DUCKPOND

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OUR DUCK POND

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As I look at these two photos sent to us, among others, by Frank MacInnes, I remember the big Mango Tree and the fire flies at night.

I remember the swimming carnivals, where, before it was converted into THE SWIMMING POOL we fondly referred to it as THE DUCK POND. Where snakes and other water creatures swam beside you and made you swim faster than ever!!!

ALFRED GABB (1940-1946)REMEMBERS...THE DUCK POND...

The Duck Pond was the official swimming pool in my time, between 1940 and 1946, we boys used to swim in it whenever we liked, unsupervised, and often in the nude. Many was the time we were caught short when the girls appeared, under strict supervision of course, and we boys had to make a run for it, trying to hide our modesty using hastilly grabbed uniforms or nearby bushes, amidst the hilarity of the girls.

Ernest Proudfoot sent us these photos below from the 40's

THEN came The Fernandes Pool....

Above:The inaugural speech and dive

Below: The inaugural swim.. 1962

Above: 1961 Winners

(Photos courtesy Frank MacInnes)

Frank Freese, now Principal of Bishops School, Pune says,
"I was just looking at the pictures of the DUCK POND and the Fernandes
Swimming Pool and it brought back a flood of memories.My brother Derek who was Headboy, Robert and I were some of the boys who volunteered to help in the digging and carrying out the mud and rocks. I clearly remember how we used to run for shelter as the dynamite was about to explode, when we were blasting the wells - one on the left of the mango tree and one on the opposite bank, near the "harbara" fields and under the Babul and English Tamerind trees.
When I visited Barnes recently I went down to the pool and was shocked to see it in the state it is in now. It is no longer in use and is overgrown with weeds and with stagnant green water in it. The Diving pool no longer has the diving boards , not even the steel pipe stands that held up the boards. This is where I won the senior Diving Championship in 1963 , the first year when diving was introduced.
AND NOW OUR beautiful POOL IS .....
I shed a tear when these photos were sent to me....
MORE ON OUR DUCK POND...by author Alfred Gabb