Holidays at Home Omnibus

by Wait Till Summer; Swingboats On the Sand; Waiting for Yesterday; Day Trippers; Unwise Promises; Street Parties (retail) (epub)

  The beach was far from crowded, but his boat set off several times. The passengers were few, but he didn’t like disappointing them and took the sturdy flag-bedecked boat out as far as restrictions allowed, pointing out the various landmarks and the beauty of the headlands proudly, as though they were of his own making.

  At five o’clock the stall-holders began to close. They would extend the hours of opening as the season progressed, but the summer visitors were yet to come in their thousands and they were content with the little they had done.

  At the end of the day Bleddyn moored the boat and locked it securely before going to open the fish-and-chip shop and the small café behind. After accepting the last of the trays returned from families who had picnicked on the sands, Beth and her Auntie Audrey began packing up the remainder of the food. Everything not sold would be discarded and fresh food bought for the following day. It was a matter of pride that they never sold food that was stale. The chip-fryer and pans would be emptied, the fat cooled and the utensils thoroughly scoured. Beth smiled as she saw Granny Moll’s suspicious eyes on her.

  ‘Don’t think you can get away with a quick wipe around, my girl,’ the old lady admonished her. ‘Good shiny pans are what I want to see before I go home.’

  ‘I’ll do the greasy old fryer and all that,’ Auntie Audrey told her. ‘You get ready to meet that young man of yours. I’m in no hurry tonight.’

  Gratefully, Beth accepted her aunt’s help and hurried home. Freddy was coming over and they were going to write out the invitations to their engagement party.

  * * *

  ‘Do we have to do it tonight?’ Freddy asked, as he watched her start to prepare the table for the family supper. ‘I don’t feel like doing anything tonight. And,’ he added solicitously, ‘I bet you’re tired, it being your first day on the sands and you up so early. Let’s forget it for tonight and you have an early night, is it?’

  As he spoke, his words, so low and sympathetic, had the effect of reminding her of the long day she had worked. She was aware of tiredness which a moment ago she would have denied. Her legs ached and she felt a stiffness across her shoulders.

  ‘Perhaps that is a good idea,’ she agreed. ‘The party isn’t for another fortnight, we can do them another time.’

  ‘Tell you what, why don’t I take them to work and do some in my dinner hour?’ he offered and, taking the list, the pile of envelopes and the writing pad, he kissed her and left.

  Out of sight of the house where Beth lived with her parents and her sister and brothers he broke into a run. If he hurried, he might be in time to catch Shirley Downs before she and her mother closed the shop.

  * * *

  Before the start of the season Audrey had found an assistant for the shop, Alice Potter. The young girl was willing to help out when necessary and seemed amenable to irregular hours. After a few instructions, Audrey felt able to leave the girl in charge, calling once or twice during the day to see that everything was running smoothly. Meanwhile Eynon worked the swingboats and Taff and Johnny managed the helter-skelter and the stall selling ice-creams and items for the beach.

  The stalls set up on the sand were very busy, with newcomers wanting buckets and spades and flags and windmills and water-wings. Dippers – the local name for bathing costumes – had to be measured for size, and beach balls blown up with a sense of fun. As visitors arrived they set themselves to enjoy the day, and everything – even the exhausting effort of filling a beach ball or changing into dippers covered by an inadequate towel – was accompanied with laughter.

  Bleddyn’s boys swopped occasionally to share the work evenly, as the stall was more hectic than the helter-skelter. It was truly a family affair with everyone capable of doing any job, although each of them had their favourites – except Eynon, who constantly told the others that he hated it all!

  Business increased over the first weekend and the Castle family were forced to work non-stop from dawn to dusk making food and attending to the queues waiting for the helter-skelter and the ever popular swingboats. Even Eynon forgot to be miserable as groups of young girls began to flirt in the hope of a longer ride. He didn’t mind helping on the swingboats. All he had to do was time the rides and take the money.

  Marged sighed with relief to see her youngest smiling and enjoying his work – until Ronnie left the ice-cream stall and insisted it was time for a change. He wanted his turn at the swingboat ride. Eynon refused to change and an argument quickly ensued. When it was finally sorted, Marged sighed.

