BATHING
At first it was absolutely unthinkable that the tourists would bathe in the sea, but they wanted to. A huge hole was therefore dug in the dune west of Søndervig Badehotel, after which a pipeline was laid directly to the sea. The sea was supposed to automatically feed the hole in the dune with fresh seawater, but the pipe kept sanding up and was a big failure. What was to be done? A few wise men rushed to Copenhagen to ask experts for advice. The answer was: "You take a North Sea bath in the North Sea" Great surprise and joy at the ingenious solution.
Information
It turned out that instead you bathed directly in the sea with a strong rope tied around your waist. At the other end of the square, a heavy anchor was buried deep in the sand. Until sometime in the 1930s, it was strictly forbidden in Søndervig to bathe in the North Sea without this lifeline "æ bathing suit". The beach hotel lifeguards guarded this zealously. So dear that it happened that they stood and shouted to bathers in the sea, only to discover that it was a porpoise bolting at sea.
Indecency
Ladies and gentlemen were not allowed to bathe together, it was not appropriate for propriety. It is said that a teacher one day came to the terrified Søndervig Badehotel's popular hostess for 43 years, Mrs. Kristine Graversen, with the following message: "Now the gentlemen go into the water with the ladies, what will be the end?" Mrs Graversen, who represented the free spirit on the spot, simply replied: "Wet, I think!"
Once a little Copenhagen lady came rushing up to the Badehotellet's lifeguard and cried out in dismay that she had swallowed sea water and if he thought it did anything. "No, dear miss," answered Jørgen Bademester, "there is probably enough for the others."
A room with full board cost DKK 1932 per person in 7. day which meant that it was primarily the upper class who lived in the seaside hotels. It was probably announced in the local newspaper when Chief Prosecutor Overgård from Fredericia, Grosserer Pontoppidan from Århus, Actor Arne Weel from Copenhagen or other prominent people holidayed at one of the seaside hotels.
Source: Local history archive, Kloster
