I Love the Smell of the Sea

In the east coast of the UK every kid has a rite of passage. He gets to a certain age and his family tell him it is his turn to brave the North Sea. Out he goes either hand in hand or voluntarily plodging into the North Sea. Soon he is running back to the shore with all the speed he can muster. "It's freezing" he will say. "That's summer temperatures son" he will be told. Never again will he wade in waist deep again.

Decades later he will remember this day and inflict it on his son too.