The old days

As I recover from my two clumsy falls over a chair, with every muscle in my arms and shoulders feeling as though I've been dragging a boat up the beach, I was reminded of the time, many years ago, when we kept a 12ft crayfish dinghy in the garage of a house at the beach in Kommetjie (it must have been about 1976). HWCFA (yes, it's been that long) and I would drag the boat across the road, through the dunes and down to the sea. Then we would carry the oars and about 6 crayfish nets and the bait down, and then row out to sea to catch crayfish! No engine in those days.

He would drop the nets and I doubt whether I pulled them up, so he probably did that too, while manoeuvring the boat in the kelp and ensuring that the oars didn't fall overboard. Once the flapping fresh crayfish were on board, it was my job to cut the bait out and throw it overboard and rinse out the bait bags so they didn't stink, while he rowed back to shore.

After carrying everything back to the house, we then (the two of us) dragged the boat back up the beach, through the dunes, over the road and into the garage. No wonder I've always had big arm muscles. I doubt whether anyone does that these days, with everyone having trailers and 4x4s, but life back then was simple and fun.

This is the only picture I have of myself of those times, at least in a string bikini, so I thought I would share it as it makes me realise that I also once had a body that could appear at Clifton 4th Beach and need not mourn its demise! And I do know what it feels like to drag a boat up a beach.