Every year she vowed she would never again go to the place where the waves with their long arms want to grab her and take her to the deep dark place where the mermaids with their long tails live.
However, the temptation of spending three weeks by the seaside was greater than this fear and she would arrive the day before departure with her little suitcase packed to the brim with the best Sunday-go-to-meeting outfits; braving the sea every year to bottle some sea sand and water to take home.
Crisp evenings in front of the old black coal stove in the log cabin; steaming silvery delights from the ocean, smoked and dotted with butter; pure heaven!
Truitjie would be warming her hands by the stove to rub my small feet to warm me up; a wonderful old soul who had to face many hardships during the apartheid years in South Africa!
Photo by Jaime Spaniol on Unsplash
A piece of Truitjie's wisdom that Mom told me about and which I will always remember are these words:
Miss, we must go and sit on top of that hill and talk and talk till the wind blows away the words.
Camping holidays at the seaside
Some of my childhood memories have faded as that was a very long time ago but many are still crystal clear.
I still feel young at heart even though the old bones punish me at times with aches and pains; not sure why as I do try to be a good little old gal ;)
I was born a very long time ago in the early 50s in the Eastern Cape coastal city of Port Elizabeth; the oldest of five children and also the only girl.
Mothers were mostly 'stay-at home moms' back in the day.
I really don't know how Mom and Dad managed it on one income, but every year without fail we would go on a three week fishing and camping holiday by the seaside.
As the family grew the little wooden cabin was not large enough as Mom's cousin and his family also started joining us as they were all keen anglers just like my family!
We mostly went to our favourite spot which was Storm's River Mouth; today this is part of the Tsitsikama National Park which is a protected area along the Garden Route in the Eastern Cape.
Storm's River Mouth also is the start of the 5 day Otter Trail.
Wonderful to think that we walked this coastline as children finding sandy and pebbled bays for swimming and finding sea shells while the fishermen went hunting in the ocean.
I clearly remember some of those footpaths were very treacherous with the sea way down below.
We often would help Mom and aunty Maggie take breakfast to the men who had left at daybreak to catch the big one; like this one that Mom's cousin Petrus caught.
Apologies as some of the images below are not that good, but these are old photos taken with a Kodak Box Camera.
Second cousins posing on the rocks; 2 of my brothers were still a glint in Dad's eyes at that stage;)
We took our children to Storm's River Mouth in the 80s, and here are two photos taken of the Storms River Bridge as well as the suspension bridge along the Otter Trail.
We travelled all the way down there towing this Camper Trailer which is a trailer that opens up with a canvas topping to make the sleeping quarters and a tent attached to use as the living area. These are my two boys back in the eighties ;)
I have to share a funny camping memory with you that my friend @artywink will remember.
We used this very same Camper Trailer to go away with them one holiday; it rained almost non-stop and our two babies took turns crying at night; we still laugh about it today but those screaming babies kept us all awake at night!
We still had loads of fun and laughter though!
I hope you enjoyed my childhood memories intermingled with some of my grown-up memories as my unofficial entry into #BoW; details below:
Theme for the week ending 26 July 2021
"That one childhood memory that lives with you"
Remember to let your imagination go, and have fun!
If you have topic suggestions, please leave them in the comments? They don't have to include "silver" - themes can be what you will and content creators will make of them what they will.
How to enter your post for the Blog of the Week (#BoW):
- Posts must be in English and obviously centre on the week’s topic.
- Prose must be a minimum of 350 words. If it’s a photo or graphic essay, the photos must be your original work and preferably with some sort of back-story to the images.
- The blog must be posted in/from our community
- Tag it #BoW - blog of the week. And follow the tag so you can easily find other entries.
- Share the link to your post in the comments of this POST.
Deadlines
The contest closes at midnight GMT (also known as UTC) on Monday 26 July 2021 and the winners will be announced later the following week.
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