Lizzie had three children, two boys aged seven and six and a three year old daughter.  Her husband worked in a grocery shop in Main Street owned by his brother.  It was the early 50’s and things were tight.  They thought themselves lucky that they had a roof over their head and food on the table. Lizzie was very careful with her husband’s small wages.  They lived in a two bedroom house. The children slept in the bigger bedroom.  The house had an outside toilet, which was not unusual those days. Once a week a tin bath, kept in the shed, was brought in to the kitchen to give the children a good scrub and wash their hair.  They were like new pins every Saturday night as they sat around the fire. Lizzie and Andrew often looked at each other and smiled as they watched their shiny little heads and smiling faces.  They thought they were truly blessed.

Summer holidays were the best times.  No school, no spellings or tables to learn. No rush to get clean clothes ready for the next school day. Lizzie was first up each morning. Andrew washed and shaved in a basin in the bedroom. As soon as the children heard movement downstairs, they got up too.  ‘Enjoy yourselves today’ Andrew said to his children, grabbing his cap from the hall stand. The children stretched to kiss him at the door, Lizzie stood behind them, last but not least, he leaned over to kiss her.  He winked, and she smiled. That was their routine. They watched as he cycled down the road and out of sight.

Closing the front door Lizzie hurried the children ‘Get yourselves ready and we’ll go to the seafront’.  Lizzie went into the kitchen to prepare the provisions. Fruit, cheese sandwiches and a treat for today, a bottle of Tizer. She always brought a flask of tea with the sandwiches, and sometimes, a packet of custard creams.  She put a small tablecloth, a few towels, and the children’s enamel mugs into a bag.

It was a glorious warm day with a slight breeze from the river. As they walked down the Dargle Road the two boys skipped ahead, bucket and spades in their hands.  Jeanie sat in the well worn pushchair. They crossed the road at the bridge, past the Royal Hotel and onto the Quinsboro Road. The sea loomed up in front of them beyond the railway tracks.  When they reached the beach Lizzie put a towel on the sand, the boys ran into the sea until the water was up to their knee’s.  They splashed around together, and watched other children do the same.  The warm sandy beach was full of different accents, from Scotland, England, the North and all over. Children were making sand-castles and chasing each other. A few dogs ran up and down.  Children sat with ice cream dripping from their cones onto their clothes.  Lizzie called out to the boys, warning them not to go in too far.  She spread the cloth out for the sandwiches and before long the children swarmed around like bees.

‘Let them enjoy it’ Lizzie thought ‘no need to worry them’.  Andrew’s brother was selling up.  They didn’t know who would buy the shop, or what sort of business would take over.  So many people were going to England for work.  She didn’t want to move, or let Andrew go on his own.  He could turn his hand to anything she thought, with confidence, but there was a nagging fear at the back of her mind.  She knew he couldn’t stay idle for long and God knows, they had to have money coming in. ‘I’ll worry about that when the time comes’, she thought, taking comfort in the smiling, happy faces of her children.