Thanks thamesweb, I knew you could do it.
Can you remember the first time you very gingerly put your feet into the Thames, Beryl? Can you recall the feel of the stones and rough bits on the river bed? Tony says his worst nightmare was when he felt glass under his feet and didn't know whether to just stop or go on or turn around and get out....The glass on the riverbed, on the promenade side, was very evident in some parts. I've written on the forum a while back where we saw a couple of divers searching around under the water, and always coming up to the surface with drinking glasses....I can't think how they survived all that time either, the glasses, not the divers!!.....mostly pint glasses from over many, many years too. Amazing.
I think cutting our feet was accepted as part-and-parcel of going for a paddle or walking out to swim. I can't recall anyone in our family ever wearing any plimsoles or footwear to swim, can you? Now there are thin shoes or plastic sandals which protect the feet from everything - especially Weaver Fish - the seaside paddlers' nightmare, (worst, I think). Our towels too weren't like nowadays, all thick and fluffy, we seemed to have paper-thin towels with no pile or little nap to them...I suppose they were our everyday towels and not bought specially for 'bathing', like today. It was lovely to come out of the 'paddly bits', in my case, and just sit on the bank with a paste sandwich and a bottle of water, but on a colder day without any sunshine, brrr, shivering was the order of the day, along with chattering teeth, goose pimples and wet, sticky-up hair. After a lovely day by the river, then going home, I could never understand why, after being 'in' the water for most of the day, I'd have to get into the 'tin' bath before I went to bed - now, where's the logic in that? It didn't make sense to me at all.
Can you remember the first time you very gingerly put your feet into the Thames, Beryl? Can you recall the feel of the stones and rough bits on the river bed? Tony says his worst nightmare was when he felt glass under his feet and didn't know whether to just stop or go on or turn around and get out....The glass on the riverbed, on the promenade side, was very evident in some parts. I've written on the forum a while back where we saw a couple of divers searching around under the water, and always coming up to the surface with drinking glasses....I can't think how they survived all that time either, the glasses, not the divers!!.....mostly pint glasses from over many, many years too. Amazing.
I think cutting our feet was accepted as part-and-parcel of going for a paddle or walking out to swim. I can't recall anyone in our family ever wearing any plimsoles or footwear to swim, can you? Now there are thin shoes or plastic sandals which protect the feet from everything - especially Weaver Fish - the seaside paddlers' nightmare, (worst, I think). Our towels too weren't like nowadays, all thick and fluffy, we seemed to have paper-thin towels with no pile or little nap to them...I suppose they were our everyday towels and not bought specially for 'bathing', like today. It was lovely to come out of the 'paddly bits', in my case, and just sit on the bank with a paste sandwich and a bottle of water, but on a colder day without any sunshine, brrr, shivering was the order of the day, along with chattering teeth, goose pimples and wet, sticky-up hair. After a lovely day by the river, then going home, I could never understand why, after being 'in' the water for most of the day, I'd have to get into the 'tin' bath before I went to bed - now, where's the logic in that? It didn't make sense to me at all.
