Deep end was over my head

by Larry

I absolutely agree that you cannot be too careful when it comes to children and swimming pools.

Many, many years ago as a child of five or six I got a crash course in the dangers of swimming pools.

The infants school that I attended had managed to get at time slot for each week at the local swimming baths. My mother, god bless her, had either bought a secondhand pair of trunks or borrowed a pair for me, all I know is that they were too big, I had to tie a knot in the waistband.

Anyway the teacher had us lined up in the shallow end of the pool. Shallow end? Deep end? What did I know, I'd never seen a swimming pool before.

We were just standing there and the teacher was saying something, for all I know she may have been lecturing us about safety! What happens to kids when they are lectured at? They get bored. And so . . . I started to walk backwards and towards the deep end.

Whether I just did not notice that the water was now over my nose and mouth or what, I don't know. The next thing that I did know was that I was at the side of the pool feeling extremely groggy and getting a good telling off from the teacher.

I can't remember ever going swimming with that school again, whether I was banned or not I don't know. I did learn to swim when I was an older child but I was always very aware that one end of the pool was deeper than the other.