'I was thinking about our camping days in Wales yesterday,' says Hal, suddenly experiencing a fit of coughing.
'Sorry' he coughs, 'as you know I have breathing problems now.
We could not be told when we
were young
about smoking. We thought we
knew it
all, and did not understand the concept
of
peer pressure, all our film heroes
smoked.
I also worked at many jobs that harmed
my
lungs'
'Here Hal,' I murmur sympathetically, offering him
a glass of water I fetched from the
kitchen,
'sip this slowly.'
Hal sips from the glass and quickly
recovers
and continues:

'Do you remember getting water from a running
stream in North Wales to try and make a cup
of tea? Because it was running
we thought it came from the mountains pure
as crystal.
In fact cows were crapping in
the River Leete in it further up stream,
and on our return to Liverpool
we were both confined to bed with the wildies,
eye of a needle style..... feverish too.
And do you remember Lennie (backward)
with
the ferret in his coat, it nipped me
the
little bastard....... I think it was
in Pantymyn
(sounds a bit rude that) never mind
though -
we are survivors.
Laughing, I nod. 'Actually - it wasn't Lennie it was Willie
- and here is a photograph of him and
I that
you took with an old 'Brownie camera'
in
1951.

I remember our trips to North Wales
very well.' I continue, 'They were happy days when we were in our
middle teens and seeing the world through
different eyes. I think we went on
two occasions
- am I right?
The first time we went to Loggerheads and
camped on that high, rocky outcrop
above
the car-park on the opposite side of
the
road from the Loggerheads Inn. We had
a good
view of Moel Famau from the top. I
remember
that at the end of our weekend we dropped
what remained of our tattered tent
over the
cliff (either by mistake or deliberately
I can't remember? I think we walked
from
Loggerheads by a winding path alongside
a
river called The Leete,
to visit Ryddymyn.
It was during that walk that we drank
water
from the river only to encounter a
herd of
cows standing in the water a little
further
on nonchalantly opening their bowels
with
great abandon directly into our erstwhile
drinking-water supply.
The name of the camping field we used to visit
was Nant Alyn just outside Ryddymyn, It
is now a caravan park.
It was originally a smallholding, belonging
to a Mr. John Morris. The land comprised
of fields at the side of the Leete river,
woodland and a shop. John Morris allowed
people to pitch their tents in his fields.
Campers found Nant Alyn after travelling
by train to Ryddymyn Station or catching
the F11 from Birkenhead Landing Stage
to Pantymyn and walking down the woods, to
Nant Alyn. The Mold/Denbigh road was the
main coast road and a bus travelled along
the coast, stopping off in Ryddymyn. Do you
remember The Antelope Inn?'
Remember Hal, we bought sweets,
milk, bread and baked beans in the
shop?
In more recent years Jack and Peggy,
carried
on the site, with caravans replacing
buses,
coaches, tram, railway carriage, gypsy
caravan
etc in the early 1960's.

Hal has been listening carefully.
'Perhaps you remember the house with the steep
garden and steps? The woman of
the
house was trying to earn an extra crust
by
serving tea and cake and we both went
mad
on a particular cake, it was a little
going
home treat for us before we caught
the bus
home.
The high rocky outcrop in Loggerheads
you
speak of is correct and I walked all
the
way to the top up a steep path, with
Jack,
my grandson and his other Grandfather
about
five years ago. I was slower than all
those
years ago, and was puffing when I reached
the top. Did you know I lived in Mold
for
a couple of years, must have been about
24/25-years
old ...and in the summer during my time there,
I used to cycle down to the Antelope
Inn,
to try and meet Liverpool girls who
were
camping.
'I trust your efforts bore fruit Hal,' I smiled.
Indeed the relationships of the young
were
very different in those days weren't
they
- there was remarkable unanimity: pretty
much everyone was appalled when couples
acted
too demonstrably in public - kissing,
holding
hands, or just looking fondly at each
other
often engendered disapproving looks
and tut-tut-tutting.
'Yes' I went on, 'I remember that you had a job in Mold back
then Hal,' I said. Anyway we went back
to
Ryddymyn another time and I have quite
a
lot of photos of us and our tent. When
next
meet I will show you them..I don't
know about
you but I always used to associate
my current girlfriend and the
love-life of the time with a particular
pop
tune? And not only that - also my teenage
and early manhood was punctuated and
temporally
sign-posted by certain songs.
As a matter of interest I did a bit
of research
as to what the popular songs comprised
of,
and about this time in 1951 it was
the year
of the big-voiced male singers, as
a series
of dramatic tenors dominated the charts,
among them were Guy Mitchell,
Frankie Laine, Tony Bennett, Tony Martin,
Johnnie Ray, and Mario Lanza, often
fronting
gimmicky arrangements touching on everything
from opera to country music.
There were also somewhat sweeter voiced
women
such as Jo Stafford, Patti Page, and Rosemary Clooney, as well as men who sang
more casually, such as Perry Como,
Bing Crosby,
and Nat "King" Cole. There
were
Les Paul and Mary Ford, with their
multi-tracked
electric guitars and vocals, while
Rosemary
Clooney competed with a harpsichord
in the
ethnically confusing "Come On-A My House," and as song subjects took listeners
from "On Top Of Old Smoky, "and "Mockin' Bird Hill" (Les Paul and Mary Ford) Doris Day
was in full bloom, and most
notable
was Johnnie Ray's "The Little White Cloud That Cried" as was Mantovani's "Charmaine""
But "Too Young" and "Unforgettable" (done by Nat "King" Cole)
and "Be My Love" (by Mario
Lanza),
were my all-time special favourites
though.'
This period was not long before you
went
to The T. S. Vindicatrix for your training to enter the merchant
navy and go away to sea and I joined
the
regular army and went down south to
join
The Gloucestershire Regiment
We both took these songs with us I
guess
- for like all meaningful music - it
becomes
a part of one's own autobiography doesn't
it?

By this time Hal had decided to do
the washing-up,
so I followed him to his well-planned
kitchen
and continued to reminisce.
'Changing the subject for a moment Hal' I said, 'read this.'
'I can't just now Jud, my hands are wet.'
'Oops!! Sorry Hal ' I say - I'll read it to you.'
Taking the newspaper cutting from my pocket
I straighten it out and begin to scan the words.
I am still surprised that rationing went
on for so long after 1945.
It was still in force when we were going
on our camping-trips - but we did not notice.
Tt was our poor hard-pressed mothers
who had to woory about doing
the shopping and making both ends meet.
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