Waco History Podcast

Swimming is a favorite summer activity in Texas, as it provides respite from sweltering temperatures. Charles Armstrong grew up in the Bell's Hill area of Waco and describes where he and other boys would go to cool off: "And from Twenty-ninth Street over where the Baylor stadium is now, there was a fence across there, and it wasn't anything but mesquite patch up there where the stadium is. And it had a little—back over there by the railroad track, had a creek come through there, and it was pretty clear water and had swimming hole up there called Little Lake. And we'd go up there and go swimming in Little Lake. And it was—you had to cut across that pasture there by where the stadium is now to get down to it." The swimming hole was isolated, and the boys were very informal, as Armstrong explains: "If you had some swimming trunks, fine. If you didn't, fine. You could just go in naked, whatever. (laughter) And when a train come along, we all got up and paraded for them as they come by. They'd [be] sitting there w