The Yellow Swimming Pool That Doesn’t Die

It all started four years ago, on a sweltering humid summer Sunday afternoon in Wisconsin.  We were miserable.  It was sticky inside.  It was sticky outside.  I sent my husband to Walmart to locate and purchase a plastic swimming pool. Plastic swimming pools, up until that point, had been a seasonal purchase.  Something happened to the pool each year, and we needed to subsequently purchase another one the next season.  We'd had inflatable pools that eventually failed to inflate, plastic pools that cracked from the elements, and all sorts of pools since Sarah had been born.  

I envisioned my husband going to Walmart and coming back with an $8.00 blue plastic wading pool.  An $8.00 pool was in my budget, and the relief it would bring me from cranky children was pretty much priceless in my mind.  Instead, he splurged, and came home with a monstrous plastic yellow pool, that had a built- in slide.  

It was embraced by kidlets immediately.  They simply couldn't get enough of that slide.  They'd climb the steps, woosh down with a big splash, and the circular motion would just continue for hours, punctuated by squeals.

The monstrous yellow pool developed a leak the next day.  Dr. Peds fixed it.  The monstrous yellow pool did not crack.  It did not blow away in a windstorm.  I debated whether or not we should move it to Minnesota, but there was room in the truck, so I had the movers throw it in along for the ride.

The monstrous yellow pool is difficult to store.  The monstrous yellow pool is difficult to empty.  The monstrous yellow pool doesn't die, and the kidlets drag it out every summer for more shrieking, splashing, and summertime delight, interdispersed with lots of arguing, bossing, and sibling disputes.  It occurs to me that if something did happen to the monstrous yellow swimming pool, it is highly likely the kidlets would convince their father to find a new one.  

Last Friday, the weather was warm.  The pool was out.  The kidlets filled it up with freezing cold water from the garden hose, and they were out and about splashing at 9:00 a.m.  The water was so cold that they didn't stay in it very long at the bottom of the slide!  

Can you believe that it's almost July, and our lilacs are finally in full bloom!  We've had such a chilly spring!