The Mid Years
The 1970s and 80s, were our mid years, when life was dominated by children. Children are a great pleasure to see them being born and growing up, but golly! they are exhausting, They demand all your energy, which you give them willingly, and in a way the effort is a pleasure too. But there is little to report on holidays.
And then there was Current Archaeology, steadily expanding, and I was steadily chasing around the country in my Dormobile finding wonderful excavations and writing about them and even finding time to do book reviews: looking back on them, they mostly seem to be rather good.
But in the middle of all this, there were also occasions when we were able to get away. One of my favourite photos of Wendy was taken on the 25th of August 1975 at Cheswick Beach . This was a hideaway we discovered in Northumberland, when we saw a track going off the main road , which led across the railway level crossing to nowhere, so we were able to cross, and camp for that night. And then in the morning, before breakfast, we went a swim, a little chilly perhaps, but very stimulating,
And then there is a photo of me and I think, Alexander on Hadrian’s wall. I think this is the part where the Roman soldiers went on strike and refused to take,a rather useless ditch, through the hardest rock. I had managed to get up there with Robert and wearing very short shorts!
Seaside
Front,
I suppose the most memorable holiday was when we went with the Hintons for family holidays on the beach in south Devon. Jackie Hinton had contacts in South Devon and for several years we rented a house, in the Kingsbridge area, though in oe year we went to Charmouth which I had visited when Parents were farming in Dorset. There is a photo of us outside our rented house.
Both girls wore skimpy bikinis. I have a splendid one of Jackie who I always fancied, while Wendy always look good in her bikini. There is a photo of us all down on the beach when we were flirting with each other.
There is a nice photo of me with my arm round Jackie and another photo of Wendy with her arm round David.
There was often an undercurrent of sex: I was always, admiring Jackie, and I think David too fancied Wendy.
Wendy had a bikini which was very thin, and when you look at it closely, you can see a nipple peeping through. I thought it very sexy and was very pleased to have such a sexy wife
Happy days!