swimming lessons

[Seventies product]

Re: swimming lessons

We went to Bradley Rowe school in exeter and it had an outdoor pool ! It was freezing (apart from 1976 ) it had the obligatory sheep dip for the verruca blessed kids and it always had the poor kid who couldn't swim standing shivering and probably peeing in the corner !!! Happy "Er" days I guess .

[Trickyvee]

Re: swimming lessons

My brother had a verruca which had to be frozen off, he had to wear rubber socks in the bath for a time.

My Dad picked up athlete's foot at least once at a swimming pool, lots of people seemed to have trouble with this 20-25 years ago, but somehow I avoided it.

Footwise my main trouble is wearing in new shoes, my heels always seem to end up red raw unless I wear thick socks, or swab them with sugical spirit.

I'd never had athlete's foot until last year. It always intrigued me but having had it you can keep it. the itching drove me stark raving and it's a bar steward to get rid of.

[themilkman]

Re: swimming lessons

We didn't have lessons as such.........my mum and dad taught me (sort of) to swim in a pool in Fiji when I was about 7.

[Trickyvee]

Re: swimming lessons

And how come you always seemed to come outside and it was freezing cold!.Didn't we ever have lessons in the summer?

True! We had a small pool at our primary school and I remember at one point we had early morning swimming lessons. It was definitely in winter because I remember trudging down to school in the dark and having to wait in the yard for the pool bloke to turn up with the keys. Vivid memories of falling snow! These sessions were voluntary and I really can't understand why I decided to do them. I hated school swimming and the very thought of getting up early in winter...urgh!

Our pool was a strange prefab sort of affair. Basically a hut with a pool and surrounding area made of big panels of pale blue plastic connected together. There were gaps between the panels through which a freezing draft would blow. The water was green and opaque (don't think pool bloke was good with the chlorination sums) and it had no steps so everybody got bruised legs. The hand rail was a copper pipe. I remember the piles of floats in the corner - many with chunks bitten out and some with mold!

[screamqueen]

Re: swimming lessons

Anyone remember being expected to retrieve plastic blocks from the bottom of the pool

or girls with pierced ears having to put Micropore surgical tape over them? At one point there were eight girls in my class of about thirty kids and I was the only one without pierced ears so it saved me time before the lesson ...

[Pussywillow]

Re: swimming lessons

Swiiming lessons.I really did not like them at the time.I think my hatred towards swimming comes from that time when I was in primary school.I have not been swimming since and even when I was courting and everybody went to the pool I sat out at the side waiting for the buzzer to go.Shudders at the orrid wet stuff...lol.

My swimming trunks were always rolled up in a towl the stuffed into my dap bag on swimming days.We would later in the day usually in the afternoon be lead out to the borrowed school buss which had those wooden bench seats running along the walls from the driver to the back.Every time the driver put his foot down you either slid towards the back of the bus or towards the driver along the benches.If the driver turned a corner fast you ended up in the lap of the person sitting opposite you.My memories mostly consists of the lucky ones chosen for the school plays rehersing the songs in the buss on the way there and back and teacher joining in.

Memories of actually swimming have mostly been wiped from memory,but I don't think I ever got out of the baby pool and seem to have some sort of phobia about putting my head under the water.The only other two things that came to mind is one kid brought some sweets from the little shop there and ended up with stomach ache,and the shallow foot wash facilities.

I do remember the pool inself as I used to go past there on a regular basis as a teenager,long since demolished and built on.It was an old art deco building that was painted blue and white,open air pool.

You and me both my friend.

I hated the water too. I can still smell that chlorinated water 50 years hence.

Like you swimming lessons were the thing I hated above all else. I dreaded the start of the summer term at Grammar school. The stinking school I went to had it's own unheated pool. It was directly below a 6 storey block, surrounded by a rickety wooden fence.

This meant that us poor *******s were led out like skinned sheep to the pool. Of course our lesson was first thing on a Monday morning, despite it being summer. This meant it was bloody cold. It was demeaning, embarrassing and humiliating for those of us who couldn't swim. The pool was totally overlooked by the 6 storey block I mentioned earlier. I can still hear the churning sound we made kicking with our feet whilst holding on the the bar on the side of the pool. I hated putting my face in the water and ended up getting a phobia about it.

It got so bad that I even tried forging my parents signature on excuse notes or even pretended to be sick on Mondays in an attempt to avoid swimming lessons.

I have never been in a swimming pool since and have no plans to do so.

My children however, benefitted from my phobia. I made damn sure they had lessons from an early age and weren't afraid of water like their Father.

I still can't swim and never will.

[80sChav]

Re: swimming lessons

Who remembers those bags you bought from school for swimming.Can remember a few colours bright orange,green,red and possible blue.They had a black pic on them,but the biggest memory was the smell....they stunk of the strongest rubber/plastic you can think of

Indeed - they really became a "trend" at one time/point - though mainly at Primary School not Secondary. If I can recall right - I think the bright(er) colours of bags where an idea to help the kids be safe at night.

