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Show Calls for Help Are Just Wolves Because Life Guards Are All Pretty Girls HARMON, N. Y. If all the distress dis-tress calls at the near-by Croton Point park beach were legitimate, the drowning toll would be staggering. stag-gering. But mostly the calls for help are simply the baying of wolves. The explanation is simple: All the lifeguards at Croton are girls, young girls, pretty girls, shapely girls. According to the American Red Cross, it is the only public swimming place in the country with an all-female lifeguard staff. "Out of the 20 yelling for help, I'd say 19 were fakers," says Irene Hallstein, blond, 17 year old chief guard. "And it's not just the boys who try to get us to come out after them. Married man and middle aged men try the same trick." The eight girl lifeguards, who range in age from 16 to 19, have learned to distinguish between the fakers and those really in trouble. The fakers, it seems, make too much noise about going under. But now and then a wolf cries wolf too often. "The other day I was on duty in the boat." said Trudie Graeflin, 18. "And there was this fellow in the water kidding around. He said he was drowning and then he laughed. "I turned away, and he said he had a cramp. I said, 'Oh, stop it,' and when I looked around he wasn't there. He had gone under. I rowed over and pulled him out." |