We were very fortunate growing up in that, as a kid, both of the houses I 'grew up in' had pools. The one on Liszt -a house I now realize has spawned a good chunk of memories that have lately come burbling to the surface- had an above-ground pool and I honestly don't remember if it was already there when we moved in, or if we had it built at some point. I'm assuming the latter since we moved in when I was two or three, and that would have been the late 70's and I don't know if the previous inhabitants had a pool then. Either way, we had a pool and it was pretty cool.
Now, as I stated a few 'memories' ago, our back-yard neighbor (or one of them) was my buddy Jeff Hanson and his family. And, as it turned out, he, too had a pool. It was roughly the size of ours and round like ours, too. Now his yard (very dissimilar to our primarily treeless one) had some pretty impressive and gnarly (by which I mean twisted and old, not awesome... but I guess they were that, too) pines that would cast spooky shadows over most of his yard, including the pool. So on particularly hot days, his yard and, by proxy, his pool would always stay like fifteen degrees cooler than our yard. That had its drawbacks, as you might imagine. Either get hot and swim in a regularly-temperatured pool, or chill your ass off, but still swim, in the other pool. Well, needless to say, we found a happy medium by leaping each other's fences and just going back and forth between yards and pools. Fun!
Well, mostly fun, until one fateful day... a day that will forever be etched in my mind as one of the most gruesome and tragic occurrences I have ever bore witness to. There we were, Jeff and I, just about to take our first dip in his pool after what seemed like and endless parade of seasons too cool for swimming. I climbed up the aluminum ladder that dangled from the side and peered in, ready to take the plunge- when I had to stop dead in my tracks. What I saw was terrifying; the sight froze me, paralyzed me with fear. There were gigantic bugs lying dead all over the ground of the pool! Giant, bloated insect carcasses strewn across the bottom of the water like the tragic victims of some kind of horrific war. I couldn't move. Jeff asked why I'd stopped at the top of the ladder when he wanted in. I turned, my face, ashen and stunted in a rictus of horror. His eyes widened and he glanced into the water, too.
And then he laughed.
Okay, look. Maybe it was a trick of the water, like, refraction or something, but to me (maybe seven at the time) those dead bugs were monstrous! Jeff just shook his head and grabbed the skimmer thing and swept them out. Basically it just had not gotten a good cleaning yet that season and there was some detritus issues. Turns out there were quite a few bugs, but they were all regular size. And why that should adhere to my brain folds so precisely is beyond me. But it did.
Next: The pool of Love...
But not with Jeff. I swear.
Now, as I stated a few 'memories' ago, our back-yard neighbor (or one of them) was my buddy Jeff Hanson and his family. And, as it turned out, he, too had a pool. It was roughly the size of ours and round like ours, too. Now his yard (very dissimilar to our primarily treeless one) had some pretty impressive and gnarly (by which I mean twisted and old, not awesome... but I guess they were that, too) pines that would cast spooky shadows over most of his yard, including the pool. So on particularly hot days, his yard and, by proxy, his pool would always stay like fifteen degrees cooler than our yard. That had its drawbacks, as you might imagine. Either get hot and swim in a regularly-temperatured pool, or chill your ass off, but still swim, in the other pool. Well, needless to say, we found a happy medium by leaping each other's fences and just going back and forth between yards and pools. Fun!
Well, mostly fun, until one fateful day... a day that will forever be etched in my mind as one of the most gruesome and tragic occurrences I have ever bore witness to. There we were, Jeff and I, just about to take our first dip in his pool after what seemed like and endless parade of seasons too cool for swimming. I climbed up the aluminum ladder that dangled from the side and peered in, ready to take the plunge- when I had to stop dead in my tracks. What I saw was terrifying; the sight froze me, paralyzed me with fear. There were gigantic bugs lying dead all over the ground of the pool! Giant, bloated insect carcasses strewn across the bottom of the water like the tragic victims of some kind of horrific war. I couldn't move. Jeff asked why I'd stopped at the top of the ladder when he wanted in. I turned, my face, ashen and stunted in a rictus of horror. His eyes widened and he glanced into the water, too.
And then he laughed.
Okay, look. Maybe it was a trick of the water, like, refraction or something, but to me (maybe seven at the time) those dead bugs were monstrous! Jeff just shook his head and grabbed the skimmer thing and swept them out. Basically it just had not gotten a good cleaning yet that season and there was some detritus issues. Turns out there were quite a few bugs, but they were all regular size. And why that should adhere to my brain folds so precisely is beyond me. But it did.
Next: The pool of Love...
But not with Jeff. I swear.
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