AS A GIRL, I PLAYED OUT 'MONGST THE BARLEY
WAS MAKING WEE HUTS IN THE BALES
MESSING AROUND, TILL THE FARMER CAME OUT
AND CHASED US AWAY FROM HIS FIELDS.
I remember when we
moved to the Countryside, because a gun man came to our house on the
Albert bridge road. I was told this by my dad – Bobby (his story)
He told us kids later,
it scared the life out of him and my mum (Kay). The gunman wanted to
use our doorway to shoot from so my dad claimed that he told the
gunman he had 3 small children and a new baby. Andrew was that baby!
My dad didn't argue with a loaded gun and said “as long as my
family and us are allowed to upstairs you can do what you want''.
I really don't remember
as I was fast asleep at the time. So missed all the excitement???
Andrew, Kathy, Robert
and me loved the countryside, making new friends and seeing relatives
who lived in this sleepy little village. As Carrowdore, was a very
small village at that time.
Nowadays it has grown
so big it had warranted as well ,as our old primary School, a large
state of the Art Integrated High School for the village and the
surrounding area.
Both Robert and I when
we were younger,went everywhere together. Like Batman and Robin –
inseparable. Both loved the outdoor life. I was more a Tomboy so we
got on so well. He was my best friend! Was so proud of him then, and
still PROUD TO SAY I'M GLAD HE WAS MY BROTHER!(Robert Clint Hamilton )
Apart from both being
music mad, Robert and I loved climbing trees and making huts.
Whether it was a Secret
''fort'' in a ditch, roof covered in corrugated tin and the same for
another piece of tin – well supported below us.
Which meant the stream
– as long as it hadn't risen was safe for us to sit in; or in the
the better weather making ''forts'' with bales of hay in the fields.
Roberts ideas of
designing the ''forts'' as he loved calling them, were extremely
elaborate for an 8 year old boy. He had thought them out well, and I
loved him directing were we should place the next bale of Hay. He
had some brilliant ideas!
Mind you! we never were
aware of the dangers; such as meeting a Rat or even worse- the secret
tunnels, leading through the labyrinth of hay bales, collapsing on
both of us. We would not have been discovered until it was ''too
late''.
Mind you the fun we
had! Just sitting eating our wee picnic (Always cheese sandwiches
that I made for us both – wrapped in tin foil, drinking diluted
juice) and talking for hours inside ''our forts'' - where we could
block out the rest of the world.
Several times when
cutting across the barley fields, 2 fields away, the farmer would see
us and would shout after us. Chasing us away from his fields, scaring
the life out of us.
Thought because we were
fast runners he NEVER CAUGHT US.
So this is where the
seed was sown for creating my song 52 ACRES OF BARLEY – the only
one that he actually got to hear -my rough version in his house,
heard the recorded version and saw the video at my parents house. It
was the only song of mine - my first- and he roared and laughed when
he realised he was in it. Will always carry that lovely memory with
me.
