DerekMackenzie60

I'd forgotten about Earwigs...laying in my makeshift homemade tent in the back garden in the 60s...jam sandwich...paraffin lamp...and "Is that an Earwig...?" A friend would ask... "Arrrggghhh!!!!" And I'd run out of the tent yelling lol...

Fred

Semaphore

@CharlesBannerman... Ahh strawberry picking out at Lentran...on the A862...about half way to Beauly. I seemed to remember there were organised double decker buses laid on to take anyone and everyone who wanted to head there for the day - and I seem to remember that even a lunch - or at least a sandwich was laid on...as I for one, never gave the slightest thought of bringing anything to eat with me - pick four strawberries...eat two...who needed a packed lunch! We must have only been ten or eleven years old...pocket money - if we had any...might have been a shilling or so...but a good days picking could rake in a pound or so!! There were all ages...babes in arms...big sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandads and grannies - all of them strangers...and we chatted to them all - and again not a care in the world - and never a hint of danger...we had no fear of 'strangers...' Walking home...whenever you felt like leaving...following the wall along the A862...knowing you should be walking on the other side of the road - facing oncoming traffic...but cars were few and far between...and I seemed to remember that at Buncrew? there was a little shop...so we'd stop off for a drink and maybe a packet of crisps - the bag with a wee bag of salt in them to add as you wished... We'd continue on our way...thumb out to any car that might pass by... Can you imagine a ten year old hitch hiking these days...?! Finally Clachnaharry...and maybe a passing trawler...or pleasure boat - and we'd hitch a lift up the locks to the canal...and discover the wonders of radar from a kindly boat owner...perhaps be allowed to look through binoculars... More than once we'd say thanks...and literally jump of the boat where the boatyard is on the canal now...and swim ashore...and down the muddy path which led us down to the 'Kavies'...and from there a short walk home...jumping over the school fence - somehow thinking that the Janitor spent his entire day looking out for 'trespassers...' Through the grass at the back of the church...down the lane at the side of the Scout Hall...and home through the back door of Laurel Avenue... No mobile phones...no phone at home...nobody knowing where you were, or had been...nobody really caring - because it was safe, and that's what summers were for - discovering your world...and what a world it was...the best of worlds. And what a time and place to grow up in - summer in Dalneigh...in what used to be Inverness... How lucky were we?!

We'd somehow manage to convince a mechanic in a garage to give us the inner tube of a tractor tyre...and blow it up for us...and we'd proceed to roll it up to the Islands and spend hours going up and down the 'rapids'... We had absolutely no concept of time...had no money...and not a care in the world...back in the late 60s... At the end of the day we'd float down the river...right in the middle...much to the amusement of tourists and locals...and the odd fisherman out in his waders...down to the Grieg street bridge...and from there a short walk back up to Dalneigh... At other times we might stop at the Castle and spend an hour or two sliding down the hill on cardboard boxes...and it wasn't unknown for someone to hit the wall at the bottom and go flying over it onto the road... Or we might float down to the Black Bridge...hoping the current wouldn't catch us and sweep us down to the rocks a little further down! and pop into to see someone's aunt or granny who lived around Grant Street...and hope that she might get her purse out and send us off with sixpence...or whatever a bag of chips might have cost at the time... Swimming in the Canal...perhaps find a rope swing... Cycle up...or at least push your bike up The Craig...only to come flying back down at what must have been 50 mph...with no brakes! and hope that you managed to get around the bottom corner without hitting an oncoming car...or flying right into the Canal! Strawberry picking...or stealing apples from a garden...makeshift tent in the back garden...with a couple of jam sandwiches... Changed days... Summers were magical... We hadn't a care in the world...no concept of time...of danger...and imagination ruled the day. You could be anything, do anything... Good times.