Mal's Memories (From Penarth Times)

Mal's Memories

DO YOU remember getting into childhood scrapes?

Two, in particular, come to my mind, both when I was growing up on my grandfather's farm. I was "helping" him one day when he was repairing barbed wire fences.

He threw one of the big rolls of wire from the wagon where I was sitting, ordering me to wait for him to come round and lift me down.

Impatient, I jumped down and landed in the wire, ripping my thigh open. My grandfather was not happy, losing time by having to take me home for running repairs. But he was impressed when I turned up again an hour later, all blood and bandages. After all one of his favourite sayings was: "Never let it be said your mother reared a jibber." I've still got the scar to show for that episode.

The next accident, when I was a little older, was potentially much more serious. Having escaped a shopping trip with my mother, I fell off the back of a tractor and my leg went under the heavy roller it was towing. My uncle Gwyn was driving on this occasion and I have him to thank for saving my life by stopping so quickly when he heard me scream, before the roller went over my entire body.

The doctors said I was lucky the field was so soft after rain or my leg could have been crushed. But it was still severely bruised and I spent the rest of the summer with my leg in plaster.

There was an even bigger down side. My mother declared that I was not to be trusted to stay home when she went out, and insisted that I went shopping with her for months afterwards!

Malcolm Davies is a former editor of the Penarth Times. Email: penarthtimes@gwent-wales.co.uk