Childhood Holidays

A Memory of Lower Largo.

I will never know why, but we used to take the train to Lundin Links, and then taxi to Lower Largo. I don't know when these holidays started (I was born in 1957 and there are certainly photos of me around 3 years old). Initially we stayed at "the wee house" owned by a Mrs. Simpson, I remember nothing of this other than being being bathed in a tiny "stand-alone" bath. Subsequent years are a lot clearer, at the upstairs apartment owned by a Mrs. Lindsay, at the end of Woodlands Road. The railway ran right past the apartment and I, as a little boy, would wave to the train drivers and they would wave back.

I recall standing on Lundin Links station and that was where I first became aware of the game of golf. There was a point nearby where the line went (just) over a walk-through to the beach, and this is still just visible. There was a cafe in Lower Largo where I used to get an ice cream every day which cost 3d. There was a large model of an ice-cream cone outside. The building is now a Premier Stores mini-supermarket.

My Dad and I would walk into Lundin Links most mornings, probably to get rolls for breakfast. I would be treated to a 3d strawberry ice lolly on the way (a special treat) and I can still remember its flavour. There was a shop which, on one year, had some transfers of different clubs' football strips, which you rubbed off on to a piece of paper. I think this was, (and still is) the Post Office.

We stopped going to Lundin Links/Lower Largo because the railway was taken away. I first went back around 1982 and was amazed to see that a piece of the platform at Lower Largo was still there. More poignantly, the picket fence and gate at Lundin Links Station was still there. A couple of subsequent visits have obviously seen these disappear into the mists of time.

I returned to the area in 2010 and stayed in Lower Largo for the first time in 45 years. Amazingly it was still very much as my childhood memories allowed. The one thing that bugged me was, I recall a footbridge between Lower Largo and Lundin Links Stations, which could be seen from Lundin Links, yet I couldn't place exactly where this used to stand. I swear, as I stood on the site of what used to be Lundin Links station, if I listened carefully I could hear the sound of the trains coming around the corner.

My Dad passed away on Xmas Eve 2010 so I have no way of having my questions answered, yet it has brought such times from so long ago back into the forefront of my mind. Anyone who has similar memories to mine, you appreciated a wonderful time in life. Keep those memories very special.

Keith

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