Growing up in Somerset, just a few mins from my home there was an open air swimming pool. It was run down, but it was a pool I loved. I remember it so well.
Most weekends and during the summer holidays, most days you would find me here. Id throw on my swimsuit at home, grab a towel and run off down the road bare footed. This was the 80’s, that was normal!
Going in the entrance, known by the people who worked there, from the age of 6 Id be found pottering round the pool to the left of the entrance, the child’s paddling pool (made of very hard concrete!) As my confidence grew I started throwing myself into the big pool. Often my brother would be with me when he was home, hes 10 yrs older then me. He taught me so much, Sometimes Id find my mother stood at the entrance watching before she got bored and left.
I quickly became a competent swimmer, jumping in the deep end never phased me, I had so much confidence.
The only one bad time was when a school bully decided to try and hold me underwater, it scared me as I struggled to get back up to the surface, it felt like a lifetime but was only moments, no one was interested when it was reported, so I shook it off and jumped straight back in the pool, I never knew what the bully was trying to do, their expression though when I landed heavily next to them was rather amusing.
Water is part of me, I need to be near it, my first childhood home then was miles from the sea, so the pool was everything to me.
In the early 90’s we were able to move to Cornwall, a seaside town, a seaside town with a open air pool. I was sad to leave the pool behind, but excited to have new adventures. The sea was a different world to the little pool I knew. The sea pool also was a lot larger, and tidal, but so beautiful and peaceful.
I spent many a summer there in my teenage years. The town also had a canal leading to the sea. If I couldn’t make the beach, Id be found in the canal, though I wouldn’t recommend that today, its pretty disgusting nowadays which is a shame. In the winter I would be found in the local pool, were I took up swimming lessons, and was soon coming home with many a certificate as I flew through the grades.
I love swimming now, wish I could go all the time, but where I live the options just are not here. When I had a car it was easier, I could access so many amazing pools, but no longer have that option and bus routes here suck. This is something I struggle with, there is a leisure centre but I hate those places, limited times, limited options and so just blah
That aside, swimming is something I can look back on with a fond memory, a smile and a longing in some ways, its the time I feel at peace and at one with myself, its a time I can forget everything and just relax.
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