Richmond Press, Inc.                          Richmond, VA                          1938

Old Skindeep

There were two boys whom we remember in that most delightful of swimming holes, called affectionately Skindeep; two boys who grew to be good men and did useful things in the community--Eddie Brown and Beirne Blair.

Eddie was a strong and graceful swimmer and one of the most beautiful divers in the world. He had a white skin and light brown hair. And Beirne, a year his junior, perhaps, was almost as good. Beirne was dark; and his skin, exposed to the sun in swimming time, would burn almost black.

These two made for themselves a game. Eddie would chase Beirne in pretended rage. In and out of the water they would go, splashing in, scrambling out, in again and coming up in unexpected places, climbing up the face of the rock like lizards, racing over the rocks and jumping from "juts of slipper crag," to the amazement and admiration of the boys, who would stop their own swimming and watch them.

Another good rock jumper was Shelby Bass. He was beautifully muscled and looked like an antique statue in action.

There was a yellow-haired boy named Connor, from South Carolina, who spent a summer in Richmond and became a regular boy in Skindeep. He became a good rock jumper and climber, as well as a fine swimmer.

Poor Willis Thompson, the most lovable boy in all those times, lost his life in Skindeep. He got into difficulty in the part of it that was still water and where there was no stream to carry him to safety. There were only two others there at the time, neither of whom could swim very well--two beginners, in fact, and who were unable to go to his assistance. That was the only fatality that ever happened in that swimming hole so far as I ever heard. But it grieved all of us beyond measure.