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6,981 Posts
I've taken, on the invitation of a member, to pop into general chat occasionaly. It's quite entertaining but I find myself at a loss as to having anything interesting to post, I'm not a social person in the main, I dont like popular music or politics, and not suprisingly, I dont dye my hair. ( Must get around to reading that one.)
So, in an effort to be a little more sociable I've decided to bore the pants off you with some tales of defining moments in my life, you know the sort of thing, little events that change how you view the world and your place in it.
Here's one of mine.......................I was just fifteen and a few months. I was a member of the crew of a ship called The Hannington Court, we'd sailed to Canada, a place called Bay Como, ( I've never been sure if that's the correct spelling.) to load grain for the U.K. As I said, I was very young, but I thought, being a seaman, I never thought of myself as a 'Deckboy' even though that was my lowly position at this time, no, I was, in my mind now a 'Seaman' with all the kudos I thought the title carried.
The place we were berthed was on the St. Lawrence Seaway, the surrounding countryside was magnificent, just beyond the limits of the port the mountains climbed steep and high and were heavily wooded with conifers and broadleaves of all kinds.
The couintryside has always been a passion of mine, and having been given time off from my menial duties, I decided to have a bit of and explore of this wild place. The cook kindly made me up a bit of lunch and off I went, a young lad from Cardiff off on an adventure, what could be more exciting??
I climbed for a couple of hours, it really was a magical place to my young eyes and far better, I thought, that the inside of the bars that most of my crewmates would surely be looking at very soon. Reaching a bit of a clearing, one which afforded me a terrific aspect looking down on the St. Lawrence I decided to have a breather and enjoy my lunch. For a while I just sat, taking it all in and thinking how lucky I was, most of my schoolmates were probably slaving in factories and offices and here was I. on the other side of the world in a strange and vast landscape. I was in Heaven, that is untill I heard the rustling from somewhere behind me, nothing special you'd think, as I did, at first, Then the realisation dawned that I wasnt back in Wales, in some safe and placid forest where the biggest thing I'd be likely to see, apart frome livestock, would be a fox. no, this was Canada, and in Canada, big things live in the woods, bears and the like, animals that could do serious, possibly fatal damage to a young deckboy.
Were there a gold mrdal for rushing headlong down a steep and thickly wooded slope, I assure you I'd have won it that beautiful afternoon, I'm sure it was no more than a rabbit, but just for a moment, my sense of mortality was brought into focus. Never again did I lose sight of where in the world I was.
So, in an effort to be a little more sociable I've decided to bore the pants off you with some tales of defining moments in my life, you know the sort of thing, little events that change how you view the world and your place in it.
Here's one of mine.......................I was just fifteen and a few months. I was a member of the crew of a ship called The Hannington Court, we'd sailed to Canada, a place called Bay Como, ( I've never been sure if that's the correct spelling.) to load grain for the U.K. As I said, I was very young, but I thought, being a seaman, I never thought of myself as a 'Deckboy' even though that was my lowly position at this time, no, I was, in my mind now a 'Seaman' with all the kudos I thought the title carried.
The place we were berthed was on the St. Lawrence Seaway, the surrounding countryside was magnificent, just beyond the limits of the port the mountains climbed steep and high and were heavily wooded with conifers and broadleaves of all kinds.
The couintryside has always been a passion of mine, and having been given time off from my menial duties, I decided to have a bit of and explore of this wild place. The cook kindly made me up a bit of lunch and off I went, a young lad from Cardiff off on an adventure, what could be more exciting??
I climbed for a couple of hours, it really was a magical place to my young eyes and far better, I thought, that the inside of the bars that most of my crewmates would surely be looking at very soon. Reaching a bit of a clearing, one which afforded me a terrific aspect looking down on the St. Lawrence I decided to have a breather and enjoy my lunch. For a while I just sat, taking it all in and thinking how lucky I was, most of my schoolmates were probably slaving in factories and offices and here was I. on the other side of the world in a strange and vast landscape. I was in Heaven, that is untill I heard the rustling from somewhere behind me, nothing special you'd think, as I did, at first, Then the realisation dawned that I wasnt back in Wales, in some safe and placid forest where the biggest thing I'd be likely to see, apart frome livestock, would be a fox. no, this was Canada, and in Canada, big things live in the woods, bears and the like, animals that could do serious, possibly fatal damage to a young deckboy.
Were there a gold mrdal for rushing headlong down a steep and thickly wooded slope, I assure you I'd have won it that beautiful afternoon, I'm sure it was no more than a rabbit, but just for a moment, my sense of mortality was brought into focus. Never again did I lose sight of where in the world I was.
