Spa Talk 6.

Thursday, September 25, 2025.
I arrived at my neighborhood YMCA for my daily workout, wait in line at the reception till quarter to 9:45 am to pick up my pass for the 10:15 am aquafit class. Sometimes little things are an indication that things are not all like normal. I noticed that the doors to the pool area, that are normally open, were closed. So, I pushed them open, and held them open for the people behind me.

I took of my bathrobe. Since I had half an hour before the aquafit class would start, I made my way to the outdoor pool and descended into the water in the shallow lane near the pool edge for 30 lengths of water walking. I shared the lane with a swimmer. About 23 minutes later I handed my pass to a pool attendant and descended into the water.

The class instructor was C. She is very methodical in her approach to aquafit. She explained that today we would do a sequence of exercises at two different levels of intensity. Easy for 20 seconds, followed by hard for twenty seconds. The exercises consisted of arm movements, leg movements, jumps, jumping jacks, ski movements, some in combinations. The movements are continuous throughout the class and make for a good, although not very strenuous workout. It gives a nice combo of cardio and strength exercises that people, up to an advanced age, can handle.

We started with 5 minutes of warmup, knee raises, leg kicks and arm movements before we started the sequence of structured exercises. Unconsciously, I moved through the routine while my mind drifted off to other unrelated thoughts.

I suddenly became aware that there was something unusual, the pool area was quiet. There was of course the voice of the instructor, guiding us through the routine. Easy pace, full out, back to easy pace, etc. What was missing was the customary music, popular tunes from the fifties through the eighties. It became clear to me how much the music drives the class. More so than the call-outs from the instructor, which are often barely heard. I go by the visual clues from her movements more than by what she says.

I wander why the music wasn’t there. Every instructor has their favorite soundtrack, played without interruption from a cell phone and amplified by the YMCA’s sound system. I asked one of the ladies in the pool with me why there was no music. Oh, they’re testing the sound system, so they had to silence the amplifier in the little room along the pool wall.

So, no music. Well, that was till one of the male class participants decided to fill the vacuum:

“Trailers for sale or rent, rooms to let, fifty cents, no phone, no pool, no pets, I ain't got no cigarettes Ah, but two hours of pushing broom, buys an eight by twelve four-bit room” thundered over the undulating water surface. A country-western song by Roger Miller. The singer, a man in his fifties with greying hair, a mustache, a tattoo on his chest and a thick gold chain around his beck was the soloist. He sang several verses and had some vocal support from his classmates in his area of the pool. I was on the other side were there was no singing going on. He got an applause from the classmates when he had finished as well as from the instructor who appreciated the diversion.

“Well, are we going to get more solos during the 40 minutes remaining of the class?” I asked a neighbor in the pool. “Who knows,” was her answer. “It seems to me he’s a trained singer.”

He ended up singing parts of another four songs over the remaining time. A few of the life guards on duty chimed in. At least, it broke the monotony of a class without music. He had guts, and knew the lines. When I hear a song, I generally know the tune and may be a few lines of the lyrics, but I’d be hard pressed to sing a full song without the text in front of me.

The aquafit class finished, I made my way to the spa to relax in water of a balmy 100°F. Several of the class participants joined me.

Normally, after the class has the participants have to exit the water and most of them make their way to the men’s and women’s changing rooms. Since this was a Thursday, ours was the last class and the life guards, put ropes in the water to demarcate lanes for swimmers for the open swim. But people kept hanging around the pool, talking in small groups. A number of the class had stayed in the pool and they were swimming or walking through the water.

What’s going on I asked the others in the spa. “Oh, they are doing some maintenance in the change rooms for 10 minutes and people have to wait till they’re done,” I was told.

The singer in a dark red bathrobe sang a few more tunes to keep the public amused. At some point, the bathers went to their change rooms and that seems to be the end of it.

In the spa we kept talking about common concerns. Since most of the bathers are seniors, the talk revolves around health insurance which is a patchwork of programs in the U.S. One retired Boeing engineer said that he was on his wife’s health insurance program which she had from her employer, NASA, and which they could keep for life. Similarly, a retired accountant was also on the health program of her husband, but they may need to find other option when he retired in a few years.

We talked about the cost of gym membership which be as high as $80 per month. Fortunately, there are some medical programs which pay for the membership of seniors. Two years ago, I obtained medical coverage from Scan Health, an insurer that provides supplemental coverage beyond the standard Medicare program. You can get a OnePass number from Scan Health which gives you a free membership to the YMCA. So, I paid no membership fees since 2023.

As I was about to leave the spa, I noticed that music had returned to the pool area. Any problems with the audio were apparently resolved. I dried myself off, put on my bath robe, and headed for the exit door. Just as I was about t leave the building there was a message over the intercom: ‘Your attention please. A fire has been reported in the building. Please go to the stairways and exit the building.’ The message was repeated several times. If there was afire there was no visual evidence of it. People were leaving as requested. Head for the stairways. There aren’t any since the YMCA has only a single floor. I concluded that it was a routine check of the fire alarm system playing a standard message.

Well, I thought. A passing end to a pool session that went a bit different than normal.

MvR – October 1, 2025. ✍️