Emotions and Senses of Wales

Emotions of Wales
Judged from my own observations I saw the Welsh people as a people who have great depth of feeling and passion. Easily showed tears when happy as well as sad. Patriotic and desperately wanted the visitor to think Wales was the best place they had ever been to. Music was etched in their soul and even if they didn't all have marvellous singing voices they were not shy to join in occasions with community singing, with great pride and obvious enjoyment.  Many did however have wonderful voices as with my Grandpa and his deep toned singing voice and passion for the choir. Others used their rich speaking voices for public oration or reading poetry. I knew people who were quite opinionated and unreserved in both stating and pushing home their point of view.  National interest was Rugby and enthusiasts well informed on the players and games.
Sometimes pushy and manipulative by nature and quite unreservedly enjoyed a bit of gossip. Family values were strong and parents quite emotionally demanding on their children. Outsiders were tolerated but expected to accept the Welsh customs and show respect for the friendliness and hospitality shown to them, never taking advantage. Moral clean living was encouraged but empathy shown to those less fortunate or on hard times. Generous by nature and sometimes this was almost to a fault. Definitely there was a need to be loved and reassured by close family members. Some were fervent on subjects of religion, politics and music. Generally they ate well but were not too concerned about diets or low fat considerations or about non-smoking or self-denial. They were prepared to grow their own vegetables and adored the local products such as lamb, fish, bacon and dairy products produced in Wales. Treats were ice cream and fish and chips as a walk along the sea front will confirm with its collection of enticing smells and temptations, or shellfish caught on the Mumbles and eaten from a stall with pepper, salt and vinegar.
Many of these are personal childhood memories but no doubt much of this is still the way things are to day. I would like to think that some of these charming traits are the ones still present in the National characteristics.

Personal and Evocative Sights of Wales
Beautiful Gower peninsular when it was a real treat to go for a day at the bays and explore rocks, pools, sand and sea. It remains almost the same now as it did 65 years ago and visiting now recalls many great childhood memories, the sort where the sun was always shining.

Drummau Mountain began to rise just beyond Foundry Row in Skewen and at the lower part had many smallish bungalows and houses. These grew less in number as the incline on the side of the mountain became steeper. Walking up Drummer was like a voyage to another world of less hurry and noise and where wildlife and plants flourished fairly undisturbed. It became rockier and steeper nearer the top and you had to scramble up, arriving breathless and hot but with a good view around to reward you. A farm was located at the top and some sheep wandered there. I don't think it was truly of mountain height but not far off. No one else seemed to have walked there and not many people were passed on the way. Uncle Jim and I often climbed here until he later began to labour under the effort and had to take frequent stops to catch his breath.

Oil Works where a lot of local people were employed in Skewen.

Brick Works in ruins where we used to play even though it said no entry and there was a crumbling cliff face nearby and partly demolished brickyard and buildings. All great fun for adventures.

Children gathering wild berries, both winberries, which grew, near the ground and blackberries were collected in jam jars with a string handle around the top, but we needed a walking stick to hold back the brambles where the biggest juiciest berries were always located. Then home where Grandma made one of her lovely blackberry pies and the deep purple juice boiled over the pastry top.

Grandmas house was 2 up 2 down and outside to the toilet, coalhole and tin bath

Great Gramps front parlour and his friend/housekeeper Miss Friend welcoming us at the door and giving out 'prickly kisses'.

Auntie Elsie Watts (Grandmas sister) at her sewing machine expertly making clothes and dolls clothes (she could knit too) and expertly managing a lighted fag out of the corner of her mouth as she sewed.

