Memory Relived

Last weekend Zelma and I took a trip away from urban sprawl to Wallaroo, namely North Beach, a place I haven't been since I was sixteen or seventeen.

We spent the weekend with our close friends, Mark and Lorraine and their two grandsons.

With  both cars packed, we left Adelaide about midday from memory and arrived in a very hot Wallaroo. Once we located the house and the keys, the door was quickly opened and the air con turned on.  While the house cooled down we unpacked the cars and then sat down to relax and cool off. We stopped in at Port Wakefield for drinks and a break from behind the wheel. Zelms was suffering with the heat and bought herself a bag of ice of which she put some into another bag on the floor for her poor feet and hugged the remaining ice all the way to our destination.

Kids being kids; they wanted to go to the beach but we were too hot and tired to drop and run. After a while indoors, we, armed with drinks, sat out on the front porch while having a cigarette break and looked out over the beach that sprawled out before us. The tide was out but making its way back in. Cars were parked on the beach with shade shelters and the owners under them.

About two hours after arriving we ventured down to the beach. It was a relatively short walk across the esplanade and onto the hot sand. Once in the water, I felt at home. It was cleaner than local beaches here in Adelaide with little to no seaweed. The water was warm and yet cooling and definitely refreshing. This was, for me, to be the first of five swims.

That night after dinner, I just sat in the recliner on the porch and told Mark of the times I went with family down to the shallows in the evening after the sun set to drag for fish. How sweet those memories were. I took pictures from the porch of the sunset over the beach and posted them on Facebook and openly declared that I could quite easily call the place home... and I would.

On Saturday morning we jumped into the cars and headed over to Kadina for the street markets. After about two hours we left in search of garage sales. There were a couple but nothing to rave about. Mark found another place that offered promise located in a large shed not far from the turn off back to the house. Half an hour later we were heading off back to the beach house.

Sunday morning, we went to Moonta; a venture that Mark admitted was a bad idea as it was hot and oppressive. We didn't stay long and quickly headed 'home', back to North Beach.

Something I forgot to mention; we went into a local building in Kadina after leaving the market and I met a local author (his name escapes me right now) who had quite a few publications for sale. All of his books were based around the towns of ' The Copper Triangle' (Wallaroo, Kadina and Moonta) and for me, it was an interesting chat with this local identity. I told him that I, too, was a published author and told him briefly of the anthology.

It's funny how special moments from forty-five years ago still easily stay with you as fresh as the time you lived them originally. Being a poet, I feel another poem coming on for the new anthology and, yes, I will post here when I've written it.

Well that was my little rant for now, hoped you enjoyed it.