My first day by the sea

Remembering the seaside – words by Winterslow patients and Rose Flint

 

We didn’t know how to swim
but threw off our shoes
to feel the sand running through our toes.
We had just a bucket and spade
and we went digging and digging –
Oh it was marvellous!
Such happy memories
my first day by the sea, forty years ago;
one grey day of sandbanks, gorse and grass
and the big wide ocean – all for me!

Back then, there was a wheel driven ferry
to the Isle of Wight, that took thirty of us,
all ages, crowded together.
We went to see the elephants at their pond,
time of the Raj it was, Empire days.
And there was the Sunday School outing
down to Brighton in a charabanque
with the top folded back.
I remember that first sight,
going down the hill
we thought it was wonderful
that great gap of water shining there!
We still keep shells at home

 

gorse and heather growing on sandy cliff
boy's hand holding red spade full of sand, blue bucket behind
close up photograph of white pebble and grey and white shell on the sand

 

Read more

Read more poetry written with Rose Flint at the hospital

Listen to Elevate artist Pearl Love’s song recording of ‘My first day by the sea’ on ArtCare’s YouTube channel

Download ‘Take the Time’ – Issue 12 – Seaside and holidays (pdf)

Send us your contribution

Why not write a few lines, try a poem or send us picture on the general theme of seasons? Email to ArtCare or send to ArtCare, Block 29, Salisbury District Hospital, Salisbury SP2 8BJ