I hinted on the first page about the trips out we used to have in the summer. Although we lived quite close to the sea
side my mam wasnt a lover of the beach and if we went any where at all locally we would go to singleton park which is a large
public park in Swansea .
The parents of the children that lived in and around Gomer gardens would get together and collect money to hire bus's
for days out and we would go to places such as Parkmill,Caswell and porteynon which were on the Gower coast but we would also
go further a field too to places like Symonds Yat in the Wye valley.
Parkmill wasn't near a beach but we would park the bus in the village and walk through the woods to the valley so we
could picnic by the river.Overlooking the valley are the ruins of pennard castle a wonderful place to let a childs
imagination run wild . I can remember standing on the ramparts holding back marauding pirates coming up the river from
three cliffs bay.
On one of these trips, as we got older, it rained so we had to stay in the bus,it was a double decker, all the adults
went off to the pub leaving us older children in charge but we went upstairs telling the younger ones they were to stay downstairs
we didnt want to be bothered with little kids .Going home one day Jennifer lost one of her socks in the river she was very
upset and worried that her mother ,who was a bit of a tartar,would be angry.Jennifers mum never came on any of our trips and
it took a lot of persuading for her to let Jennifer come along and would always say if anything went wrong she wouldn't let
her come again so it was understandable for Jennifer to be worried,my mam however calmed her down by giving her a pair of
my socks to go home with.
Another popular place on the coast was Caswell bay there was also a woods and valley here where we would picnic but it
did have easier access to the beach which of course delighted us kids it had everything a child would want caves rocks to
climb on and shops where they could get ice cream and the adults could even hire deckchairs .There was always a game of cricket
or rounders on the go and always someone trying to cheat .
On one of our trips further a field we went to Symonds Yat in the Wye valley there was a lake and you could hire row
boats im sure it was on one of these trips i got my dislike for water some of the older boys had hired a row boat and took
us all out for a turn around the lake but when we were out in the middle of the lake they strated messing about and amost
tipped the boat up i was petrefied and couldnt wait to get out and on dry land again.
Symonds Yat was where i got stung by a wasp but no one would believe me cause I said it was inside my sock, I was
jumping about and screaming "I been stung I been stung" but no one was taking any notice until I took my sock off and
they could see how badly my toe had swollen.
