My First Visit Home

It was about a year and a half since I’d seen my family before I had saved enough money to for the fare home. By this time things had really changed.

My Dad had at last found work again and my younger brother Tom had left the valleys and tramped to Rugby to find work. Although things were a lot better there was still no work for the young school leavers and so he made a new life for himself. He never did return to the valleys.

My friend from work was on holiday the same time as me. She lived in Minehead and so we decided to meet up. I took a boat down from Cardiff to spend a few days at her home and she then came back with me for a few days. Once again we managed to get ourselves lost. It was on the boat from Minehead. We had met some boys on a cycling tour and instead of taking a tram from the boat to the station we asked two of the boys to walk us through Tiger Bay.

I had had strict instructions from my Dad to keep away from this are but needless to say, we both wanted to see for ourselves what was there. We had a couple of big strong lads with us. It was quite an education.

We missed the train we should have caught and so just took the last train out of Cardiff, which landed us miles from home. I knew that we couldn’t make it home and that my parents would be worried sick. I found a local policeman and quickly told him the story, he said there was nothing he could do at that time of night but take us to sleep for the rest of the night. He took us to a really nice lady who gave us a hot drink and put us to bed. The next morning after a good breakfast the same policeman came and fetched us and put us on the next train home. By the time we got home Mum and dad were pacing the floor frantic with worry. However we did enjoy our times together and met up again in Surrey.