We were cut off by the sea
One lovely summer afternoon my friends and I decided to go down into Browns Bay and around by Marconi Point instead of the usual way home from school. We had never ventured that way before because of the big rocks we would have to climb over. The weather changed to dark clouds and rain. We suddenly realised that the tide was coming in and we could not get around the point or go back the way we had come. We were cut off by the sea.
There was only one thing to do, climb up a horrible piece of cliff. The water from the street drained down onto it and it was covered with green seaweed and moss. Then the thunder and lightning started. Finally, very wet and with our clothes covered in green from the rocks, we reached the cliff top on to Promontory Crescent.
I was feeling pleased with myself because we had conquered that piece of cliff but I was greeted at home by a very angry mother ‘Get upstairs into the bathroom, clothes into the washbasin and you into the bath’. I then had to put my pyjamas on and go to bed. By this time the storm had broken and the sun was shining, but I was in bed with no tea. My friends Doris and Florence suffered the same punishment.
In later years, with daughters of my own, I realised how worried my mother must have been, although she did relent later and let me have my tea.
Marconi Point
Photograph from Newcastle City Library Photographic Collection