And they did.
Once the pool opened, neighborhood children began spending their summer afternoons there.
According to The Washington Post, around five to ten local children might be swimming on a typical sunny day.
That meant Keith's backyard was rarely quiet.
The sound of water replaced the silence.
Children jumped into the pool.
They played.
They shouted.
They laughed.
They raced one another.
And Keith could sit nearby and simply enjoy the atmosphere.
The home that had once felt empty now had a constant stream of visitors.
One neighbor, Jessica Huebner, had four children who became regular visitors.
At first, she was skeptical that Keith would actually build the pool.
The idea sounded almost too unusual.
A 94-year-old man installing a large swimming pool so neighborhood children could use it?
It sounded like something someone might say as a joke.
But Keith was serious.
Soon, the construction equipment arrived.
The backyard was marked.
The ground was excavated.
And eventually, the pool was filled with water.
The joke became reality.
A Pool Without a Public Pool
The generosity became even more meaningful because Morris did not have an outdoor public swimming pool.
For families in the neighborhood, Keith's pool therefore offered something they otherwise might not have had close to home.
But Keith did not treat it as a formal community facility.
It was simply his backyard.
And the children were guests.
He established rules to keep them safe.
Children 12 and younger had to be accompanied by a parent or grandparent, and minors needed adult supervision.
Keith was a former lawyer and judge, so rules were apparently part of the deal.
He joked about having rules because of his legal background.
The arrangement also meant that parents were involved.
They did not simply drop their children off and disappear.
They came into the backyard.
They talked with Keith.
They watched their children swim.
They met other neighbors.
The pool therefore became more than a place where children could cool off on hot summer days.
It became a gathering place for adults, too.
A Neighborhood Began to Feel Like a Family
One of the unexpected consequences of Keith's decision was how it changed relationships among neighbors.
People who had lived close to one another but barely spoken began spending more time together.
Parents sat around the pool.
Children played together.
Neighbors talked.
People Keith had not spoken with for years reportedly began contacting him.
His backyard became a natural meeting point.
Jessica Huebner described the effect as something much bigger than a swimming pool.
The children were receiving a place to play.
But the adults were also getting an opportunity to reconnect.
In a world where neighbors can live only a few houses apart without truly knowing one another, that matters.
A physical space can sometimes create the reason people need to connect.
A pool gave these families a reason to step outside.
A reason to stay.
A reason to talk.
And a reason to build relationships that might otherwise never have developed.
He Had Children, But No Grandchildren
Keith had three grown children.
But he did not have grandchildren.
That detail became part of the story because of the relationship he developed with the neighborhood children.
Jessica Huebner eventually joked that Keith had essentially adopted the entire neighborhood.
The children became something like the grandchildren he never had.
Of course, they were not literally his grandchildren.
But the affection was real.
Keith enjoyed having them around.
He enjoyed watching them play.
And the children knew that the older man in the house wanted them there.
That created a special kind of relationship.
He was not simply the man who owned the pool.
He became the neighborhood's pool-owning grandfather figure.
And the children became part of his everyday life.
The Pool Was Not Really About Swimming
From the outside, the story is amusing.
A 94-year-old man builds a giant backyard pool.