First off, I want to say this is such a cool site! I grew up muddling around my Memaw's pool shop and given a pool pole during my summer breaks as soon as I could hold one (around 7 years old). Though, more often than not, I was being scolded for my efforts to removed trapped insects or other critters. I see pool stores catching a lot of flack in here, but my Memaw's was never like the ones that pushed the next fad piece of equipment or chemical onto unknowing/undereducated clients. Yes, it was her business and livelihood, but she sure kept things just about as basic as they could get.
This year at 85 years old and 30 some odd years in business, she closed her storefront. This left her encouraging me to continue the service side of things. I grew up in her store and in turn, many of her clients watched me grow up. I worked for her at various times over the years, but not on a regular basis until 5 years ago, when at 80 years old, she just couldn't keep up with the routine she had kept for so many years prior. My stronger attributes are certainly in repairs, plumbing, equipment replacement, and just generally maintaining a pool.
What I am trying to navigate now is the water chemistry and carrying on in my Memaw's "keeping it basic" way of doing things. I have a very basic knowledge of where you want your balance to be and what raises, lowers, maybe some of the whys and hows. For as long as she was in business, she thwarted every attempt various reps made to change our lab and have her switch to some newfangled testing equipment. Except for this one time. It was supposed to make things easier and quicker, some dumb strip reader that seemed to always produce wildly inaccurate readings. Now, I say inaccurate, but that was in comparison to our manual testing. The lab was my favourite part as a kid. All the vials and beakers, making water change from pink to purple, or yellow to orange, or from clear to blue, and so fourth. I got some explanation of the how and why along the way, but not a concrete understanding due to just having to input my reading into a system that would then do all the computing of the numbers and tell me the amounts of what should be added. Of course, the product recommendations coincided with the particular dealer that supplied the software. I can't knock em, I just wanted the reading and tended to use less expensive alternatives that rendered the same results. Either way, I kept my Memaw's clients happy and that made my Memaw happy, but now I need to learn to do it on my own without the utilities she had at her disposal through her "licensed dealer" status.
So, yea. That sums up how I ended up here
Just a chick that loves her Memaw, working outside, maintaining pools, and helping people love the big holes in the ground that they throw money into. At the end of the day, I want clients that can confidently throw themselves into them, too.
This year at 85 years old and 30 some odd years in business, she closed her storefront. This left her encouraging me to continue the service side of things. I grew up in her store and in turn, many of her clients watched me grow up. I worked for her at various times over the years, but not on a regular basis until 5 years ago, when at 80 years old, she just couldn't keep up with the routine she had kept for so many years prior. My stronger attributes are certainly in repairs, plumbing, equipment replacement, and just generally maintaining a pool.
What I am trying to navigate now is the water chemistry and carrying on in my Memaw's "keeping it basic" way of doing things. I have a very basic knowledge of where you want your balance to be and what raises, lowers, maybe some of the whys and hows. For as long as she was in business, she thwarted every attempt various reps made to change our lab and have her switch to some newfangled testing equipment. Except for this one time. It was supposed to make things easier and quicker, some dumb strip reader that seemed to always produce wildly inaccurate readings. Now, I say inaccurate, but that was in comparison to our manual testing. The lab was my favourite part as a kid. All the vials and beakers, making water change from pink to purple, or yellow to orange, or from clear to blue, and so fourth. I got some explanation of the how and why along the way, but not a concrete understanding due to just having to input my reading into a system that would then do all the computing of the numbers and tell me the amounts of what should be added. Of course, the product recommendations coincided with the particular dealer that supplied the software. I can't knock em, I just wanted the reading and tended to use less expensive alternatives that rendered the same results. Either way, I kept my Memaw's clients happy and that made my Memaw happy, but now I need to learn to do it on my own without the utilities she had at her disposal through her "licensed dealer" status.
So, yea. That sums up how I ended up here
Just a chick that loves her Memaw, working outside, maintaining pools, and helping people love the big holes in the ground that they throw money into. At the end of the day, I want clients that can confidently throw themselves into them, too.
