The Day I met............

The day I met L for the first time.  

I've been getting some treatment from a clinic between Darlaston and Wednesbury for the last few weeks.  The route from home takes me passed Darlaston Swimming Pool and this has a significant place in my memory as it featured large on the day I met L for the first time.

She'd come for some work experience at the local council's Environmental Health Department; I was a fresh faced, newly qualified officer, charged with showing this attractive young lady what we did.  My morning was taken up with carrying out checks at some of the local public baths in the district.

Obviously I was out to make a good impression, though quite how ham -fisted I was only became apparent as the morning went on.  Firstly, we had to sample the water in the pool and I managed to smash the glass bottle on the side of the pool!  Then on returning to my car, I'd locked the keys inside!  Thankfully, a wire coat hanger was as much as was needed to effect entry to most Ford cars.  I was sure she wouldn't have anything to do with me after that.

I recounted this inauspicious start to our relationship in my speech on our wedding day.  Unfortunately, in trying to shorten the story I ended up saying that ".....I'd locked us out of the car and broke the equipment I was demonstrating to her at the time",  Queue much mirth and merriment as people put their own images to the story.

Anyway the original pool is long gone and this new one sits on the same spot as the original.  I managed to find a public copy of an image of the original baths and it remained very true to that facade when we visited in 1983.