[This is part of the series: A List of Things I Remember About Living In Saudi Arabia.]

I remember the swimming pool on the Al-Gaim compound.

Behind the Rec Center, and adjacent to the Snack-bar, was an Olympic sized pool with a kiddie pool at the end of it.

Us kids lived at that pool certain times of the year.

It became routine.

You got there early before it was too hot and changed clothes in the bathroom.

If you were dedicated, you even kept your towel and swimsuit in one of the lockers.

Then you found a chair by the edge of the pool, threw your towel on it, and jumped in the water.

After 5 or 10 minutes you got out, spread your towel flat on your chair and laid back on it in the sun.

Maybe you got up and put in an early order at the snack bar.

Cheeseburger. Curly Fries. Pepsi.

Your friends started to arrive.

You hung out and visited until your skin started to feel hot. When it did, you jumped in the deep-end of the pool again and swam the width of the pool one or twice.

Then you got out and waited for your skin to get hot again while talking and joking around.

If enough people showed up, maybe you played sharks and minnows.

On the whole, it was nearly always uncrowded and you didn’t have a worry in the world.

There were no cell phones, but our parents knew where we were.

The only rule I had was to be home by dinner.