One of the best ways to cool down during the summer is spending the day in a pool. For the people who are lucky enough to have one at home, the joy is even better. Growing up, one of my neighbors had a huge indoor pool. He was very kind with all the kids in the neighborhood and he would let us play there. The pool was not that deep, and he always asked if you knew how to swim.
For kids whose parents he had not met, he would give them children’s life vests. He had a bunch of them because he used to be a swimming instructor. He still gave a few classes in the afternoon and parents really respected him. He had served in the Navy, so you knew he was an excellent swimmer. He even had some beach chairs for parents who wanted to chill out with their kids.
I used to go every other weekend. I didn’t know how to swim, so I would always get one of those life vests. Summer days got very warm back then and it was a great relief having a pool in the neighborhood. For children who didn’t have a pool close enough, there was always the possibility of having fun in a slip-and-slide.
We played a few times with a slip-and-slide. The problem was that the only hill we could set it up on was about 5 blocks away. Fortunately, it was not such a busy street and we could play all afternoon. The neighbors were very nice about it because we did learn about some neighbors who didn’t like children playing in front of their houses with a slip-and-slide because they said kids were just too noisy.
The neighbor with the pool had a couple of Labradors and they loved getting into the pool, especially when they had the pool to themselves. I do remember a time when I and some kids were hanging out in the pool and then his dogs jumped in. We thought it was a lot of fun to have them there and even started a game of fetch with them. His dogs were very good at playing with a frisbee and we enjoyed playing with them.
The woman in the following video also has a pool at home. One day she was inside her home when she heard someone jumping into her pool. She went to see if it was her dog but discovered it wasn’t. She went running inside to get her camera and what she recorded will make your jaw drop. Check it out!