Page 36 - recollections of a life in Porthleven

The discussion between Dad and the other driver continued. As I walked
past the other car a good looking girl opened the car door and started to have
a go at me. I took no notice of her, but I did notice she was quite cute.....
Cutting the story short we made a date for later that evening, after Dad and
I returned from fishing.

We, (the girl and myself walked down to salt cellar stores to get the
wheelbarrow, leaving my dad and hers having a lively few words.

From the stores to where the cars were only took a few minutes to walk. Can
you imagine the sound a wheelbarrow with a metal wheel made being pushed
along the cobbles!

Anyway, by now instead of the two cars there were about ten cars stopped
under Bay View. Dad put the nets onto the wheelbarrow, and said to the
driver, 'We are going out to sea now' and locked the car door. He started to
push the wheelbarrow towards the harbour and the boat.

The girl who I was meeting up with later caught me by the arm and gave me
a kiss on my cheek. (It must have been my Porthleven charm and not my
looks.) To my horror, my girlfriend at the time was walking along Bay View
(a footpath just above the road) and saw this other girl kiss me. Now I was
in trouble.

Father shouted at me, 'Boy if only you had moved the boat at dinner time
none of this would have happened'. My girlfriend shouted, 'I'll be waiting
for you when you get back'.

Things were looking funny but it was not because as we were making our
way to the boat the traffic was coming to a standstill. There must have been
20 plus cars going nowhere.

A friend came across to Dad and said with a smile, 'Seems to be some sort
of problem with the traffic Bill'. Dad gave Pete his car keys and asked him
to move the car when he could.

As we left the harbour Pete and 3 or 4 other locals were sorting out the traffic.
After 45 minutes steaming from the harbour we got to our first tier of nets