Skewen village Cressies Italian ice cream parlour and a place to 'hang out' for teenagers and the Ritz cinema nearby where the film changed halfway through the week and I first saw the lovely Robert Mitchum
Skewen and Neath railway station
Neath and Swansea Markets
Black tip and the slippery walk to the top on a sloped path that sometimes was partially washed away after heavy rain. Not for the faint hearted and I wasn't that brave so always tried to avoid this route.
Foundry Row. Grandma lived at no 9 in a row of about 20 terraced houses. Each plot was rectangular with a smallish front garden and longer back garden already rising towards the mountain. They were built of Welsh rag-stone with the window edges picked out in stones of a lighter colour and the roofs were slate. They each had a straight path to the front garden and another at the back leading to a back lane. The Row and lane were just compressed black coal-dust.
Alley at the back of the row where I played 'in the street' for the first time as this was not allowed back home in Enfield
Tom (Grandmas brother) and Berthas living room and kitchen
Other relatives and neighbours: -
Auntie Blod's (Grandma's sister) kitchen and outhouses, which became a hive of activity on wash day and were exciting to explore if allowed.
Auntie Blod Neath (Grandmas cousin) who was another heavy smoker and a bit of a whinger.
Mr and Mrs Priday and Alan next door
Mr and Mrs Adams and two boys next door the other side
Mr and Mrs Thomas the nosey neighbour, the sort of neighbour who was pinafored and very neat and tidy and her front room curtains often twitched as she strained to see what was going on out in the Row
Mr and Mrs Morgan and Lynn. Nice people, Mr Morgan frequented the travellers Arms regularly. Lynn was a little older than me and I rather liked him.
Grandma gardening in the front. She did very well and I can remember her success at growing roses, gladioli, carnations and montbretia in particular. She used to feed the plants and pottered there each evening after work. I appreciated the flowers she was so pleased to show me. Later she had a small greenhouse at the back and grew tomatoes and cucumbers in the summer.
Grandma knitting complex patterns, sometimes with a circular needle to make me dresses or doing finer knitting such as baby clothes or even dolls clothes. Her needles clicked away all evening and at any available moment she wasn't involved with her domestic chores or her job as a Provident agent.
A few other fleeting sights recently recalled were:-
Gramps doing the books and accounts at a davenport desk
Gramps setting the fire on the old hob and blacking the grate
Gramps washing at the stack pipe outside in his trousers and vest with his braces hanging and his weathered face and neck in strong contrast to his pale and usually covered skin.
Gran taking off her corsets before bed with some relief because the bottom of her large bra met the upper part of her generous corset and she was well and truly contained within until released.
Dyfrynn Park for picnics after a long walk where hot tired feet paddled in the cool babbling stream
Cockle pickers at Mumbles seeing what the tide left behind
Docks at Swansea with hustle and bustle and coal and steam of the rail yard
Gramps polishing his shoes for chapel and dressing 'smart'
Grandfather clock which lived in the lounge
Art Deco light fittings with rude or is it nude ladies motif
Piano and choral sheet music in the 'front room'
Gramps home guard rifle hidden behind the bedroom door
Elsie's (mums sister) hairbrush talc and perfume which always looked and smelt so tempting on her dressing table

      Evocative Smells of Wales

The air after it rained

Gasworks fumes in the air

Toast spread with Welsh butter

Welsh bacon frying

Wet seaweed

Egg sandwiches on the beach

Fish and chips frying

Beer as you pass the pubs

Cigarette smoke

Acid drop sweets in a bag of mixed boiled sweets

Fresh fruit in the market

Large onions boiling on the stove

Fresh bread baking

Dust near the brickworks

Blacking used to clean the grate

Welsh cakes cooking

Fruit pie opened to add the sugar

Smell of damp clothes on washday

Flat irons being heated

Coal fires

Evocative Sounds of Wales

Water on the shingle of the Gower

Trams on the Mumbles

Dylan Thomas poems

Richard Burton's voice

Choirs

Welsh accent

Welsh language

Group singing on a charabanc trip

Welsh Hymns

Gramps at the piano

Elsie on the violin

Grandma's clicking knitting needles

Jim whistling 'Pedro the Fisherman'

Grandma singing 'The Old Rugged Cross'

Gramps voice after the throat cancer operation

Children playing

Sheep bleating

Farmers calling out on Market Day

Preachers laying down the law from the pulpit

Elsie and friends at the Skewen telephone exchange

Uncle Tom joking and calling me 'my lovely girl'

David always friendly and calling me 'my friend'

Gramps counting the Provident collection or 'doing the books' for himself and Grandma

Water running in the streams. Babbling welsh style

Wind in the sand dunes and marron grass

Seagulls calling

Dogs barking cats mewing

Wind and rain driving onto the windows and the down-pipes overflowing

These are just some of my images and memories stirred by the senses. For more on the 'Tastes of Wales' navigate to the section Food Matters where I have entered an eclectic mixture of Welsh recipes I remember experiencing on my visits to this exciting and different world.