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| Our hut overlooked the beach from the top of a cliff, so this photo may well have been taken from near where we stayed |
Memories. It must've (don't you find yourself irked when ignorant people write or say "must of"?) been in the summer of 1966 that my family holidayed in Kinghorn. We stayed in what can only be described as a hut, though not of the common or garden shed variety. No, it was a holiday hut, which accommodated all the mod-cons of the age. It belonged to my paternal grandmother, and I recall a small (3 inches high perhaps) stone grey bust of Churchill (not the dog) sitting atop a dressing table in the bedroom. I don't know for how long she'd owned this hut, or exactly when she relinquished ownership of it, but the last time I remember visiting her in her ground floor flat back home was in January 1973, and I was surprised to see that same small grey bust of Churchill there. It had only been 7 years since I'd first and last laid eyes on it, but as I'd not long turned 14, that was half my life away and seemed an inordinately long time ago.
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| Nope, dunno who the guy is, but our hut was vaguely similar to the one in the background of this picture. Our hut sat among quite a few, though there were none in front of ours, so we had a view of the sea |
I remember that holiday in Kinghorn for other reasons also. That was where (I think) my brother bought his Man From U.N.C.L.E. invisible ink pen, and where I got a Marx Rolykin Dalek and a Tomy wind-up robot. I also found a lead 'disc' (a bit larger than a crown) on the beach, and assumed it to be some form of ancient coin. It had a cross etched into it, and I recall being disappointed several years later to find my father had sawn it in two to use one half as a weight for an ornament in his tropical fish tank. Who knows - it might've been worth a small fortune. Another thing I recall from Kinghorn was hearing Chim-chim-Cheree from Mary Poppins being played on a neighbour's radio as I sat outside our hut. I doubt if I knew of the movie at the time, but whenever I see it now and hear that song, I'm back in Kinghorn faster than a fart from The Flash. (Yes, I've got my very own catchphrase.)
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| The one I bought on holiday was blue with grey legs. The arms were either red or grey, can't quite remember. It was also a slightly larger model than this version, but exactly the same in every other detail. I did later get a red one though from somewhere else - Largs I think |
Up at the top of a slight hill away from the group of holiday huts, sat a little wooden newsagent's kiosk. I remember being in there once and taking a quick look through some comics as I tried to find one I might like. In one comic was a strip called Old McDonald's Farm, and I recalled forever-after the verse at the top of the page - 'Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-oh. And on that farm he had some ducks - read about them below!' (To be absolutely truthful, I no longer remember if it was ducks, pigs, or hens, but I never forgot the rest of it.) Research tells me that the comic was Bimbo, and it was many years later that I discovered the rhyming intro was a recurring feature of the strip, week after week, and not a one-off as I'd have subconsciously assumed. It was on this holiday, I believe (or maybe the previous one, in Rothesay), that my father made an ashtray from shells found on the beach, which he then painted with those glass-phial Humbrol paints (remember them?). I've never smoked, but that ashtray still sits in my living-room today.
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| Could this have been the very comic I looked through? Who can say for sure? |
I also recollect that my father found an injured sparrow, which we put in a cardboard box back at the hut. I remember checking on it from time to time, but, strangely, I no longer recall its fate. Anyway, one more thing before you return to your lives in search of real adventure. I stubbed one of my small toes getting out of bed to go to the toilet (or check on the sparrow) one night, and I've had a problem with the nail on that toe to this day. Nothing major, but it just doesn't seem to grow the same as the one on the other foot. Every time I'm cutting my toenails, when I get to that one, I invariably think of Kinghorn again. As far as I know, I was only ever there once, so it's kind of funny how I've never quite forgotten the place (or that bust of Winston).
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| Not the same bust, but similar |
Any holidays you remember with fondness to the present day? Then don't be selfish - share your memories with the rest of us.
