At This Moment...

We laughingly said to my Mum, "You used to leave me on the beach when I was 18 months old, to go and do the shopping".

"No", She firmly denies. "you were 2. It was when I went to pick your sister up from School."

This town was like that. A little town, things didn't happen, and it was okay to leave your baby on the beach, with a warning, not to move, until the imminent return.

The School was only a few hundred yards away - I'd be there for half a hour tops, but doesn't it say something that no one took me?

I took this shot from the Dunes. These aren't the Dunes which existed and were the scene of many late night dips after the Disco, and Beach Parties, when the Pub had closed. They re-built the Dunes several years ago, after they wore away with people using them.

Now a days, the dunes are merely a one height barrier from the promenade and the sea.

When I was little, it was possible to play Hide and Seek in the dunes. There were coves, and dukets, double pathways, hills, crevaces and crooks. There were areas where there was sand sufficient to play as if on the beach, in between the peaks of the dunes, and so shelter from the sometimes cold wind which came off the Clyde.

In one of these Sand dukes one afternoon, I was playing with several other young girls - we ranged in age from me, 7 probably to my sister and her friends who would be 10, or 11. We had dug a massive hole - enough for 5 or 6 of us to stand comfortably in.

A man came along and sat on the dunes behind where we were playing. People came along all the time, it wasn't to be noticed with any great alarm. While we bounced in and out of the hole, the older girls started whispering and giggling. I snuck in and asked what the funny thing was.

They told me to start digging the hole again, facing the man and look at his shorts. I did as I was told, and was completely confused as to what I was seeing.

The girls explained and we all carried on with our digging, with much hilarity, and the stupidness of the man, that he didn't realise he was hanging out of his trousers.

It's only now as you look back, he wasn't as stupid as we thought!

Bad Man.