Return of Memoryfest - Day 10/31

[bironic]

This one's in the same vein as yesterday's. Maybe some of you will have swimming pool-related memories or stories about meeting relatives, since the unconscious shriek didn't resonate much

Comments

[daasgrrl]

If you know who the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are, yes :)

[bironic]

I was perplexed at your comment until I remembered what the cut text was. :)

[jadesfire]

The Turtles were my first thought as well, although over here they were 'hero turtles' for reasons best known to the censors...

Anything involving a float in a swimming pool makes me think of holidays in Mallorca. I had a wonderful pink lilo with a transparent panel in it. One of my friends would lie on it and I'd swim underneath, looking up at their slightly distorted face through the plastic. Half my memories of those holidays are in a kind of muffled silence because I spent so much time under water.

[kabal42]

*is a dork* Because the UK censors considered the word 'Ninja' to be something that in itself warranted a higher rating. So it was changed. Reason I know: The change made it into the Danish version too, so that's how I first saw them as well.

[bironic]

Mmm, that sounds wonderful. I never learned to jump, dive or be otherwise submerged without pinching my nose closed with one hand, so I read your descriptions with a sort of gentle longing.

[thewlisian_afer]

I very rarely used the local public pool when I was a kid because my aunt and two of my best friends all had pools and I preferred the privacy their back yards afforded. But when I did go to the public one (for parties or swimming lessons, usually) I was always amused by the sign on the front gate: Welcome To Our Ool. Notice There Is No P In It. Please Keep It That Way.

BTW, have you ever noticed what a ridiculous word 'pool' is?

[bironic]

Ah, the public pool: chlorine, crowds, slimy showers, and an ice cream stand. Ours did not have the P sign. It must have been endlessly hilarious to a kid, no?

I like "pool." Lop off the "l," though, and there's a ridiculous word.

[elynittria]

My memory for the day is here: Exhaustion.

[kabal42]

Water. Mmm...

I always loved to swim as a child. I felt much better in the water than I did on land. (I am dorky enough to sort of relate to Victor Krum because of that - I felt as awkward on land as he's portrayed.)
One summer, when I was 10, we spent two weeks in Greece and I swam a lot! I was pretty good at free-diving at that point, so I was more below the surface than over and diving for all sorts of things at the bottom of the very clear Mediterranean.
Once, I brough a shell back up and got a terrible shock when the mollusc inside the shell sort of suddenly turned itself out. I dropped it and was afraid to go under again for a short while. Even though the poor thing could never hurt me and had probably just been trying to get underwater again so it wouldn't die. At least it didn't. I would've had a guilt-trip about that :-)

[bironic]

Unexpected mollusk appearance in one's hand! An underrepresented item on the list of things that can scare kids. I've never been surprised by one like that before, and can only imagine how startling and unsettling it must have been. It was probably nothing like picking one up at an aquarium, when you know the animal is in there, nor like playing with an empty shell on the beach.

That is a lovely image, a younger you diving in clear Mediterranean seas. (Even though I don't know what younger-you looks like -- in my mind you're just smaller and still have blue and black hair. :) )

[kabal42]

One day, when I get a scanner, I'll do a "me through the times" picture post. As so many Danes I was born blond and went darker. So I was quite blond back then :-)

You are right, though, it's not exactly a very common scary thing!