A girl of about ten stands on the rim of a bathtub in a blue swimsuit and yellow rubber cap, one hand on her hip, already practicing the pose she expects to strike at the pool. Getting ready for swimming in the 1950s required the cap — chlorine was hard on a permanent wave, and the rule was enforced at every public pool with the seriousness of a building code. The cap is on, the suit is on, and she is clearly ready; the pool, however, is somewhere else entirely. Someone, probably a parent, thought this was the moment worth photographing — the anticipation rather than the event — and in doing so captured exactly how much of childhood is spent in full costume, waiting.
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