Tourist Tales: Fountain Swimming

  So, my bar is in a commercial park type place...full of offices, shops and even condos.  The park is really nice, and there are quite a few fountains.  The two largest of these sit at the very front of the parking lot, and each fountain's pool forms a U around a pillar.  While they're great for aesthetics and provide the sound of running water 24/7, I'm pretty positive the water is not at all chlorinated.  That being said, I'll tell you about the night some fun loving tourists walked out on their tab...or so I thought.

  There was a table of twenty somethings having a great time, and they were hilarious.  I'm always pretty stoked when we get cool tourists in the bar.  The drinks were flowing, they were playing darts, acting crazy and having a great time.  Then they left...let me explain, we don't require credit cards from tables to run a tab...that would be weird.  So I figure, they probably went outside to smoke.  I go check, and see their group standing down at the corner.  So, I walk up to let them know that they left their tab open and I need them to pay before they leave, when I realize what's going on.  There, in the display fountain...in the pool designed to catch water that's about two feet deep...the three girls in the party have decided to go for a swim.
 
  They're laughing, laying down in the pool, which is maybe a foot wide, and having a great time swimming with all of the pennies, cigarette butts and dirt.  Don't get me wrong, the maintenance team scoops the fountains out pretty regularly, so the water is clear...but still.  Instead of walking across the street, and jumping into the Gulf of Mexico, these people chose to jump into a fountain. Now, I'm slightly germ phobic.  So, my mouth drops open in horror as I stare and stammer out something unintelligible about germs, tabs and how they have to pay me before they can leave.  The swimmers stare back at me with irritation.  Right...how dare I interrupt their dip in the germ infested fountain over something so insignificant as a $100 bar tab.  So they get out, come back to the bar, pay me, and then decide to continue their swim.

  Here's the lesson...don't walk out on your tab, and don't swim in something just because it holds water.  I never saw the tourists again, but I'd be willing to guess they spent the remainder of their vacation with runny noses at the very least.  I mean, really...if you're 100 yards away from the Gulf, just go swimming there.  It's not like I go to the mall, spot a fountain and decide to jump in and go for a swim.  WTH...that's not normal, and it's just not sanitary.  Hey, I guess when you're on vacation, anything goes, and germs that breed in slowly moving water don't exist...right?