By Samantha Hourihan, Special to North Jersey Media Group 8:00 a.m. ET June 26, 2017

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Bathers at Upper Saddle Rivers Anona Park, circa 1930(Photo: courtesy of Kay Yeomans)

From (201) Magazine archives: This story was originally published in the July 2006 issue.

Dig your toes into the warm sand. Wade into the cool water. Swim out to the diving platform and take a plunge from the high diving board. Sidle up to a picnic bench and snack on a boxed lunch. Stick around til after dark on a Friday evening and enjoy a family movie while little ones prance in front of large outdoor screens. And, if youre lucky, listen to live music and dance on a wooden-plank floor placed beneath a string of lights that swings in the summer breeze. Thats how residents and tourists who frequented Bergens sand-bottom pools escaped the seasonal heat for a good part of the 20th century.

Wealthy Bergen industrialists bought the properties usually including a dam, pond or stream and converted them into bathing beaches. These developers recognized Bergens potential as an important recreational destination. Sand reminded people of the shore without the travel and the inconvenience.

Some of the pools are gone, butseveral community-based sand-bottom pools still dot Bergens landscape.

Kay Yeomans, historian for Upper Saddle River, has fond memories of Anona Park, the pool built by her husbands grandfather in 1929.

People came up from all the big cities and rented picnic tables in the grove, she says. Theyd put the old wooden ice boxes by the tables, and that was their place for the summer. Anona was sold to a developer in 1968, and now is part of a homeowners association that has added tennis courts.

Allendales Brookside Racquet & Swim Club has a relatively new sand pool, constructed in the late 1960s. Chuck Elmes bought the property, excavated the site and trucked in sand from the Jersey shore to line the pond.

People enjoyed the gradual slope of the beach, explains Elmes. They didnt have to jump in, in order to get themselves wet. They could wade in the sand and play in the shallow water.

People were nostalgic about goingto the shore without the drive, Elmes continues. You could come to see friends from the area and have a good time outdoors and feel safe.

For many who still spread out their beach towels on the sandy shores of their local pools, that good-time outdoors feeling still remains.

I love going to Graydon in thesummertime, says 9-year-old Rachel Pizzuti, Ridgewood. I see all my friends there. I get to swim and play in the sand five minutes from my house.

Upper Saddle Rivers Anona Park, circa 1930(Photo: courtesy of Kay Yeomans)

Built just before the Stock Market crashed in 1929, Anona Park is one of the longest surviving sand-bottom pools in Bergen.

Brookside was designed to give visitors the feeling of a complete social outing. Picnic groves complemented the beach where swimmers could play in the sandor frolic in the shallow water.

Vintage Bergen: Long-gone drive-in theaters

Aerial Photo - Brookside Raquet Club 480 Brookside Ave Allendale(Photo: Michael Bocchieri, North Jersey Media Group)

Crestwood Lake on Crestwood Avenue, Allendale has been in recreational existence since 1928. The Crestwood Cruisers Swim Team, for children ages 7 to 17, invites all eager swimmers who can swim at least 25 yards to swim in the summer community league and compete against other sand pool teams in the county.

Crestwood Lake, Allendale, in 1970(Photo: Stuart Davis)

Darlington County Park, part of the Bergen County Department of Parks, offers two sand-bottom pools, basketball courts, tennis courts, and handball courts.With a permit, larger groups may hold picnics on the grounds from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Darlington County Park, Mahwah, in 1965(Photo: the record archives)

Graydon has experienced a number of renovations since this photo was taken, but the parking lots of this village pool still overflow on a hot summer afternoon.

Graydon Pool, Ridgewood in 1957.(Photo: The Ridgewood News archives)

More on Graydon: 'There's just something homey about Graydon'

Memorial Pool and Walsh Pool provide Fair Lawn residents with hours of fun with rafts, slides and even a sand castle sculpture contest held in August.

Memorial Pool, Fair Lawn, in 1949(Photo: The Ridgewood News archive)

The Old Mill Bathing Beach, the ruins of which can still be found at 189 Paramus Road, has a familiar and often-photographed entrance. (Episode 22 ofThe Sopranos, From Where to Eternity, was shot on location at the Old Mill.)The Paramus Bathing Beach (not shown) was a 1932 structure that survived until it was boarded up in 1962. A housing development was constructed on the site in the 1980s.

The Old Mill Bathing Beach, Paramus, in 1962(Photo: Gordon Corbett jr., The Record)

Lake Idle Wild Bathing Beach delighted bathers with an extra feature a childrens zoo.

Lake Idle Wild Bathing Beach, Old Tappan, in 1984(Photo: Steven Auchard)

The grand-daddy of Bergen sand-bottom pools was Woodcliff Lakes Old Mill Pond Bathing Beach. The pool dated to the early 20th century and was among the very first of the countys pools.

Old Mill Pond Bathing Beach, Woodcliff Lake, in 1971(Photo: Emmett Francois/The Record)

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Archive: Bathing Beauties: 'Beaches' of Bergen mark the sands of time - NorthJersey.com