Exactly 50 years on, a Whittlesey man has relived a special moment from his youth.
On May 1, 1966, Roy Gerstner was the first person to take the plunge in Whittlesey’s new swimming pool. And last Sunday (May 1) he returned to the Manor Centre to do the same again.
Roy still has his Sixties photo. “It said on the back – ‘Roy 1st in Whittlesey Swimming Pool”,” he said. “It was in the Whittlesey Reporter and Peterborough Evening Telegraph.
“I remember queuing up at around 6am that Sunday. I had already purchased a ‘season pass’, which cost two pounds and ten shillings in old money (£2.50).
“On Sunday I was very honoured that the staff at the Manor allowed me to re-enact that occasion. I was so pleased to be back again – I can’t believe how quickly those 50 years have gone.
“It was an open-air pool then, not like today’s indoor one. And the cost has moved with the times, too – mind you, two pounds and ten shillings then is equivalent to about £44 today.”
Louise Slack, duty manager at the Manor, one of Fenland District Council’s New Vision Fitness leisure centres, said: ““Roy asked us if he could come and relive his 1966 swim and we were only too pleased to welcome him back. It’s a nice little bit of history.”
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