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# Joe Biden in a Lifeguard Chair Promptly Rescued the Internet


by 

[Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/)


## Ashley Hoffman


Jun 27, 2017 3:20 PM UTC

by 

[Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/)


## Ashley Hoffman


Jun 27, 2017 3:20 PM UTC

After 55 years, former [Vice President Joe Biden](http://time.com/4832740/biden-cancer-initiative-research/) returned to the public Delaware [pool](http://time.com/4790344/swimming-pool-sickness-crypto/) where he was once a lifeguard for a ceremony to rename the pool after him.

The Brown-Burton-Winchester Park pool officially changed its name to the Joseph R Biden Sr. Aquatic Center on Monday as a tribute [to Biden’s](http://time.com/4800601/joe-biden-american-possibilities-pac/) 1962 summer job experience that profoundly shaped his views on [challenges facing the black community](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/27/joe-biden-recalls-lessons-learned-as-the-only-white-lifeguard-at-inner-city-pool-in-1962/?utm%5Fterm=.f52d9db3ac6a).

“I owe you all,” Biden said at a news conference surrounded by the community’s young swimmers. “I owe this neighborhood. I learned so, so much.”

Biden was the pool’s only white lifeguard that summer, according to Wilmington newspaper [_The News Journal._](http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2017/06/26/wilmington-names-pool-after-joe-biden-former-lifeguard/408917001/)

“Every day, it seemed to be, black people got subtle and not-so-subtle reminders that they didn’t quite belong in America,” he wrote in his autobiography _Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics_, in describing the experience. “The stories my friends at the pool told were always tinged more with confusion and pain than outright anger.”

> [](https://twitter.com/tfurlong/status/879362486499246080)

For his homecoming, he climbed back on top of his altar above the outdoor pool, now a beaming politician in a suit.

The Internet got right down to circulating the image.

> [](https://twitter.com/jrpsaki/status/879436019153719298)

> [](https://twitter.com/edatpost/status/879427184921894913)

> [](https://twitter.com/BabashanBarbara/status/879429153988235264)


> [](https://twitter.com/kelsiedarko/status/879701023266402305)

> [](https://twitter.com/meetmissjoness/status/879466442000744449)

Everyone knows a guard needs to be suited up, ready to hop into the drink at a moment’s notice to make the rescue. So people had fun with his formal attire.

> [](https://twitter.com/MHark/status/879406697386844160)


> [](https://twitter.com/asmith83/status/879688979947413504)

He made lifeguards proud to be lifeguards.

> [](https://twitter.com/brianros1/status/879431058193887233)

You better believe there were pop culture jokes.

> [](https://twitter.com/RudyHellzapop/status/879430599517364225)


> [](https://twitter.com/ammckelvey/status/879430118409719808)

And the dream casting was off to the races.

> [](https://twitter.com/CharlieEaton14/status/879421440403152897)

Joe Biden Lifeguard Pool Photo Internet Reactions

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