Stone Mountain Shower

         Every time I am in the shower, I am reminded to write a post about the beach at Stone Mountain. Back in the late nineties, mostly on summer Sundays, the girls and I would go to the Stone Mountain beach. We had a season pass for entry to the park. The beach was right next to the water slide. When we arrived, around noon, the girls would go directly to the slide. Sometimes there was a long line ahead of them and sometimes not – I was standing nearby. Even though Sarah and Amanda wanted me to join them, share the experience, I was too self-conscious and would disappoint the girls by always saying no.

         I remember times when we’d sit at a picnic table when they had had enough sliding, and the three of us would eat lunch - fast food picked up on the way to the park. I never had enough in the house to whip up for a picnic. And then after that we’d lie on beach towels on the sand by the water.

The Carillon and Stone Mountain

         The mountain was the backdrop to this beautiful scene. Sarah and Amanda spent more time in the water than I did. Often I could read a whole novel in one afternoon at the beach. And of course I enjoyed the people-watching and eavesdropping on nearby conversations. Also within hearing distance was the park’s carillon. Its wonderful sounds were something we took for granted back then, but thoughts of them now make me ache with wanting to hear them once again!

         There was one summer when Eric and his family came to visit and we took them to the beach and water slide at Stone Mountain. Since then, on the wall going up the stairs in their house, there is a picture from that afternoon – Eric, Michelle, and their three kids along with Sarah and Amanda all bobbing in the water with the mountain behind them. It looks like a scene from a Where’s Waldo book and a precious shot. When I get a chance, I’ll put the picture with this post.

         Of course, an afternoon of sun-worshiping can make one’s feet rather sandy, and sand can get into the weirdest cracks and crevices in other parts of the body – stepping back in the lake was okay to get the sand off, but then there was the walking back across the sand when one got out of the water. 

         So, there was a shower at Stone Mountain, on the beach. A great idea, right? Not that you could strip down, because it was out there in the open, but you could rinse the sand off.

         Except, the water was very, very cold!

         Rarely did I rinse off in that shower. I don’t recall Sarah or Amanda ever doing it. We mostly got back into the lake or accepted the sand – because the shower was just too darned cold.

         And that’s what I think about every time I take a shower now at home. You see, I’ve heard for years now, that cold water helps burn more calories. Drinking water as cold as you can stand it burns more calories than room temperature drinks or hot tea, which is what I’m sipping on right now.

         And cold showers can do a lot more for our bodies than burn calories, including making our vagus nerve happy, a nerve which sends signals from the gut to the brain and back again. A happy gut means a happy brain. Oh gosh! Googling the benefits of cold showers right now brings up lots more good info!

         So these days at the end of each shower, I turn the knob slowly from hot to not so hot to cool and sometimes all the way to cold. One is supposed to take an entire shower as cold as one can stand it for as long as one can stand it. Obviously I don’t do that. But while I’m turning the knob, and the water gets a little cooler, my brain goes back to the shower at Stone Mountain and those long ago summer afternoons spent with my daughters and what good times those were.

         And my vagus nerve gets happy!

14 20180510 A Stone Mountain Shower