River Towy

The painting above is of the River Towy near Carmarthen.

There are good facilities at the Leisure centre in Carmarthen and all the grandchildren have learnt to swim.

When I used to go swimming as a young boy a gang of us would go by ourselves. Now you have to be accompanied by an adult. I used to go to Saltley Swimming Baths. As I recall it was built on the site of the old police station in the 1920s and was basically a small rectangular pool with cubicles all around the outside. It could also be boarded over for dances. The tiles were dark gloss green and it had a high arched ceiling. It was always pretty busy and I guess for many of the kids in the area it was the only time their bodies saw water. The new council houses had indoor baths and toilets but for the many these were new luxuries. As for me I was bathed in a tin bath in front of the fire and our toilet was outside.

Oh yes the good old days!