Thursday, November 17, 2011

Thursday extracts. A bit of history from my NaNo novel

Too busy to hunt for something else for you again. So here's a bit of history from the NaNo novel.

Crowds that turn up at the seaside these days aren’t the same as back in the old times. When I first started touring the coast doing summer seasons all you saw were families. Mum and dad and a couple of kids who spent their time on the beach doing innocent things like building sandcastles and shrimping in the rock pools and playing on the penny slot machines on wet days. It wasn’t until the nineteen sixties that you ever saw groups of young people out by themselves. You won’t remember because you’re far too young but there used to be gangs of lads called Mods and Rockers and they would arrive at the coast on a sunny day and turn the beach into a battleground. You could easily tell them apart so they all knew who to fight: the Mods were on scooters that had a hundred more mirrors than they ever needed to see behind them, and the Rockers were on motorbikes that were polished up so much you’d wonder that they hadn’t rubbed the chrome off. On the worst days the lot of them were armed with knives and happy to kill each other if they had the chance.

6 comments:

Sandra Davies said...

And the Mods wore parkas and the scooters had furry tails tied to ...aerials(?) Enjoyed this early sixties glimpse, and see you are powering up the NaNo wordswords

MorningAJ said...

How they were dressed is in the next paragraph (but I did a clothes description last week).

I can just about remember the fuss when they turned up at Scarborough one weekend - though I wsn't allowed near to see it.

I'd forgotten the furry tails on the aerials!

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Morning AJ .. those days - I don't remember them too much .. I suppose we didn't live that kind of existence or place. Interesting to read about though .. and many reminders of what was .. furry tails on the aerials! I wonder where those men are today .. growing old as most of us do .. no excesses any more .. Cheers Hilary

MorningAJ said...

I went to a concert a few months ago and took a good look at the audience. Most of those guys now have bald heads and pony tails and still believe they're 18!

snafu said...

I was there! Tell you all about it on my next post.

MorningAJ said...

Just read it! Fancy that.