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Thursday 21 October 2021

Swimming Hole Memories

 

One of the enduring memories I have as a child in summertime was swimming in my uncle’s creek.

He had damned up one area to create a small swimming hole and it was great fun to splash around there with my cousins and any adults who happened to be around at the time (we were never allowed to swim unsupervised).




My uncle also made a small raft (visible in the photo) but I could never manage the trick of getting up on it so I could dive off.  It must have been a girlie thing because my brothers never had any problem.

This blissful summer activity died a quick death the day I discovered I was sharing the creek with a very large eel – I flatly refused to enter the water again after that!

Were you lucky enough to have a swimming hole when you were younger?

Margaret 😊


13 comments:

  1. We had a creek full of eels at the bottom of our land but we never thought of swimming there . Like you, it was those eels!!
    We used to go up into the Papamos hills once we were teenagers with a driver's license and swim at Kaiate falls. It was isolated and rural back then. They seem to be a popular attraction now.

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  2. No swimming hole where I grew up in Surrey. Never been a great swimmer.

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  3. We had a creek we played in and also a place where. A basement had been dug but it quickly filled with water...we played on those almost every day..no real deep.holes but you could still swim...

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  4. I can't claim that we had a swimming hole, but there was an area in the river where we swam regularly, until I gashed my leg on a submerged log. I still have the scar.

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  5. Such a nice summer memory. I grew up on an island and the house where at the seaside. There was a tiny little beach, and rocks from where we could dive and swim in deep water. In my memory we were more in the water than on land in summer. We loved swimming!

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  6. Oh, this looks like FUN!!!
    Sadly no, we didn´t have that. Not even now.

    Sweet memories 🧑 Thank you for sharing - cute pic!

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  7. That looks like about as good as summer could get! What fun you kids had!

    There was a local natural swimming spot, when I was a kid. Complete with an old tree, leaning over the water, with a rope for swinging on and jumping in. -smile-

    But I could never go with the other kids.

    My father who was in the State Police, contracted polio. Luckily a slight case but all the same. My parents never let me to to the swimming hole because back then, they thought polio could be spread, by such as swimming places, or whatever.

    I soooooooooo wanted to go.

    I never was allowed.

    Never learned to swim, to this very day.

    Be so happy, that you have such a lovely memory, from your childhood. -smile-

    🍁 🌰 🌻 πŸ‚ 🍁 🌰 🌻 πŸ‚ 🍁

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  8. Oh my. An eel. I’d have been out of there pretty quick. We swam in a river when I was younger although I didn’t like the fact the water was so murky. Now I have crystal clear sea water right by me. I’m so lucky. B x

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  9. I think I would have been very reluctant too to share the creek with an eel. I remember going to a lake with my parents when I was about 5 and I got a leech stuck on my leg. I'm sure everyone around heard my screams.

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  10. Ahh, you've sparked some wonderful memories for me, Margaret. We had a swimming spot in a muddy, tidal creek at home and another in a rocky bottomed mountain stream at my grandparents' farm. On our farm here the children could choose from a creek or a dam, complete with eels. They nibbled at toes if there wasn't much activity so that was a great motivator to keep moving. But such fun fishing for eels after dark.

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  11. I learnt to swim in the 1950s in a filtered, big-city swimming pool, but then moved to the middle of the Southern Alps, and we swam in the local swimming hole, where even on a midsummer's stinking hot day, the water off the alps was freezing. Ab-so-lute-ly foot numbingly freezing! Give me the filtered swimming pool any day!
    Well, I hadn't thought of that for many years. Thank you Margaret.

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    Replies
    1. I once paddled in the Waimakariri so I know what you mean about numbingly freezing :))

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    2. Being a 'townie', I spent most of my 'free time' after school and weekends in the local pools.... or in a drain that was part spring water, part storm water (in winter) that was about a block from home and only ankle deep. Oh the freedom of those days.... thanks for the memories
      Stay safe
      Blessings
      Maxine

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Thank-you for visiting my blog. I love it when you leave a comment so please feel free to have your say. Have a great day! Margaret xx