It's funny thing, thinking back.
You can think of a time as a child and say yep, I remember that.
Then if you think deeply about the everyday things from that time, things like the wallpaper of the rooms, the carpets, the cups, the plates and rented TV set, the whole different era / different person feeling hits you.
The 1970's.
No cameras on phones.
No interent.
No blogs.
Beach Buoy blogs about the beaches that he walks nowadays.
He walked Middleton Beach, Hartlepool most weekends with his Dad and their Dog called Duke.
Duke was really a Duchess.
Not sure if she ended up being called Duke as a reference to John Wayne?
So here goes.
Duke was a girl.
Beach Buoy was a boy.
He woke early.
It was early Sunday morning.
Beach Buoy went downstairs, trying not to wake his brother with whom he shared a room.
The room always smelt of incense sticks, his brother was five years older.
His brother would talk about Transcendental Meditation and how your spirit could travel anywhere in the world attached by a chord to your body.
Beach Buoy would lay terrified some nights half expecting a ghost-like image of his brother go floating off somewhere exotic, leaving Beach Buoy in the room with an empty body for company.
If the chord snapped his brother would die.
Dad was already up.
Sat in HIS chair.
A Guitar rested on a wall beside him.
Mam was still in bed, she worked as a barmaid and was usually late home.
Duke the dog came to say hello.
Beach Buoy made a cup of tea.
He dunked some rich tea biscuits in his tea, trying to eat them before a man overboard situation took place.
Shortly afterwards they set off for the beach in Dad's White Ford Escort, Works van.
'Referee.' said Dad.
A car had just passed with REF on the license plate.
As they drove they would scan the number plates of passing cars trying to make up words from the registration letters.
ABT
'About.' said Beach Buoy.
This carried on until they reached Middleton.
They parked down near the Lifeboat station, next to the Ferry Dam.
There was a small beach this side of the Banjo Jetty.
It was a Jetty and it was shaped like a Banjo.
The tide was out so they headed down to the beach.
Suddenly Duke gave chase to something under the lifeboat slipway ramp.
It was a Rat.
She caught it and shook it from side to side killing the rodent.
Beach Buoy's Dad poked at the dead creature with the stick he took to the beach.
The stick was a beach find.
It was Bamboo, with brass fittings at each end.
Most probably from a chimney sweep's brush set.
The brass fittings allowing the brush to be extended.
There used to be a shipyard here.
Beach Buoy and Dad would collect brass screws and copper nails that were sometimes exposed in the sand.
They would be bagged up until they had enough for
"A weigh in."
When they would go to a local scrapyard and sell the scrap.
Beach Buoy drew the drawing at the top of this blog post.
There is Dad with his stick.
There is Duke the Dog.
There is Beach Buoy with his head in the clouds.
They searched the beach.
They headed for the well-worn and sea damaged steps at the start of the Jetty.
A few timbers of a long gone ship laid nearby.
They crossed over the Jetty, onto the larger Middleton Beach.
Beach Buoy picked up a stone and threw it for Duke.
She always chased the stone and ran back in a large arc.
She was a good Dog.
Beach Buoy wandered down to the water's edge.
The choppy sea almost caught him and nearby Duke out.
They had to run to avoid a soaking.
Beach Buoy exercised the dog as dad collected large pieces of sea coal.
They would take it to Greatham Village when enough was collected.
They had relatives there, and a warm welcome was always given by Beach Buoy's aunties.
There always seemed to be homemade cakes on the go too; a plus.
They headed South.
Beach Buoy threw the stone for Duke as he went.
Dad beach combed.
They went as far as Middleton Pier.
Beach Buoy had a mooch amongst the rocks that were exposed by the low tide.
A metal footbridge was above, joining two parts of the Pier.
