By one calculation from five years ago, there are (still) a quarter-million private swimming pools in Los Angeles County. From the window seat of a 737, they look like flickering blue opals embedded in a matrix of dusty greenery and concrete.
I was born in downtown Los Angeles (Arguably original cement swimming pool capitol of the world.) at a now long gone Catholic hospital. During early years before entering Kindergarten, lived in the San Fernando Valley where pools were everywhere. Since that era, many pools have been filled in so when flying over the city one no longer sees as many blue pools below. In fact, there is a list of Los Angeles pool demolition contractors. By the 1960s, the Calfironia era of cheaper above ground oval plastic pools raged for families across the state including ours. Young neighborhood kids where I lived near summer hot Sacramento loved them.