June 19 - Backyard Wading Pool

The temperature hovered around 90 degrees, the first really hot day of the summer. Bright blue, plastic wading pools decorated with orange and yellow octopuses and starfish were stacked on the sidewalk in front of Reny's discount store in Dexter, Maine. A boy about 9 years old loaded one into the bed of a red pickup truck and rode off with his parents, headed for a summer of fun in the backyard.

When my sister Judy was about 6 years old, she received a wading pool for her July 1 birthday. Our mom set it up in the grass outside the kitchen door, and the excitement mounted as it filled with water from the hose. What joy to jump in, splash each other and put our faces into the water to make motorboat noises. All summer, we put on our swimsuits and played in "Judy's pool," and our mom bought a repair kit to patch the inevitable rips from our roughhousing.