Pool Memories

When I was a kid, I was lucky enough to have a best friend (who was also my next-door-neighbour) who had an in ground pool!

I remember the summers prior to the pool being installed being filled with bike rides to the park (but always home before the street lights came on) and begging our parents to let us set up the sprinkler so we could run through it (if we were really lucky, we could set it up with a long sheet of plastic and take running dives across the backyard).

After the pool was installed I would get up every morning, wait until 10am out of common courtesy (and my mother’s orders) and then bike/run/skip as fast as possible over to my friend’s house (swimsuit already on of course!).

We would spend all day racing back and forth in the shallow end, jumping into the pool in as many different shapes as possible, and of course, seeing who could do the better hand-stand! If we did happen to venture inside the house for a quick snack, we were quickly encouraged to get back outside and enjoy the pool! I was in that pool so much, I’m pretty sure that most of the time I thought it was MY pool!

As years went by, silly games IN the pool turned into fun-filled lounging BESIDE the pool (with quick cool-off breaks in the water) and eventually, my friend moved away and swimming in a pool was more of a rare treat than an everyday necessity!

Now, after living in a house that has a pool, I can definitely say that it wasn’t the swimming that made those summers so fun (turns out, I’m not one for jumping in a cold pool!) it was the memories that were made, and the time spent with friends and family in and around the pool area (corny, I know, but it’s true!). I can safely say that the majority of my childhood memories are centred around that in-ground pool and the fun that we created for ourselves every summer. Our backyards are our outdoor homes in the summer months; why not make them as enjoyable as possible!

-Katie McLean