lives in the neighborhood, said the early days were filled with social gatherings such as dances, fashion shows and luaus -- one featuring a swim coach who lit himself on fire and dived into the pool from a forklift visible from the freeway.

Gone are the days of one-income families, when homemakers could pack up lunch and spend summer weekdays poolside and party-planning.

"The change happened rather gradually. People used to have the summers free," Roberts said. "But now both parents work. They don't have that luxury."

But in addition to the complex itself, the flavor of the 1960s lingers; a luau is among the activities planned this summer at the club, still considered a family-oriented gathering spot where people know each other by name.

"Everyone knows everyone. If my son gets into any trouble, I'll hear about it," said club President Gina Quiriconi, emphasizing that the club is nonprofit.

"There's a true sense of community here. We all take care of it as if it's our own."

Inconspicuously located at the end of Magnolia Street on the south side of the mall, the club, deemed the neighborhood's best-kept secret, has the capacity for 250 family memberships. While a proud bunch, its current membership is just 97, a number likely to climb to 150 once the warm weather kicks in and the pool opens on weekdays beginning June 16.

The long-awaited reopening of the club's upgraded baby pool also is expected to drive membership, Quiriconi said.

The club, which draws families from outside the neighborhood and even city limits, also is offering $100 off the $325 sign-up fee. Annual memberships cost $400, an amount that is prorated for those who join later in the season, which started April 12.

This early in the season most of the action at the pool surrounds the Southgate Swim Team, which works out every weekday, rain or shine, at 6:30 p.m. Swim lessons get under way June 23.

During the early 1960s, as the young Southgate neighborhood continued to grow, Roberts, who grew up swimming the surf of Santa Cruz, longed for an outdoor pool and knew of ones built in Fairway Park and Castro Valley.

The Southgate Homeowners Association, with Roberts as chairwoman, formed a committee to find property and a builder to help organize the effort. Roberts and other committee members canvassed the neighborhood door to door and in their cars, using a loudspeaker to invite people to go see the pool site.

"They knew me as the swim club lady," she said.

Eventually, enough people paid a $250 sign-up fee and $50 members fee to secure loans for the project. The 1.3-acre property cost $13,000 and construction cost $44,000. The pool opened for business in April 1964 with 200 families as members.

The main pool features a deep-end diving board, lap lanes and a beginner area. The club also has a snack bar, barbecue pit, picnic tables, Ping-Pong table, volleyball net and lawn areas.

Cherie Carlson and her family represent several generations of Southgate Swim Club members. She joined in 1975 as a single mom and credits the pool for her sanity.

"It got me though single parenthood. Particularly when my kids were teenagers, I knew where they were and that they were safe," she said. "Even though it's privately funded, it's not a country club setting. People are well-rounded."

Carlson jokes that the club membership was her dowry when she married her current husband, who grew up in the neighborhood going to the pool. Her son, Jeremy Miller, has since joined the club with his wife and two kids and is serving as vice president of the board.

For Quiriconi's 13-year-old son, Ryan, a swim team member, summers and the swim club go hand in hand. Asked how much time he spends there each day, he replied, "From 12 noon to 8 p.m. From open till close."

"It's fun. You get to meet a lot of nice people," Ryan said.

For information on the club, call Lisa Johnson at (510) 785-7732 or visit www.southgateswimclub.com. For swim team information, call Joanna Houghtelling at (510) 276-4970.

Michelle Meyers covers Hayward, Cherryland and Fairview.
Call her at (510) 293-2463 or e-mail mmeyers@angnewspapers.com.