SENIORS ROCK MAGAZINE1

So the retired trial judge had an
idea. His neighborhood in Morris,
Minn., had a lot of kids but no
swimming pool. Davison, an avid
swimmer, and his wife had bought
the house in 1991, and they had
considered putting one in the back
yard but had never gotten around
to it. “When we were in our 60s we
thought of it, but we didn’t think
we’d live this long,” he said.
Now, at 94, he thought, why not?
Running the idea by some
neighborhood kids clinched it.
“They were so excited about it,
because they knew I’d let them
in, and I decided, ‘That’s enough
incentive right there.’ ”
So in the spring, construction began
on a 32-by-16-foot heated pool,
complete with diving board, and in
July it was done.
Now, on sunny days, Davison’s yard
is rarely quiet. About 5 to 10 local
kids are there, swimming and
diving. “There’s a lot of noise and
splashing about, and that’s good,”
he said.
In fact, people I haven't talked to
in years call “and congratulate
me on having a pool.” He has met
neighbors he hardly knew before
and grown closer with the ones he
did know.
Neighbor Jessica Huebner said
when she first heard of the plan, she
didn’t think he was serious. “I was
just thinking, it’s fun to talk, but at
the age of 94 would you really do it?”
When Davison said it was going to
be for all the neighborhood kids,
including her four children, “That’s
when it really sank in. I was like,
wow. You just don’t have that in
today’s society, that amount of
kindness.”
Huebner said she has already seen
ripple effects among adults, as well
as children, as they gather there.
“As a neighborhood we’re getting
out of our day-to-day routines to
make the time to visit with each
other and get to know each other,”
she said. “(Davison) says it’s just a
pool, but it’s not just a pool; it’s so
much more than that.”
The pool was not cheap to install,
but Davison’s home insurance
company said his premium would
not go up. And he is strict about
safety.
“I have a set of rules, of course,
being a lawyer,” he said (he is also
a pilot and plays tuba in three local
bands). There are no lifeguards,
so children 12 or under must come
with a parent or grandparent, and
anyone under 18 must have an adult
present.
“Even an adult in there shouldn’t be
there by themselves,” he said.
Davison is exempt from that rule,
however, thanks in part to his age.
“I go in by myself,” he admitted with
a chuckle. “If I had a heart attack
and died in the pool, what a way to
go. It certainly beats cancer.”
Magda Jean-Louis contributed to
this report
senior’s rock magazine
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