Page 30 - recollections of a life in Porthleven
P. 30
ago'. I shut my eyes, slid myself along the bench at Salt Cellar Stores, to
make distance between me and who or what was sitting next to me and
talking to me. The air went quiet for a time. Slowly I opened my eyes, at the
same time thinking, 'Am I sitting next to my Grandfather?' He always called
me Johnny, I looked into his face and could see it wasn't Grandad.
'Tis alright, I'm just a friend my beauty'. He said (as he could see the concern
in my eyes.) 'We come down to walk around the village and harbour every
now and then. Just like we did years ago.'
I'm thinking, One ghost or spirit I can just about manage but, WE sounds
like too much to cope with for my liking,
Again, reading my troubled mind, he said, 'No problem Johnny, you are fine
with me. Let me talk to you about the past, I won't ask you any questions as
deep down I know the answers.' I nodded my head, having no idea as to what
was about to happen.
He said, 'Let's look around the harbour. We'll start with the ship yard where
you learned your trade as a marine engineer. You followed in your father's
footsteps. In my day it was known as Kittow's Boat Yard. In it's busiest time
it employed over 200 shipwrights. I remember the day PZ19, The Provider
was launched. She had good lines for a fishing boat. Cecil was a fine
fisherman and he had her as a crabber. There was nothing anyone could teach
him about the sea.
He sighed, 'move forward to when you were serving your time Johnny, how
many were employed? 50 or 60 at the most. Now look, it's all gone. What
is there now, a few one man work shops.'
Still sitting on the seat he moved his eyes towards the old kiln store. 'Look,
it's now a restaurant and what does it serve up? Fancy food with fancy names
with not enough on the place to fill a man's belly!' You can't get a proper
pasty here now, not like the ones our wives, mothers, sisters and grans used
to make, with proper crimping. You should have seen the size of the pasties
I took to sea. They were that big they had to be cut in half to fit in the bag!
And the gravy would be running out of it!!' And I always had a few saffron
