Ahh, July 4th weekend. I don’t know about you, but as a pool owner? I spent mine poolside. For me, a day bonding with friends and family over cannonball dives and bomb pops is the perfect way to say “God Bless America.”
Today I’ve got my very own pool, which is a wonderful asset, so long as I remember to keep out algae (and bears). But what if you don’t have a pool? I remember as a kid in the summer, the pool was the Holy Grail. If you, or your neighborhood, didn’t have a pool, it was a desperate act to try and make friends with someone who had one. But for plenty of kids, even that’s not an option.
Mobile home parks or country homes where the nearest neighbor’s a mile away? Forget it. Not everyone lives in the suburbs or a planned community, especially here in the South. So people get creative.
One thing that almost everyone has in this neck of the woods? Pickup trucks. It’s…let’s say ‘a redneck tradition’…to toss together a makeshift swimming pool on hot days. Just throw a tarp into the truck bed, fill it with a hose, and jump in to cool off. Sounds genius, right?
Turns out, water is heavy. Heavier, actually, than concrete. Filling your truck bed with that many gallons of water, plus a few friends and their beer cans on top of it, is a great way to destroy your truck. And a new truck? Way more expensive than an above-ground pool.
In France, they’ve improved on the Redneck Pool concept, making mobile pools pulled by tractor trailer. They’re a great option for small village neighborhoods where year-round pool maintenance is cost-prohibitive. They also provide safe, healthy exercise options for folks needing physical rehab. But each of these portable pools costs upwards of 400,000 euros, and that doesn’t even take into the account the cost of the truck to haul it, making them decidedly not a redneck option.
If you’re desperate, I say stick to the baby pool. For under $50 you can walk out of Wally World with chips, a twelver of cheap beer, and your very own personal-sized pool. If you’re worried about being unkind to your neighbors with the visual of a baby pool on your front lawn, never fear: rednecks are a most resourceful people:
Happy TUESDAY!
~Mary
