Whats the appeal of an outdoor suburban pool?
The suburban pool is traditionally one of the favourite playgrounds for local kids. When I grew up few people had private backyard pools, there are many more now, and it’s where you spent the long summer holidays if you didn’t live close to the beach. I remember as a kid being the oldest and most responsible kid in charge of a heap of neighbourhood kids, as early as age nine or ten! Things are a lot different now. Occupational Health and Safety and fears about child safety and protection mean few pools let kids in under the age of 16 unless accompanied by an adult. Like so many freedoms of my childhood those days are gone, and parents have to devote their lives to hovering around their kids every minute. But then a lot of pools serve a good cappuccino or latte to keep adults happy! Nevertheless, in the suburbs, the local pool still has a strong presence. Some of them are jazzed up with waterslides or inflatables, most of them have some form of heating, often solar systems, and they wou
