Let's start with a follow-up to my last TRM...the one in which I recollected the "Westerns" hero worship of our childhood days, when Buck Jones and Kit Carson comics were essential parts of bed-time reading material. 

Cynthia Edwards sent this e-mail:" Hi Jeff..on this damp, murky afternoon I started to read your page and immediately I was taken back as a youngster to the Con, (the equivalent to your Gunkle) across the road from my house. It was Cowboys and Indians time.

I was the happiest girl when, for Xmas, I had a brown, suede cowgirl hat, skirt, bolero (with a shiny star) and holster with my guns (with caps) and, to complete, a rifle.  This was serious stuff, and if caught we were shown no mercy.

Geronimo, or some Apache, would tie us to a tree, sometimes with kindle all around our feet with threat of being lit, staked out on the ground, or some other gruesome death.

Loved the Cowboys and Indians films on a Saturday morning..stamping our feet or  booing at the "baddies."  We all knew Roy Rogers, and if I remember rightly, whatever he did, he stayed immaculate.  Thanks Jeff."
 
Cheers, Cynthia, sounds to me like you were Hakin's very own Calamity Jane.

I was also delighted to hear from Alison King, who e-mailed this snap from 1958, along with some of her memories from the Milford of those days.

"Jeff...our childhood in Coombs Drive was so happy, no threats, no mobiles, no traffic... well, not much. My dad was a Fish Merchant, and nearly all the dads worked on the Fish Market in some way..in the Ice Factory, on the trawlers and going to sea. It was just very safe and simple. We would go down to the bottom field from ours in Coombs Drive, and sometimes over to the swings at the back of Milton Crescent; sometimes the boys would "declare war" against the Steel House kids, but we rarely crossed the line of Cellar Hill. Our side was ours, and we were safe from the Steel House kids..who they were I have no idea.

I think one was Nicky Fee. We did used to collect tadpoles from the spring half way down Cellar Hill and carry them home to keep in bowls in the garden, until seaguls came down to get them.

There were loads of kids the same ages as my sister and me, as Coombes Drive was built for the heroes returning from the war, so we all had plenty of friends. The girls next door to us ..Sylvia and Jean Patten, were our first friends, and we still exchange Xmas cards 75 years on. An ideal childhood. Perfect. The picture :Margaret Forrest, Margot Carpenter, Roger Hutchings, Valerie Hoad, Teddy Gulliver,
Hilary King ( my sister ), Edna Best and Jennifer Gwilliam."

Thanks Alison..lovely memories, and, as you know, I was one of those Steel House kids (in my case Vicary Crescent) from whom, you rightly steered clear! As a matter of fact, Coombes Drive  was quite well known to me, as my mum's brother "Skip" Edwards and his wife Irene lived there, and we would visit quite often.

If any reader would like to share some of their own "growing-up" memories,(it doesn't only have to be Milford) then please get in touch, I'd love to hear from you. Maybe something like this one..

It was in the 1950's that my dad, who at that time was working as a pipefitter with the Gas Board, was once suspected of being a "bank robber." There'd been a serious gas leak in Neyland's High Street, and it was late at night when my dad, with his mate, successfully located the problem and was digging the hole (pick and shovel back then) to fix the problem. A policeman soon arrived by the hole and wanted to know what was going on....the gas leak was right outside the bank, and someone had reported the incident to the police.

For the next item I'm jumping back a century, here's an entry dated 28th May 1919, taken from a Milford Docks log.

"On Saturday afternoon an alarm was caused by the ringing of the fire bell, and it was found that a fire had broken out in the offices of Mr. E. H. Llewellin, a Coal Merchant, on the Milford Docks. Mr. Llewellin was away from home, but it appears that when his clerk went home to dinner, everything was alright, and that he had been engaged on the accounts.

The structure, being of wood, it proved an easy prey to the flames, which quickly spread and extended to the adjoining offices of Mr. John Pettit, from which, however, most of the office material had been removed. On the other side, the office of Mr. J. Howell was removed to safety before the fire could reach it.

The whole of the contents of Mr. Llewellin's office was destroyed, which, apart from the actual loss, will involve considerable trouble and anxiety in the preparation of accounts. The Fire Brigade, under Captain W. Hancock, arrived on the scene, and did good work as far as was possible. It is a coincidence that serious fires have previously broken out on this particular position on the Dock's premises."

The pic is of a 1925 Stanley vehicle, when the Milford Fire Station was in Dartmouth Street.

That's your lot for the moment except for another of those "famous" quotes..this one's from Groucho Marx..."I'm 42 around the chest, 52 around the waist, 92 around the golf course..and a nuisance around the house.."

Take care...please stay safe.