  ‘When will our Eynon grow up?’ she asked Huw.

  ‘Will he ever?’

  ‘I hope it isn’t the army that does it. The time for our Ronnie to sign up is getting close and unless Hitler gives up quick our Eynon will soon follow.’

  In spite of the sun and the laughing crowds, the day grew suddenly grey.

  Lilly was determined to show her parents and grandmother how efficient she was and she spoke briskly to the customers in the café as they hesitated about what they wanted. Twice Beth had to push her sister aside and deal with customers herself because Lilly had made them so flustered.

  ‘Talk to her, Mam,’ Beth pleaded. ‘She’s making the customers feel they’re a nuisance.’

  When the café was quiet, Marged took Lilly to one side.

  ‘Even when the café is full and they’re queueing down the steps and as far as the swimming pool, you give them all the time they need to decide what to order. Right? It’s their holiday and we’re here to make sure they enjoy it.’

  Turning away from her mother, Lilly poked a tongue out at Beth, who said softly, ‘Oh, very grown up and responsible, aren’t we?’

  At the end of the first weekend Granny Moll gave two shillings to Beth.

  ‘What’s this for, Gran?’

  ‘Hush an’ don’t tell your sister. It’s for your savings. Put it away quick.’

  ‘Gran, you’re very generous. You’ve given us so many ten-shilling notes already. I’m sure you can’t really spare it.’

  ‘Between now and when you get married, I’ll help when I can. I know you’re doing without things to put a bit by. Just a few shillings now and then. I want you to have a nice little nest-egg when you start off on your own.’

  ‘Thanks, Gran.’ Beth kissed her and they hugged.

  That evening as she and Freddy were walking home from the pictures, where he had had to sit through the film he had already seen twice, she handed him the two-shilling piece. ‘Another gift from Granny Moll,’ she said. ‘She helps us a lot, doesn’t she? How much have we got now, about forty pounds or more? We’ll be able to buy our own house at this rate, specially if we live with her and Auntie Audrey for a while. Just think of it, Freddy, a house of our own, just you and me.’

  Freddy kissed her to avoid the need to reply. The savings had been reduced recently. With the rumour of clothes rationing, he had ordered a suit and a pair of trousers and a sports jacket. It wasn’t really extravagant. He wouldn’t have to buy any others for a while and he had to look smart in his position.

  ‘When are we going to choose the ring?’ she asked, as they hugged in the shadows of the fruit-and-veg warehouse. ‘You’ve been saving for that separately, haven’t you?’

  ‘It’s difficult, me working in a shop and having the same half-day as the jeweller.’

  ‘What about me getting a few hours off and meeting you one dinnertime? I’m sure Mam and Dad won’t mind, seeing as it’s for such an important reason.’

  Evasion failed to work and Freddy arranged to meet her the following Tuesday.

  Beth chose a double-twist diamond ring that cost seven pounds. She walked to the door as Freddy dealt with the transaction, her eyes shining. It was really happening. She was really going to marry Freddy Clements.

  When they got outside she asked to look at it again.

  ‘Sorry, but I’ve left it in the shop,’ he said, hurrying her down the street towards the café where they were going to eat. ‘The salesman wasn’t s
atisfied with the fit, he wants to take it in just a half-size to make sure you don’t lose it.’

  * * *

  The engagement of Bethan Castle and Frederick Clements was displayed on a banner in the café a week later. The party was to be held there on Saturday after the trippers had gone home and the café closed.

  Moll Piper and her two daughters were already setting out the food when Beth took the final few trays from the families leaving the beach and dealt with the last of the dishes. Lilly had gone early, insisting she had to have her hair set. Eynon was chatting up a couple of girls as he locked the swingboats and fastened the gate of the helter-skelter.

  Beth had realised she would have no time to go home and had brought her new dress so she could change in the toilet when the work was finally done. She combed her dark hair and brushed it until it shone, then pulled the taffeta dress over her shoulders. It was coppery brown and had a full skirt. The wide belt showed her trim figure off perfectly.

