[BITList] Why our children need to get outside and engage withnature | Life and style | The Guardian

[HUGH]

I recall 3 places where we could drown in this town - one easily at any tide
(falling off the pier at the Mirren Shore while fishing), one only easy at
high tide (the sort of beach at the Davie Shore), and one kind of middling
in the Mill Dam.  The way to the latter, at least our way, was via a long
railway track with actual steam trains on it, and the track was accessed up
a glen with deep woods and a burn flowing through a ravine in places.  Great
fun.  Three school colleagues (not friends, they were a couple of years
older) got mashed up by a train one day, but they weren't using it as access
to potential drowning in the mill dam - they were soliciting goodies from
passing troop trains heading for the D-Day build up, and they didn't hear a
train coasting down the hill.  The event only came to light when the train
arrived in Glasgow Central with bits of them still attached.

The only time my mother showed any concern was the time I came home from the
Mill Dam alone at midnight with a jar of minnows.  She thumped me, not
because I exposed myself to danger, but because I was late.  Dad?  He was
away in Burma.

Hugh.