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MEMORIES John Grieve Some twenty-five years ago I made one of the most important decisions of my life - I joined the Western Baths Club.
My Friend and colleague, Roddy McMillan, had just become a member and suggested that I should benefit from doing likewise. Outr sponsor was that splendid BBC producer and broadcaster, Archie P. Lee. He was resoponsible for introducing the first actors to the Baths, much, Roddy and I felt, to the chagrin of certain members, for there was a decided air of class distinction within the establishment then, and actors stil tended to be regarded as rogues and vagabonds. Certain it was in the early stages, greeting made to those types were not reciprocated, although in most cases we did eventually win them over.
I always had the feeling during my early visits that I was entering a place of worship. The atmosphere apart from the sound of water as so very quiet and members tended to converse in hushed whispers. Today we talk in lowered tones - subtle difference!
I stil do think of it as a place of worship, and from the beginning have never ceased to praise and appreciate the theraputic powers of water as over the years I've brought my body with its aching limbs and injuires, sustained while performing , and offered up the affected parts to the hottest of showers for as long as I cold thole it, and then alternatively to the coldest of cold, including the plunge, followed by my usual stint - one length back stroke, one length crawl - in the pool. This I'd be assured by one of the first masseurs I'd gone to would help scatter bruised blood around the injuries. He was so right, for in spite of the many hurts and I suffered over the years I never once missed a performance.
Some of the praise for this achievement must go to our own masseur, George "I must be cruel to be kind" Wilson. Had some of the expletives I showered upon him during his successful, but painful, kneading been heard by any members of the Baths' committee I'm sure I would have been shown the door.
One does not easily forget the ghastly time when we thought we were going to lose the Baths; wheb apart from a lack of funds the roof was literally falling in on us. I recall one of the tradesmen who eventually worked on it asking me if I was aware that I took my life into my hands each time I entered the building.
It is all praise then to our Secretary, Mr William Mann, for his continied efforts in making the Baths the spledid establishment it is now and for making it possible for us, with the new sauna area, to use the premises every day.
Thinking of the fine fellow members I've met and befriended, the efforts of the Bathsmaster, Tommy Wilson, over the years (we do miss dear Norrie); the laughter afforded me by Peter Ferbuson in the bar area, but above all, the fact that after each visit I always leave the place feeling healthier and happier than when I entered, I have indeed much to feel praise and be thankful for.
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