Pooling the resources

There was a time I remember when the idea of jumping from the concrete steps at the rear of the house was a real challenge. We possessed a pool. I say possessed, because it was certainly not an in-ground pool. It was a ‘Parapool’. A long strip of corrugated metal which when joined by a metal seam piece, would form a large specific and sharp edged ring of metal, around a metre in height and 3 metres across. The dangerously sharp metal edges covered with a thin band of metal slit tubes, clipped on and sightly overlapped. The rubberised skin liner was then laid around the inside and the wall edges were stretched over the metal covered lip and held in place by similar slit tubes made of plastic.

Over the years many patches had been applied to the liner, but it all held the pressure. Not just the water, but the pressure of many children splashing, diving, running around to make a whirlpool and trying various aquatic based experiments, including the building of homemade aqua lungs out of plastic bottles. Once again, knowledge of physics would have been useful as you can’t just put a tube into a plastic bottle and weight yourself in the pool planning to breath only from the bottle. There was something about needing ‘air pressure’ not just air. Another tip is when ‘weighting’ yourself to stay underwater, make sure you have a quick release. Needing other family members to jump into the pool, fully clothed, to haul you out because a plastic bottle only holds about two breathes is not a way of winning friends. At least they were prepared to save me.

It was our annual thrill anticipating the setting up of the system. Our father complaining slightly about the annual killing of the lawn where the pool would be set up for the summer. The knowledge that the summer weather was going to soar as high as 28 degrees Celsius. And that there would be a lot of splashing and yelling and screaming, as we thoroughly enjoyed the use of the pool. The steps also served as the punishment spot when someone was ordered out for mis-behaving or excessive noise. To have to sit on the hot concrete steps for a time while the others continued to play and tease the punished was terrible. 

The pool usually took about 30 hours to fill, so once the hose was started the excitement built. It was discovered with use of the steps. that the pool could be emptied in about 12 seconds.

(continued tomorrow)