Memories of Childhood
by John Appleby

~ 10 ~

In the black of night, a small ship ran aground on the Fairy rocks (north of Church Point). We were told that the coastguard men had rescued the seamen, and that they had been accommodated in the Railway Inn. There was talk of rockets and breeches buoy. Of course Turners little sweet shop was wedged in between the Railway Inn and the New Dolphin. I remember that one of the landlords of the Railway was Mr. Riccalton, and the other was Mr. Clavering. One or other of them bought one of the first private motor cars in the village. It was a Whippet, all the way from America.

Summer was the time for playing on the sands: hours of fossicking barefoot across the rocks and pools, in whose clear depths we could see fleshy anemones, limpets, sand-coloured shrimps and minute darting fish. We, in fear and trembling, stumbled through the Needles Eye, crouched double and ankle deep in the burn. We joined together into little groups and roamed the village and beach, often causing angry and worried parents to stand gazing from the top of the bank, down across beach and rocks, with meals drying in the oven and we, oblivious of the descending sun, the rising tide or the ticking of the clocks.

© 2003 John Appleby, New Zealand

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