An online friend asked me about summer today. Of course, it’s the middle of winter here in New Zealand. It’s cold and raining a lot, and recently we’ve had thunder and lightning. Oh, yes please! I’d love to think of summer.
Warm weather. Sunshine. Shorts and T-shirts. Beaches…
My mind immediately hopped to the long summers we used to spend at the beach when I was a kid. My grandparents used to own at bach (holiday home) at Maraetai, and every January we’d go and stay with them. When I say holiday home, don’t imagine something luxurious because it hovered much closer to basic. We had a long drop toilet down the back of the section—a long walk, especially in the dark. I used to hate going at night. My cousins and I would all go together, armed with torches. Monsters lived at the bottom of the garden too, right near the long drop.
My recent release, Make That Man Mine features a taniwha shapeshifter. Well, I’m pretty sure that some of my hero Jack’s taniwha cousins used to live at the bottom of the garden, scaring me silly every night. They shrieked and groaned and swung through the trees that surrounded the long drop. They tapped on the back wall of the tiny long drop hut and loomed in the dark. Oh, yes. They were very scary taniwha, and I’ve never forgotten them.
Each morning after breakfast, my cousin and I would walk down the hill to one of the two shops to buy a loaf of fresh bread for lunch and some cream buns. At lunch we’d have to eat two slices of bread before we were allowed to even look in the direction of a cream bun. I remember that rule clearly. No bread meant no cream bun.
Some days we’d walk down to the beach with my grandparents and collect pipis and cockles. We’d take them home and my grandmother would boil them up in a pot. Once the shells had opened we’d all sit around the pot and eat the shellfish. Other days we’d go shell collecting or fishing for sprats on the wharf. We’d also go swimming most days. We always used to walk. The bach was at the top of a hill so by the end of the summer we were fit.
Each night after dinner we’d all sit around and play cards. It was a serious business. The winning team scored points and each night we’d change partners. At the end of the holiday, the person who had the most points won a large bar of chocolate. My love of chocolate started early, and I tried very hard to win every summer.
It was during these beach holidays that I started reading romance. I used to read mysteries and animal stories mainly, but after a particularly wet summer, I was right out of books. In desperation my mother gave me some of her Mills & Boon romances to read. LOL It was love at first sight, and I haven’t looked back.
What did you used to do during the holidays when you were a kid?
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