  Freddy forced a smile when he saw her and asked quietly why she had chosen such a dull colour for their celebration. She felt uneasy for the rest of the evening, especially as there was no sign of the ring.

  Most of the guests were family. There were fewer than she had expected and the café was far from full. She missed a few faces she had expected to see but didn’t have time to dwell on their absence as she greeted the newest arrivals.

  Her father’s brother Bleddyn and his sons burst in and filled the room with their size and their loud voices but they soon subsided into silence as though the smallness of the crowd inhibited them. Taff, whose real name was Arthur Brian, was twenty-six and large like his father. He was about to enlist. He and his wife, Evelyn, sat looking away from each other and almost back to back, and argued all evening. Johnny, who was twenty-two, had come with his girlfriend Hannah. She was thirty, divorced and had two children, and felt ill at ease meeting the family en masse for the first time.

  As her brother Eynon came and slumped in a chair, fist under chin, obviously not wanting to be there, Beth’s heart dropped like a stone. This was not a good start to the evening.

  There were few of Freddy’s family present when the time came to cut the rich fruit cake that Marged had robbed the café’s store cupboard to make. His parents sat apart from the rest and made little effort to join in the chatter, the teasing or even, Beth thought sadly, the congratulations.

  Once the cake was cut and distributed, Beth and Freddy opened the many gifts that had arrived for them. Tea-towels and towels, china and cutlery piled up. There were egg-cups and spoons, a tin kettle and a brown teapot and several ornaments. The largest gift was from her parents, a hearth tidy to place near the fire. It was in the shape of a cloaked figure with hooks around it on which hung a small shovel, a brush, poker and tongs.

  Beth thanked them all and rubbed her wedding finger disconsolately. Somehow the excitement hadn’t happened. ‘Where’s the ring?’ she whispered anxiously to Freddy.

  Freddy led her into the kitchen. ‘Sorry I am, Beth, love, but the jeweller let me down proper. Not ready till next week he said. Shortages are already causing problems, he told me.’

  ‘He had to make it smaller, that’s all. He didn’t need to add anything, so how could shortages-’

  Once again Freddy stopped her tearful protest with a kiss. Fumbling in his pocket he produced a tiny brass curtain ring. ‘We have to make our special day somehow, love, so will you wear this for a week until I get the ring and we can do it all proper? I’ll go down on one knee an’ all, mind.’

  He was rewarded with a smile and he placed the tawdry object on her slim hand and kissed it, and then her lips, slowly, and with a groan of passion that made her forget her disappointment.

  They made a huge joke of the substitute ring and only Huw and Marged looked less than amused.

  ‘There’s another gift here,’ Beth’s Auntie Audrey called, handing them a small box. It contained a china clock painted with roses and forget-me-nots and was quite the nicest present of all. It was from Bernard Gregory, the man who kept the donkeys that gave rides to children, and Beth suddenly realised that, although he had been on her list, he hadn’t appeared.

  ‘I wonder why he didn’t come?’ Beth frowned. Then, as she thought of those who had turned up, she realised how few of the people on her list had actually been there. Counting on her fingers, she began to list the people from the beach, people she had known all her life, who had not shown up. ‘None from the cafés and none from the other stalls. I hope I haven’t offended them. Not even Sarah the fortune teller, and she never misses a party. And the two from the wholesaler didn’t come. Neither did Alice, the new girl from the rock and sweet shop, or Granny Moll’s friend Greta.’

  The list went on. Freddy felt a twinge of guilt. He had only written invitations to half the names on his list before getting fed up with the whole thing and throwing the list away. He covered up his concern at Beth’s dismay, however, laughing to try to ease her disappointment that people whom she thought of as friends hadn’t bothered to come and wish them luck. Who needed them?

  That night when Beth was undressing, hanging up the lovely dress that had been ruined for her by Freddy’s remark, she looked down at the brass curtain ring and a tear dropped into her small hand. When she went into the bathroom to clean her teeth and wash her face, the ring slipped from her finger and disappeared down the drain.

