Hello, my name is Indigo Bunting, and I love the gym. Part I: Gyms and Rumors of Gyms

Last spring, I began to hear rumors that a new gym and pool would be opening One Town Over from Parts West. It was hard to believe this rumor, because One Town Over is a rather depressed little town and seems an unlikely place for such a facility. But there began to be increasing evidence that this rumor was indeed true, and at long last, sometime late in the spring, the facility-under-construction opened for tours.

It’d been a half-dozen years, I’d say, since I’ve had access to a gym, and probably 15 years since I’ve paid for access. I went to take the tour figuring that no doubt it would be too expensive, or it wouldn’t be that nice after all, and that really, my NordicTrack elliptical cross trainer and I were doing just fine on our own, thank you very much.

So I took the tour. It was still a work in progress. There were no cardio machines in yet, no weight machines. (All cardio machines, I was assured, would come with their own TV screens.) All one could really see was the swimming pool, the size of the workout space, the mirrored room set aside for classes, the locker rooms. The fabulous flooring. And the staff was doing all it could to break down psychological barriers/excuses: A wall separated the men’s and women’s workout spaces. There was a room set aside for daycare. There were personal trainers available.

There was a juice bar.

I fell in love immediately. But could I afford it?

I was hopeful. Situated in that depressed town, it would have to be slightly affordable, wouldn’t it? So that people who lived there could actually be members?

Yes. It was affordable. In fact, at the introductory rate, it cost half of what I feared it might cost. I nearly signed up that instant.

I left the building that late spring day feeling something almost foreign: I was really, really excited about something that was about to happen. For all sorts of reasons (many of which I attribute to my childhood), I don’t feel that way very often. I was giddy. Little-kid giddy.

About a gym.

[Tomorrow: Part II: How It Began]