Learning to Swim (‘Life’s a Journey’ Nostalgia Link-Up, Week 43)

This post is part of a weekly series of ‘link-up’ Posts which reflect on life’s journey, old memories and family stories (see below for more info).

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I love it when I visit my dad. Not just because he’s my dad, but because he always manages to stuff my bag full of treasures as I’m standing on the threshold ready to depart.

The latest treasure was a brown envelope full of all manner of hitherto ‘archived’ junk relating to my childhood. Who knew the old man was such a squirrel?

I laughed out loud when I found these two little beauties. Partly because it brought back the vividest of memories of tying knots in the legs of my pyjama bottoms and inflating them with my own breath; partly because it reminded me of the first tentative steps which I took in the water all those eons ago when I first learned to swim.

My father, as previously discussed, had an awesome job. He worked for Cadbury in Bournville. Cadbury liked to encourage their employees and families to be healthy in mind, body and soul (possibly to distract them from the permanently chocolate-infused atmosphere in which they lived?) As a result, one of the perks was that I got to learn to swim in the beautiful, capacious and historical swimming baths on the Cadbury estate.

Aren’t they beautiful? These baths were created for the ‘Girls’ of Cadbury in 1905. The pool was 25 yards long (that’s a lot of doggy paddle when you are 5 years old) and looked stunning inside. Sadly, like so many others, I believe it went out of use in the 80′s and has undergone a change of use.

I can still remember the fear, the desire to grab hold of something, well, solid, and the vacuous chasms both above me (extremely high ceiling) and below me (were there sharks in there?) It’s truly a miracle I ever got my Survival Medals.

Can you remember when and where you learned to swim? Link up your memories! Does the swimming pool still exist or has it become a community centre?!  Use your blog to create your own post, or simply share your memories in the comments. We’re here for a while, so no rush!!

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More about the Life’s a Journey weekly memories series.

A selection of other posts from this series:-

Week 2 - Old School Portrait

Week 4 - Bestest Friends

Week 5 - Teenage Crushes

Week 6 - First Movie Memories

Week 9 - Favourite Childhood Books

Week 19 - Becoming a Parent

Week 25 - Old Boyfriends

Tagged: autumn, Bonfire Night, childhood, family, gallery, Guy Fawkes Night, life's a journey, Linky, memories, November, stories