swimming pools

When I used to go to our local swimming pool I always looked at the poster by a man called Will Patrons with some good drawings of people at the pool. It was in fact asking people not to do a number of things while there. Will patrons kindly refrain from running etc!

Lisa

I took my seven year old brother swimming - and thought I was being very funny by asking him if he knew what the 'no petting' sign meant. Quite cooly he said "yes, it means no shagging" Although he couldn't understand why I then started choking!

Bad Baby Sitter

When I was young, my mom took my sisters and I to a public swimming pool in the summer. I questioned whether we were allowed in because we went to Catholic School (vs. "public" school).

Anon

To prevent me from falling in the pool while i tried ot pick a stick out of the water, my grandmother told me that the weren;t just sticks, but alot of them were buggs and could bite me. Mind you i have never seen an actual stick bug anywhere near where i live to this day, but i still pick sticks out of the pool very delicately even now.

Marissa

my older brother convinced me when i was 2 that their was an algea monster that lived in our pool (the algea almost never went away for some reason) and that if i swam in the deep end the monster would come up from the muck and eat me. I didn't swim in the deep end till i was 7.

farm grown

When I was younger I used to believe that sharks lived in any body of water (including swimming pools). So everytime I jumped off the edge or the diving board I would swim as fast as I can to get back out because I thought a shark would come out of the pool wall and eat me.

Laura B.

when I was little I thought that if you swam over the grate of a swimming pool in the deep end you would get sucked down under water and drown.

Anon

I used to think that El Dorados were carpools. I would get so jealous whenever one drove by.

Anon

At the pool where I took swimming lessons as a kid, there was a list of rules, including one that said "Shower in the nude before using the pool." That sign baffled me for years because I couldn't for the life of me figure out where the "nude" was.

AmyM

I used to belive that there were lobsters in the pool filter and people would take them and eat them, I dont know why i guess it looked like a lobster trap!

me

my uncle wouldn't let us go swimming after lunch, he said it was the alligator's turn to use the pool. somehow, when i was 4 and moved from new orleans to houston the alligator came with me and lived under my bed. i was at least 24 before i was able to sleep without the sheets tucked in all the way around the sides of the bed and i will STILL pull my foot back if i notice it dangling past the edge of the bed.

mekare

I didn't know where else to put this one, but it was in my grandparents swimming pool I always thought there was some sort of bubble monster that would come get me if I was alone in the pool. I was a very good swimmer and loved to swim, but I could never stay in alone.

Jeska

The third day after I started my period (I was 11), my mom's friend invited me and her to go with her and her daughters to a water park. I hadn't told my mom at the time that I was on my period (I used to be really shy about it) so I didn't have any access to a tampon. A friend of mine had told me once when we were like 8 or 9 that when you had your period and you were in a pool, if anyone saw the blood, they would drain all the water out of the pool and scrub it down to disinefect it. So I was terrified the entire time at the water park that this would happen to me. Just to add to the silliness of this, I was dumb enough to sit on a white towel, then hand it to my mom afterwards when I went to swim. Needless to say, I had bled on it and she was afraid I'd started and didn't know I had. I was a weird kid.

Anon

When I was younger, I used to think that by swimming in a public pool I would get pregnent. I knew that people peed in public pools and that if the pee went around, or, on my "girly part" I would get pregnant. Weiird...

marie

when i was younger i used to go swimming in my Aunt's pool. right under the diving board was a light. I always thought that at night a shark would come out and eat anyone or thing that was in the water. i belived this until i was 12 and i still dont swim at night in a pool

stupid silly girl

On cartoons whenever someone finally stopped struggling and went underwater and drowned, bubbles appeared at the surface where they dissapeared.
Whenever I breathed out underwater while swimming I got uncomfortable and scared becuase I thought the lifeguard was gonna think I drowned and try to come save me, then yell at me for creating a false alarm.

Carrie

When I was 6 my swim coach told me that if you slow down when your swimming, that the pool alligators will get you. I was afraid to go to practice for awhile, until my mom told me that there werent any alligators.

M J Aaaaaaaaaaaasmith

I used to beleive that the the place Liverpool was a swimming pool full of livers (i.e. animals livers, which you may cook and eat). I was horrified when my Grandad said he was going to Liverpool, I didn't want him in a swimming pool was all those livers!

Anon

A friend of mine used to believe that when she went swimming her period would stop automatically (for the water around her didn't turn red), so she would go swimming daily without a pad or tampon or anything while she was having her period! Gross! (It made me remember how when you play freeze tag to unfreeze someone you have to swim between their legs). I made a mental memo never to go to the pool with her again!!!

Courtney

i used to believe that sharks could somehow get into our swimming pool as babies through the 'pipes'. i believed that they could somehow lurk undetected in our pull until fully grown, when they would surge out of the shadows and attack me. (this was a result of seeing jaws as a very young kid).

erik