Splashing through so many years of backyard joy

Labor Day marks the unofficial end of Long Island’s summer season. We will spend it, as we do every year, in our swimming pool.

We didn’t always have a pool; instead, we had an ocean. Jones Beach, with its lapping waves, sprouting umbrellas, sparkling sand, fudgy-wudgy bars and picturesque boardwalk, was a short southbound drive away from our Jericho home.

Our starter home was a three-bedroom, 1.5-bath split-level house with a backyard bereft of chlorinated water. It was certainly no hardship. We compensated with a sprinkler and a hose-filled kiddie pool for our two children.

After seven lucky years, we remained in Jericho but upgraded to a larger home for a typical reason — more space. A pool wasn’t on top of our priority list. Neither my wife, Yvonne, nor I grew up with a pool in our backyards, but it seemed like it would be a perk. We had no idea how much of a jewel our pool would become at all stages of life.

Our children were young then, and we had read about tragic drownings seemingly every summer, so we made sure to have a child safety fence in addition to our fenced-in backyard. Our house became the “in” place for our children and their friends to hang out each summer, throughout childhood, adolescence and young adulthood. I remember the human pyramid my daughter, Amanda, around age 11, made with her friends at one pool party. I recall the multistep, alley-oop basketball dunking routine my son, Matthew, practiced about 20 times with his college buddies before they got it right.

Although college pool parties were a lot different from the childhood ones, they were all rewarding in their own ways. We loved hosting these get-togethers, enjoyed watching our children interact with their friends, and embraced the grilling duties that came along with it. It was our way to be involved in their lives.

Many young couples can’t afford a house these days, let alone a house with a pool, or don’t have the property to install one if they are homeowners, so I realize we have been fortunate.

We mostly maintain our pool ourselves to minimize costs, so there’s also a time commitment refilling the chlorinator, balancing the chemicals, cleaning the traps and vacuuming the liner. It’s not all floats and noodles. A pool is expensive, and it is work, but both come with a reward — beating the heat with a dash of splash!

Nowadays, we have a 18-month-old granddaughter, so a third generation is making use of our pool on weekends throughout the summer — a lifetime of pool memories ahead of her. If only pools could talk.

It’s a beautiful summer day. The temperature is 85 with a light breeze, and wisps of fluffy, marshmallow clouds glide slowly through the piercing blue sky as the nearby trees sway ever so gently. The kids and their friends have grown and moved away, but they come back to visit us, or perhaps they come back to revisit their childhood pool memories. It never gets old, but we do.

For right now, though, it’s peaceful and quiet. I have the pool all to myself, a rare treat, but even now I’m not alone. Decades of laughter, activities and joy echo all around me. The water isn’t the only thing that is shimmering.

— Marc Epstein, Jericho