A very shadow
That passeth away
Wisdom 2.5
It is one of my favourite Top Tales …
A few minutes after 10.30 on the morning of Sunday 27th July 1952 the Land Rover left Warrior Square in St Leonard’s on Sea and turned left along the Hastings seafront.
Soon passing the Pier, in the Old Town it followed the A259 up the Old London Road.
In Ore - and though Rye Road would have taken the direct route through Icklesham & Winchelsea - it was a right turn onto Fairlight Road.
I must have taken this journey with the
two other people in the Land Rover 100s of times.
And every time we always took the Fairlight route.
This is the route through Pett Level and along the Winchelsea Sea Wall.
For Mum & Dad this was “Their Road”.
As to why …
… well, “Yesterday, today, twisted like
a rope” explains why !
http://lord-ric.blogspot.com/2021/06/yesterday-today-twisted-like-rope.html
By 11.30 we had parked in the car park by Rye Cricket Ground.
Though I was only 6 weeks old that
Sunday morning now long, long ago, I can tell you - with complete confidence - that
Mum would have mentioned what had happened there on the night of 7th September
1940 when six high explosive German bombs destroyed the houses numbered 83 to
95, killing all the residents.
The car park is still there now, for the houses have never been re-built.
A footpath separated No.83 from No. 81
where Mum lived.
The gap saved her from certain death.
Mum would very often say that every day after that was a Bonus Day, for Life was to be cherished.
She knew well:
Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final
Go to the Limits of Your Longing by Rainer Marie Rilke
Once they had said hello to my Grandma Annie
and had a cup of tea,
Dad suggested that Mum could have a rest
& he would take me for a walk in the pram … ...
---
On Sunday 31st July 2022 – 70 years on – I made the same journey; walking from Hastings to Rye along the Saxon Shore Way.
I was delighted to be joined by Jeff
& Jackie, Jeremy & Stanley 🐾🐾
And by the Golden Girl herself, Nicole.
Leaving Hastings Station, we reached
the Shopping Centre; where for over 100 years Sussex regularly played at the
Priory Meadow cricket ground.
Priory Meadow, Hastings in the early 1950s
In the Old Town I pointed out the Blue Dolphin.
Best Fish & Chips in the world !!
Though it was barely 10.30, by the side
of the Hastings Contemporary gallery an Elvis tribute was already rockin’ &
rollin’!!
The King is in the Old Town.
We walked up the steps to the top of East Hill.
Looking across the Old Town:
You can take the Boy
out of Hastings
But not Hastings out of the Boy
The next hour
or so of walking were testing – the Ups & Downs of cliff walking.
We paused at Hughie Pringle’s Bench of Awesomeness.
And then it was a gentle walk to Pett Level.
Picnic on the Beach
On by the side of the Royal Military Canal - built in the early 19th century as a defence against Napoleon.
And by
Camber Castle – built in the 16th century in Henry VIII’s reign.
No sign of the cricket ground where Rye once played – before moving the current ground in … 1842 !!
Reaching Rye, we turned up Mermaid Street and into the Gun Garden.
Down the steps by the side of the Ypres Castle Inn, we walked along South Undercliff to arrive at the car park where the Land Rover had parked.
Standing outside 81 Fishmarket Road, I said we would follow the route that Dad had taken all those years ago … …
Landgate, East Hill, the High Street and left into East Street and then Market Street …
What was it that the Father so, so wanted to show to his Son ?
It was -
how could it possibly be otherwise - the Story of All Our Lives.
I remembered those Sunday afternoon walks in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s with my Cousin Pat, when visiting my Grandma Annie.
Just as Pat & I always did, we stopped to look at the clock on St Mary’s Church.
Begun in 1515, the clock's construction was only completed 45 years later in 1560.Needing to be wound twice a day, it is the only clock in England, and possibly in the world, with its pendulum swinging through the roof into the body of the church.
And the text above the clock face …
From 6 Weeks to #70Up … I can
sense the Shadow passing away; of course I can … …
I’d like to tell you that I thought of Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Maybe you can afford to wait.
Maybe for you there's a tomorrow.
Maybe for you there's one thousand
tomorrows, or three thousand, or ten, so much time you can bathe in it, roll
around it, let it slide like coins through your fingers.
So much time you can waste it.
But for some of us there's only today.
And the truth is, you never really know.
And indeed I did think of it !!
But what I was really thinking of was … …
Plenty of Adventures still to come !!
With Love, Young Ric
♥♥♥
PS
After the clock – and just as Dad & I did – we went to The George
The first pub I ever went to, seven decades on it was good to be back !!
As we sat in the Courtyard having a well-deserved pint, it was time to tell a Top Tale or two …
Never in Doubt: the Charlie Morphy & Ray Gibson’s sister story.
You don’t know it ??!!
Come out on an Adventure with me & I’ll tell you WHAT
REALLY DID HAPPEN !!!