A trip to the beach

By Kitty Brightwell

A blue sky, golden sands, a lovely mild morning on the beach - who would have expected this in November? There are people exercising their dogs, dog owners throw a ball and the dogs race off up the beach as if they were injected with rocket fuel. I can see boys battling to ride the waves on their surfboards. They keep falling off although the waves are quite small as yet. Other people are walking or just enjoying the sunshine, the ‘others’ being ourselves, members of Shiremoor Scribblers. We have a vested interest, it is to find something on the beach which will inspire us to write a story. 

The whole scene inspires me to delve back into the past, to go in memory almost eighty years to my childhood. The highlight of the summer holidays were the two separate days running free on this beach. Coming down on the train was not just a ride it was an adventure. Oh the joy when we got our first glimpse of St Mary’s lighthouse. The pure clean smell of the air when we came out of the station, ‘we’ being my parents, three brothers and myself. On the beach would be roundabouts, concert parties and what were called shuggy boat swings. There were also concerts where any one could go on stage and do their act. I remember there was a small boy who would get up in the twinkling of an eye when asked and always sang ‘Jesus want me for a sunbeam’. Later we would eat our sandwiches after having got our teapot filled up with boiling water at a stall for 3d.

To people nowadays this whole scenario will sound like utter boredom, but we didn’t have TVs, computers or mobile phones, or any other form of technology for that matter. But these things could never make up for the joyous memories being on the beach has inspired in me this morning.