Page "hobbies" Paragraph 559

It is a good eight years now since each of us acquired a swimming pool -- eight enlightening, vigorous, rigorous, not wholly unrewarding years.

We have learned a lot -- a dash of hydrochemistry here, a bit about plumbing and pump-priming there.

We have had sound grounding in the principles of the mailed-fist-in-velvet-glove school of diplomacy.

We have become amateur insurance experts and fine-feathered yard birds.

True, our problems have lessened a bit as more and more of our neighbors have built their own pools, thereby diluting our spectacular attractions.

But problems cling to pools, as any pool owner knows.

So our innate generosity of spirit prompts us to share our trials, errors and solutions with any who are taking the pool plunge for the first time -- in the pious hope that some may profit from our experience.