Somehow though the idea only lasted for about a Year or so (if that) in Year 5 or Year 6! In time though round about Year 7 we moved on to taking in posh Supermarket or Sports Shop's Drawstring bags that had just started to be popular at the time or Jane Norman/Jane Austin/Miss Selfridge being the choice for the girls sometimes.

80sChav

[Trickyvee]

Re: swimming lessons

Found this photo on the internet. It isn't my school pool but is almost identical to it. This one has the luxury of steps! Take away those, all the decoration and chairs, stick a pile of moldy floats in the corner and make the water a bit greener and you have our pool.

[darren]

Re: swimming lessons

Dont all pools have steps ours has white steps.

My teacher tried to get me to swim hed walk along above the pool holding a brush shaft id hold it with one hand for a while till he said let go.
This went on for months but i never was able to swim without floats etc.

Cant remember which day we went but the whole class went think it was a friday we were back around 12.

[80sChav]

Re: swimming lessons

Dont all pools have steps ours has white steps.

My teacher tried to get me to swim hed walk along above the pool holding a brush shaft id hold it with one hand for a while till he said let go.
This went on for months but i never was able to swim without floats etc.

Cant remember which day we went but the whole class went think it was a friday we were back around 12.

Same here Darren - I can not recall exactly what day we had Swimming, but though I'm really really poor at Swimming - I always loved it!! At my High School (on the good side the Baths was only down the road), but am sure we had Swimming just before Lunch - never last lesson!

At College when I went in the late 90s we had Swimming in the local Baths - we did Water Polo and allsorts of Competitions - but as I say I can hardly Swim - what memories thinking about those recent(ish) times bring back - even though sadly those Baths have been consigned to History too

80sChav

[xmark1234]

Re: swimming lessons

I use to love the swimming lessons I remember going to our local baths which to be straight and honest is still goin changed a bit but its still there
and we had do our badge carnt remember now which it was but we had to have our pyjamas and make a float out of the bottoms

that was long time ago I must say

[Trickyvee]

Re: swimming lessons

Dont all pools have steps ours has white steps.

My teacher tried to get me to swim hed walk along above the pool holding a brush shaft id hold it with one hand for a while till he said let go.
This went on for months but i never was able to swim without floats etc.

Cant remember which day we went but the whole class went think it was a friday we were back around 12.

i reckon all pools have steps now but ours didn't back then. We had to haul ourselves out and everybody bashed their shins on the metal rail. We all sported a fine collection of bruises.

[Littlelen]

Re: swimming bags

Oh no, not the dreaded "help yourself to one out of the locker" :cry: I'll never forget I had to put one on that was a mile to big and as I was swimming the straps kept slipping down my arm, 13 years old and a male instructor I was gutted.

And just out of interested... Who the hell was the kid who bit a chunk out of all the polystyrene floats surely to god school dinners weren't that bad!!!

PS no trunks= better than ya Dad's pants

Haha! That is so funny! I used to wonder who bit the floats too.

[Littlelen]

Re: swimming lessons

I remember the first time we got taken to the big public pool, as opposed to the little pool attached to our school. The teacher made us get in at the middle steps and I assumed I'd be able to touch the bottom. I launched myself in with great confidence then went straight under flailing in panic and had to be rescued with the big hoop on a stick. You never forget such terrifying incidents!

We have a few new pools that have been built in the last 5 years or so around where I live and I've noticed that they don't have the foot baths any more. Also the male and female changing is not separate. They seem to call them changing 'villages' which makes me squirm but overall the layout of the new pools is much better. The old 1960's built pool of above is still there and still has the foot baths, although they look a lot mankier than when I was little. I was rather taken with the footbaths and used to lie down in them when I was very young!

Weirdly I used to lie in the foot baths too. The water was warmer. Maybe it was less daunting than the pool and more like a fun paddle? I've got 2 memories of Tynemouth pool. One is lifting myself out on the side with both arms. My hand slipped and I smashed my front teeth on the edge. It was horrific and I remember my teachers and school friends faces when it happened. The other is smoking in the spectators bit! Can you imagine? Sitting in a room full of kids swimming, chlorine everywhere and sitting smoking tabs! Can't understand how it was ever allowed. I used to pay 20 p or something and me and my friend could sit there for hours warm and dry in the winter. No one ever moved us on.

[darren]

Re: swimming lessons

Oh yes heather the school floats i remember chunks taken out of them too god dinners where bad here as well.:dwhen we got to secondary school we never where brought to the pool again must just be a primary school thing.

none of my schools actually had there own pool.
We used a local one only a minute away.
We where always taught in the shallow pool but i still near drowned.:d