Summer Holidays

A Memory of Drayton.

or thereabouts.
Blackcurrant picking somewhere in the Drayton area, the smell of them today knocks 60 years off my age. Used to go fruit-picking during the Summer holidays with Janet Basham who lived on Highland Road, Taverham. A full day of picking for possibly ?2/- , hot, dusty and tired but after a wash and tea it would be down to the Red Lion to hang around eyeing up the older lads or, on a Saturday, to the Village/Church Hall dance.
Swimming seems to be my main memory of those years, Hellesdon Mill, The Low road between there and Drayton, under the railway bridge by the Marlpit Public House jumping and slipping off the concrete that had been dumped in bags years before -- did it ever rain, was it always warm?
The miles we used to cycle, to Waxham, to one or other of the Broads with hand-knitted swimsuit,(or worse one made from parachute silk- totally transparent when wet), paper-bag with provisions, puncture repair kit and instructions to be back before dark. The long straight road from Brundall into Yarmouth, the New Road, always wanting to be the first to shout "I can see the Tower" when it hove into view like a large bolt sticking out of the horizon.

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