Troubled waters
Since working on Highway 59 is always “to be sometime in the future,” the look at what is meant by “Troubled Waters” will be a topic for the ‘cuff … and the rest of the column will be one of those conglomerator challenges that could go one way or another or, well, you know what happens.
For first ‘cuffer readers, conglomerator topics mean it could be many things … sort of like a package of every kind of seed for a penny, a cent to buy a package for the little kids to make their own gardens. Henry Field Company sold who knows how many hundreds of packages of seeds to kids. That was during those thirties depression days and during World War II. The little old ‘cuffer became, or tried to be, a gardener a couple of times.
It’s time to move on, so let’s make it through a big story with many pictures in a June 8/9 newspaper. Some thirty-five hundred words and six pictures, the largest of which took almost half a front page, were headed with the words “Troubled Waters.” What really caught the interest of the ‘cuffer was a four-line teaser heading: “The swimming pool has long been a symbol of affluence and desire, a pillar of Hollywood and the American Dream (which is mentioned often these days). “But what is its future in a drought-plagued world?”… what is it facing because of that thing we call “climate change”?
The sort of history story of backyard pools by Hollywood film stars, with the help of sunshine and nature and, of course, money. They ordered huge, many deep pools “to be the culture so those who could swim could swim in their own backyards.” Eventually, pools appeared in many films, and those showed their culture grew until the end of the war, even though the pools hit other places, mostly smaller and not so designed according to the story. After the First World War, there were some 175,000 pools, most of which were in California; a pool was about to become a way of life.
Something happened for the first time in 1925 when the Motel III opened at Motel Inn in San Luis Obispo, California. And then the depression hit and World War II followed in about five years.
There are lots of lines about different pools and changes scattered in the story. One of the items was what began to take over swimmers on the go … those who took vacations. It was the goal for kids then, and still is, to find a motel with a swimming pool … or a public pool. The story said that since the early 1950s, the number of pools is ten million private pools and 309,00 public ones in use. Where those numbers came from was not mentioned, except most are still being built in California, though most are smaller and have a simple design. California pools have shrunk, and the area around the pool is really used.
So, what is the trouble? The increase in population. In many places, there is less water available. There is some drought, but groundwater is steadily shrinking, and in 2015, California ordered twenty-five percent less water use. Most new pools do not have deep, dark areas. Water leaks can be problems, and water in pools normally shrinks in a few days or a week. Then there has been that “climate change.”
Of course, there are pools being built at homes in Eagle Observer country. They are enjoyed, and there has been no serious problem with the amount of water because of Beaver Lake. But there could be something in the climate and the increase in population that says growth in twentyfive or fifty years, and possibly even one or two strange drought changes, are something to think about.
Now for the final words … these are just a few of the many, many words in that story, mainly about American pools. The paper was published in early June in London, England, “The FT (Final Times) Weekend.” It was one of several English papers a friend who was there brought the old ‘cuffer because he knows the old feller enjoys papers and the printed word. Thank you for holding through the ‘cuff, and maybe one day we can take a look at roads rather than just stats. Then there is a ‘cuff about hundreds of white things.
‘Till next time.