I met up with a couple of friends yesterday and we were talking about the stuff we got up to as kids. Holidays and the like. I was telling them about how when we were kids my ma and Sheila, Mrs. Allan to you, would take us and Gwen, Mabel and Albie down to the strand, in Sandymount btw, during the summer.
No matter what the weather!
My ma and Sheila would never EVER take off their tights, American Tan, and would always have a flask of ready to drink tea Yeah, they'd put the milk and sugar in before we left home. Talking to Mabel today I found out that the flask still exists and still makes regular trips to Wexford. We always had jam sambos and occasionally a packet of tayto. Once we had our picnic on the corner of Marine Drive and . . argh, can't remember, because it was too windy on the strand. Mostly we played in the puddles because nine times out of ten the sodding sea would be miles past the shelly banks. Where I nearly drowned. Once. Actually, make that twice. Another story for another day. I will tell you that the second time I nearly drowned I also learnt to swim! As the saying goes "sink or swim", but even pooh floats as my mate said when I told her years later.
So, back to chatting to my pal yesterday. She told me that every summer herself and her sisters would fight over who was doing the dishes in their dinky little, doll's house Caravan sink. Their ma could wash the dishes at home with nary a one to help but once on holidays in the Caravan EVERYONE wanted to help.
She also told me that she had an aunt, though there may have been two aunts, that they'd go to the beach with as kids. These women would always bring a shopping trolley loaded with picnic stuff. Including delph. And cornflakes! And milk, in a glass bottle - this was before tetra burst into our 1970's lives. But one time, it was bloody freezing and they were all sitting on the beach, wrapped in towels, shivering and trying to eat a bowl of cornflakes and all my friend can remember is every time she'd lift a spoonful of cereal to her mouth the wind would grab it and pull it off her spoon. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
That made me giggle for ages yesterday too.
Met Mabel today. We talked about this and that. And the flask and her ma, who will be 70 in November. She also told me the great news that Albie and Aisling are expecting their first child.
Love when you meet with the ones you grew up with. They remember you when you were a speccy 6 year old who was convinced she was wonderwoman and they still love you.
Mabel, Me, Gwen and my baby, now pregnant, sister - Fiona on Sandymount Strand. c.1980
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