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Beyond that I see nothing wrong with the idea of having a pool that gets no deeper than 6 feet if diving isn't an option

As a kid, I fondly remember dropping objects to the bottom on the deep end and swimming the 10 feet to the bottom to get them. It developed good breathing, muscles and good planning skills. Six feet just wouldn't have done it. Children need this sort of activity, whether it's in swimming, biking, dodgeball or whatever. All this silly take-away-the-risk emphasis is breeding sissies.

As a kid, I fondly remember dropping objects to the bottom on the deep end and swimming the 10 feet to the bottom to get them. It developed good breathing, muscles and good planning skills.

The neighborhood pool when I was a kid had a 14' depth and a high dive. It probably wasn't that high but to a little kid, it was like a skyscraper.

I remember summoning every ounce of courage just to climb the latter and jump off. Not dive, mind you, just jump.

After I did this, I spent the rest of the day climbing back up jumping over and over again from that high dive.

I used to love the exhiliration and the water pressure I'd feel by trying to swim to the bottom and touch the concrete 14' below the surface.

I never wore a bike helmet either. And some of the playground equipment was made from steel. And we had bb guns and Estes rockets.

It is a wonder I survived childhood.

As a kid, I fondly remember dropping objects to the bottom on the deep end and swimming the 10 feet to the bottom to get them. It developed good breathing, muscles and good planning skills. Six feet just wouldn't have done it. Children need this sort of activity, whether it's in swimming, biking, dodgeball or whatever. All this silly take-away-the-risk emphasis is breeding sissies.

We used to do that too, it was fun going down 10 - 13 feet and grab the object at the bottom. We used to pretend we were in "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," "Six Million Dollar Man," and so on. I miss the diving boards were you did funny dives to impress friends or make 'em laugh, cannonballs, and the infamous "Jimmy Superfly Snuka" (a wrestler) dive. B-)

We also made up a game called "Devil" where you had one guy who was "it" be the Devil and the others were "Angels" where the object is to have the "Devil" drag 'em to the deep end, then whoever was dragged became the new devil. The Devil could only spend so long in the shallow end before he had to go and touch the bottom to "recharge" or the Angels would grab the Devil, hold him to the shallow end's wall (for a 10 count) and "drain" him of power. If the Devil escaped, he would have to go and recharge. If the Devil was "it" for a long time, sometimes we'd do "rock, sissors, paper" to choose the new Devil. Every once in a great while, two Angels got dragged to the deep end and you had two Devils. Toss in some growls from the Devil(s) and righteous sayings from the Angels, you had a good time. I think in today's world, that game would be too un-PC, imagine, showing kids that it is good to fight evil. B-P

I'd hate to be a kid now.