Whether it’s squared in by a hedgerow on a Greenwich estate or enclosed within an aluminum-sided “cowboy bucket” in blue-collar suburbia, the swimming pool endures as the embodiment of the American Dream. No other status symbol can measure up. It is elitist and populist, tranquil yet often treacherous.
In television and film, it’s a mirage often used as a foreshadowing device, luring characters into the craggy rocks of depravity and danger—the American Dream gone nightmare. In the real world, even though far more fatalities and injuries occur in the below-ground gunite variety, aboveground pools come with an especially bad rap: splashy and trashy. Last month, five million pre-fabricated versions sold in Big Lots, Home Depot, Walmart, and Target were recalled due to a safety malfunction that may have caused the drowning of nine toddlers over the past two decades.