  Two

  Belgium and Holland surrendered to the German army at the end of May and a week later the British Army became caught between the sea and the determined attackers. The call went out for the owners of boats of thirty feet and over to go to their rescue. Bleddyn had already registered his boat, but as it was only twenty-seven feet he wasn’t needed, although like many others he would have attempted to join in had he been near enough to respond to the call in time. What was being asked of them seemed an impossible task, but determination was a strong weapon.

  In horror the audiences in cinemas all over the country watched the newsreels that showed the bravery of the rescuers as they lifted thousands of men from the beaches of Dunkirk under the persistent fire of Hitler’s army. Fear filled the hearts of everyone and it was to the beaches they went: some to feel closer to their loved ones, others to help their family relax and forget, even momentarily, the dramatic events taking place across the water that could be changing history.

  ‘Laughter always was good medicine,’ Moll told her family, ‘and it’s our duty to provide it. The war effort isn’t just making bombs and bullets, remember.’

  * * *

  Huw was sent to repaint the rock and sweet shop and with ill grace he set off with the cans of dark blue paint to restore it to its previous dullness. He was just about to start rubbing down when Moll appeared.

  ‘I need you to go to the wholesaler, Huw,’ she said.

  ‘Can’t. Sorry. Got this painting to do.’

  Moll looked undeniably shifty, Huw told Bleddyn later, as she said, ‘Perhaps we could leave it. Several people have remarked on its cheerfulness.’

  Huw dropped the sandpaper he was using and stared at her, enjoying her humiliation at having to back down.

  ‘You mean I was right for once, Ma?’ he grinned.

  ‘No, you weren’t!’ she snapped. ‘Doing it without discussing it with the rest of us! This is a family business, Huw, and don’t forget it!’

  ‘As if I could,’ he retorted. ‘But it’s the Castle family, no longer Piper’s.’

  ‘Piper’s it will always be.’

  ‘Face it, Ma, Bleddyn and I run it and we have for years. Bleddyn and me, Marged and our children. All Castles, not a Piper among us except you.’

  Muttering insults not intended for his ears, she scuttled off. Huw loaded the painting equipment back into his van and drove to Sidney Street, smiling. She’d give in eventually, she’d have to; she knew the business depended on Bleddyn and himself to survive, especially now with so many of the young men being called up to fight Hitler
.

  Presuming Huw was repainting the rock shop, Marged asked Ronnie to go to the wholesaler for more supplies. ‘You’ll have to go on the bike, mind, your father’s got the van.’

  ‘No thanks!’ Ronnie replied. ‘I’ll walk to the rock shop and borrow the van.’

  He walked up on to the promenade and along past the assorted shops and cafés but when he reached the rock shop, it was open for business with Auntie Audrey smiling behind the counter. There was no sign of his father’s van.

  After hearing Audrey’s brief explanation Ronnie set off to walk to Sidney Street, where he joined his father in a sandwich and a cup of tea before setting off. He went first to Goose Lane where Mr Gregory kept chickens and ducks as well as his donkeys.

  The house looked empty and Ronnie was writing a note asking Mr Gregory to deliver four dozen eggs the following day when a tall figure dressed in a heavy sweater and corduroy trousers came around the corner.

  ‘Peter Gregory?’ Ronnie said hesitatingly. ‘It is you, isn’t it?’

  ‘Ronnie Castle. How delightful to see you,’ Peter said, his voice lacking the local accent, the words formal and very polite. He held out a rather grubby hand. ‘Not called up yet, I see? Or are you on leave?’

  ‘Not yet, but I’m expecting it any time. I can’t wait to get stuck in. Still working on the beach until they want me, with Mam and Dad and the rest of them.’ He wondered why he was apologising, and lying about wanting to go. There was nothing he wanted more than another deferment. But seeing Peter Gregory, who had volunteered as soon as the word ‘conscription’ was mooted, made him feel ashamed of being a civilian, especially after the tragedy of Dunkirk. ‘All set to go I am, but they know what’s best, they’ll send for me when they want me, eh?’