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Just spoke to a friend of mine and she has said that threetowns have had a rotten year for weather
Got me thinking and as I recall, late August was a great time for swimming outdoors as a sresuolt of the marginally higher tides
I`d swear on a stack of Korans that the best time to swim at the slabs was in the last week of August as you knew you could jump off with no chance of hitting the concrete and I remember a basking shark about 100 yards offshore
Can you remember swimming at the slabs and with whom, was it territorial or did everyone get on with each other from the three towns
I can remember some of the boys that went there but were there any girls (really liked girls then)
Do you remember having to climb up the little concrete steps that stuck out of the wall- who fell back

My Slabs Mates

Burkes
Alfie Brown
Morrells
Monaghans

Grown Ups

Chestie Mullin
Billy Farrell

On the same vein, diving off the tower at the harbour in between that little space in the rocks- don`t say you have done it if you haven`t as I think the reason, why not is as valid as why you did

Bob

(really liked girls then)

and not now?? What did we do (or not do?)

Ask Hughie about his sunburn in July - we've had a lovely summer May, June and July. Monsoon hit in August, but as far as I can see - it hit everywhere - including those in the South. Dont know who your pal is, but he needs to talk to Hughie about Oz sun and Stevenston sun - not a lot of difference as far as I can see

Meg

Bob since when did grown up and billy farrell go together hahaha.Dont think he will ever grow up and he is a grand dad now.
linda

Bob/Lynda,

Any idea if Billy Farrell was a paper boy with Veronica. He would be about 64/65 now?

Hi penny
not sure about the paper run but billy was 61 in march.I will ask my dad tomorrow when I see him.Billy stayed in canal street and now lives in steveston.He is one of my dads younger brothers(he has 10 bros and 1 sis)I will get back to you tomorrow
linda

Lynda,

Sixty-one would be spot on in terms of the age group at the time I'm thinking of. Maybe he just looked older.

BobP wrote:Do you remember having to climb up the little concrete steps that stuck out of the wall- who fell back

Hi Bob,
I had a closer look at those wee steps in July when I was back and wondered how we ever climbed them, but we did. I had a recurring nightmare about the slabs when I was a wee boy. At that time in the mid-1950s there were metal stanchions sticking up between a pair of slabs nearer the Saltcoats township. My nightmare was diving in between those two rather than the usual ones nearer the walk bridge to Esplanade Cottages.

My eldest brother was married to Fearless' daughter, the lovely Cissie Crawford. Although we were from Ardrossan we had a few rellies in Saltcoats where dad and his dad were both born. Onyways to make a long story longer. Brother Bobby and I used to change into our swimming gear in Wee Kate Crawford's house which was the first over the bridge. We'd go over and dive in at the slabs with the locals - used to have a few spectators, most likely they were folks going to and from Stevenston.

Meg was right. The july sun in the three towns this year was just a wee bit stronger than our Winter sunshine down here in the southeast of Australia - Spring starts at the end of this month.

Pee Ess - I'm Away for my dook

Morag "really liked girls then"

I was 14 for god`s sake, girls could have had two heads, both of them with bad breath and they would still be the most wonderful creatures in the world !

And yes, even at the (fairly ) advanced age of fifty five I still adore them

What a subject for a PM

BobP wrote:Morag "really liked girls then"

I was 14 for god`s sake, girls could have had two heads, both of them with bad breath and they would still be the most wonderful creatures in the world !

And yes, even at the (fairly ) advanced age of fifty five I still adore them

What a subject for a PM

ach, yer just a young thing!
PM? Thought that was Gordon Broon?

Hughie

Thanks for the photgraphs. It`s rather strange but the slabs photographs remind of the structures of WW 2
that you see in the south coast of England, I think they were called Mulberry Harbours, also in France.

Do you recall that the little steps up the slabs wall became narrower and narrower and if you were a real nipper, someone would help you up ,reminds me of Alice in Wonderland somehow

Bob

You try tlling that to my 5 year old son whose frequent question is "Daddy when you die, can I marry mummy", I`ll swing for that boy

morag wrote:

BobP wrote:Morag "really liked girls then"

I was 14 for god`s sake, girls could have had two heads, both of them with bad breath and they would still be the most wonderful creatures in the world !

And yes, even at the (fairly ) advanced age of fifty five I still adore them

What a subject for a PM

ach, yer just a young thing!
PM? Thought that was Gordon Broon?