Such Happy Times

A Memory of Colchester.

I just thought that the springboard (outside the female changing rooms ) was just the springiest of all springboards.
Seriously though,my memories of those sunny days at the old Colchester Swimming Pool were some of my happiest.I used to live at 91 Mile End Road and even from there on a hot sunny day I could hear the screams and shouts from the pool and just wanted to be there.
Memories are too many to mention:how cold the water was,especially the deeper you went;the metal baskets you put your clobber in in the changing the room and the rubber wristband you received in exchange,the freezing cold disenfectant footbath you had to paddle through to get outside;the cafe at the end of the pool that you hoped would be open but was always closed,the temperature board that was on display that you always prayed would be over 70 degrees but hardly ever was;the queue you hoped wouldn't be there but invariably was;those diving boards at the by-pass end that always dripped on you as you ran underneath them and those diving boards looked so small from underneath but when you were brave enough to climb up the ladders to get there,the water looked a hundred feet away.Scarey stuff. Loved those days !