It was very scary (honest!)

As a youngster I used to read a comic regularly. Not sure of the title – may have been the Dandy or Beano but it had a serial in it that I followed every week called ‘The City Under the Sea’. I can still see the opening episode’s illustrations. The story line was that a huge tidal wave came crashing into this city & flooded it but by a miracle, everyone was still able to go about their business. (I know it’s farfetched but stay with me on this one)

Obviously, each week the hero had various life threatening adventures to experience & he often had to fight extraordinary creatures which had suddenly appeared.

Now, moving onto real life – we had a lido near us. For those of you too young to know this is an outside swimming pool offering entertainment for the few short weeks the weather encouraged you to remove a few layers. There were deck chairs, an ice-cream / tea kiosk & a variety of pool areas. These were arranged in order of depth for the various people frequenting them. So, there was a baby pool suitable for paddling. There was a deep pool into which the huge slide deposited you. Then there was the swimming area. This was a fairly large pool with a fountain in the middle. For those of us who wanted a swim rather than a bathe, we would race each other to the fountain & back again.

Right, so now to link these two stories. The tiling under the ‘swimming area’ had a crack in it. Nothing serious we presumed because the pool was never closed off to us but it was clear enough for me to dread swimming across it. Why (you’ve guessed haven’t you?!) because I was always sure that one of those monsters from ‘The City Under the Sea’ was going to surge out & get me!

In normal circumstances you may think that this was not a problem – don’t swim across it! However, imagine a youngster with friends who all knew she was a good swimmer trying to make enough excuses not to take up the challenge! Imagine the taunts, teasing & absolute shame of it! I couldn’t so it was with eyes tightly shut that I hared off across that short stretch of water.

The one benefit from all of this – I was unbeatable in these races but I never revealed my motivation!