Sunday 3 August 2008

A walk into the past.




My lovely school friend Sam is over from Australia and last week we had a day of travelling around our old haunts. First of all we wandered through the town Sam grew up in, with the obligatory stop for coffee and scones. Then we took the bus route that I used to travel everyday from school along the coast to my town. It was a bittersweet trip, there are huge gaps where much loved family and friends used to be and a sense of a time long past. A time of great silliness and larking around at bus stops, Mars Bar crispy cake eating marathons, brass band practice and budgies called Bimbo.

We spent all of our change at the funfair and I refused to go any of the scary rides. As a compromise we played Bingo for the first time ever which can only mean we are now old.
Along the beach where I spent many a rainy afternoon sulking as a teenager, there were families playing in the sand as if it were Benidorm and not Burntisland. It might have been foggy and littered with beached jellyfish but the seashore was filled with people. I don't often go back but next time I'll be sure to bring my bucket and spade. Hopefully Sam will be there too, with the Mars Bar crispies.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a lovely trip you both took through memory land. Hope you have more lovely times while your friend visits.

Julia said...

It's funny going back ,isn't it.It seems just the same, but somehow not.
I still feel very emotional about the beach.I can still hear the waves hissing on the sand.

Cindy G said...

Going "home" is so strange when home has changed. There are a couple of stops along my life road that I don't figure I'll be back to again. But others are OK, even good.

And thanks for the crispy cakes link, because those look a whole dimension better than plain old Rice Crispy bars.

mary jane said...

Gorgeous photographs! Did you ride those little ladybugs? How sweet to return to your old haunts with a dear friend.