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Pools

The anticipation for Memorial Day as the unofficial start of summer, fills us with almost as much excitement as the onset of the Christmas season. By the 15^th of May there is no other conversation than what is going to happen this summer. As a high school teacher, it was clear that the curriculum had better be in the bag by mid May because the crescendo of senioritis was the Friday before Memorial Day or was it the Thursday, for some Wednesday afternoon.

Despite the horrid weather this year there is no denying the mood switch as the schools ready to close, organizations go on hiatus and time off is everyone’s goal. Everyone moves outdoors. The beaches open. The traffic heads south for the shore. Kids play until dusk and then there is the pool.   While the beach activity is covered incessantly, for me the start of summer has always been the opening of the backyard pool.

The backyard pool is the original stay-cation. Entertainment from dawn until long after dark. It starts with a cold open, on Memorial Day when a few brave souls usually under the age of twelve cannonball into the still freezing water. Babies and toddlers peer into the water’s surface timidly since they have little memory of the splashing good time, they had last summer.

As June progresses into July the swimmers gain confidence and the games of Marco Polo and cannonball leaps commence. The most popular pool gear is the goggles giving every child a big-eyed look straight from the movie The Fly.  The least popular is the swim belt. This flotations device is the polar (the cold weather pun is most appropriate this year) opposite of a karate black belt.  The swim belt screams novice, baby. Every kid wants to be considered a big kid in the pool.

Pool water is an equalizer. Kids of all ages can be best friends in a pool. The little orange arm swimmies were the best.  Giving younger kids a buoyancy lift but providing fun options at the same time. A few popular combos are one per arm, two on one arm, one arm one ankle, two ankles. Each variation had a slightly different effect on the result of the jump into the pool after the shout of: ‘Cannonball!’  The famed cannonball jump is really nothing more than jumping into the pool. Few kids ever bother with the proper form of hugging their into their chests.

Although I spent the holiday weekend huddled in my sweatshirt. I know the lazy days of summer are on the way.  I can’t wait.  Nothing stops summer.

As a kid a backyard pool was reassembled each season for many of the tiny yards the pool dwarfed the tiny yards, forget about having a garden. The pool was the thing. Even during the drought plagued summer, the neighbor’s pools were filled by a water truck with a fire department type hose. It’s filling progress was monitored as closely as an Instagram account today.

Yard after yard we planned games of Marco Polo as we watched the pools fill.  One neighbor acquired a second-hand pool.  At 30 inches high it wasn’t the deepest in the neighborhood but it was still a welcome addition to the neighbor swimming options.  These neighbors although kind and generous were not precise people who ever read directions.

The two teenage brothers had assembled the pool the previous evening. Pool construction is fairly basic. It is a vinyl liner supported by a circular steel wall. In the 1960’s all above ground pools were round because it was the simplest way to contain the 10,000 gallons of water.

I noticed a small bubble at the seam of the pool. The wall of the pool secured with a long line of screws. The teenage brothers lost the screws and improvised with a few cotter pins instead.  A cotter pin is the hardware store equivalent of a hair pin. A vinyl bubble squeezed out from an unfastened edge of the pool wall. It grew as the pool filled. Water pressure while desirable in the shower press on the bubble jutting out between the cotter pins. A hairpin is easily repositioned. It’s not the same when a cotter pin lodged between the steel wall and 10,000 gallons of water.

Kaboom! The vinyl bubble exploded through the sides of the pool. A tsunami sized wave crashed through the chain link fence. I was knocked off my feet and swept down the alleyway behind the garbage cans.

That pool tsunami became part of neighborhood history. A few days later a new liner was purchased and the pool was properly installed. The neighborhood tsunami was a blip in time splashing in the  pool is the lasting event.