I will always remember my first swim in a Holland Home Leisure Swimming Pool. The date was September 25th, 1980 and the time was 11:05AM ... I had just come from the hospital after the birth of our second daughter. I thought I would go and visit my parents to spread the great news, this was way before the time of cell phones so it wasn't possible to call from the hospital! When I drove into the driveway, I saw the pool in the backyard, we had just finished installing it and it had just been filled with water a day or two before. To be honest the water did not look overly inviting because it had come from a nearby pond, and it looked pretty swampy, but I ran from the car, and did a running cannonball into the deep end fully clothed.
That was the first of many swims that we as a family enjoyed in that first HHL Pool. It seemed that for the next 10 to 12 years when ever there was any sort of family day it was held at my parents house. The pool was only 16x32 but it was amazing at how many people you could comfortably fit into it.
Over the next ten years or so we as a company concentrated on building in ground pools. I think I can remember each and every pool we installed during the 80's, and the greatest satisfaction for me is seeing some of those customers still coming into one of stores today. The 80's was a decade of great change, we bought our first computer in the early 80's and this totally changed the way we did our accounting, but to be honest I think some of the first accounting programs we used were more work than doing it by hand. We also got our first cell phone, and while it was portable, it looked more like a purse then the phones we are used to seeing today. The pool industry changed also as did the quality of many of the materials we used to build our pools. In the early 80's virtually all the pools installed were sq cornered rectangles, and by the late 80's kidneys and radius cornered rectangles were more the norm. Liners in the early 80's were mostly either a solid blue, or they had a blue pattern border, by the late 80's the full pattern liner was becoming more common. Mind you there were only a couple of patterns to pick from, but at least there was now a choice.
Looking back the 80's were a decade of change, but change was not as fast paced as we experience today. I guess the one thing is that change is constant, and we always need to be prepared to adapt with it, but some things do not change, and one of those is the enjoyment that families and friends can experience around your very own backyard pool.
-Mike vandenHof
Photograph Taken on September 25th 2010
Holland Home Leisure's 30th Anniversary
*Photo by Matt Kozera Photography
I fondly remember those days as well. You always knew when summer was coming because 2 cousins, who will remain nameless, would start discussing (arguing?) about who would be the first one in the pool that year. It was one of many firsts they were always competing at. It seemed it was earlier every year just so one wouldn't be outdone by the other.
ReplyDeleteAnytime you would be visiting you would always hear many little (and not so little) voices yelling, "Oma, Oma, watch this, Oma, Oma, look over here!" as they dove or jumped into the pool. And it would always be followed with Oma having to give them a mark which was always a 10. So many wonderful memories were made around that pool.
I saw my daughter along with my nieces and nephews grow up around that pool -- a diapered baby being carried into the pool by an adult, kicking and splashing to their heart's content. A toddler who had graduated to water wings and then the first time they actually swam by themselves. So many of them learned to swim in that pool.
So many family gatherings, so many wonderful memories. We didn't have to go far away or to fancy places. We just needed a reason to get together and the rest came naturally.