When we were young, the plots in Clovelly were very large and had only one house on them. Today they are all subdivided and the housing is quite dense, usually four where there was previously one. A number of gardens had mountain streams running through them and the owners landscaped the surrounds so beautifully that they were worthy of inclusion in any gardening magazine around the world. In those days, it was all done by the lady of the house with the help of an able-bodied gardener to do the rock work and other heavy lifting - these ladies would be our landscapers of today.
Being on the slopes of the mountain meant that most of the roads were fairly steep and because there were relatively few houses and hardly ever any cars on the lower roads, we used them as our playground for rollerskating, go-karting and skateboarding. We would take turns on the go-kart, a roughly built affair - basically a plank with four wheels and a rope - while the rest of us would sit in the gutter bashing away at pinenuts which we had gathered from the cones under a nearby copse of stone pines, to get to the tasty, nutty kernel inside.
I think I only went on the go-kart once, because it was my bad luck that a car happened to come round the corner as I was on the way down and I swerved into the kerb to take evasive action. I parted company with the plank and ended up sliding across the tar, taking a large chunk off my knee. I can still remember how painful it was and how long it took to heal. The scar is with me to this day, along with many others which are reminders of our carefree youth.
Those were the days, my friend; we thought they'd never end...
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