The Seasiders

Prologue

PrologueWho doesn't have fond memories of childhood trips to the seaside?

At some point in our lives, we have all been there, whether it was a busy Welsh coastal town with fun fairs and candy floss, a Northern resort with bright lights illuminating the promenade and a shingle beach, or a sleepy harbour on the South coast, with cream teas and donkey rides. The seaside was a place where we would either go to for a day trip, packed into the back of our parents' cars alongside picnics and the family dog, or longer stays where we would be allowed extra pocket money to spend on souvenirs and handfuls of copper to waste in the penny arcade.

When you are young, and excited about visiting these holiday places, you never quite comprehend that people actually live there all year round. They will be there in the winter trying hard to make a living from selling ice-cream that people are too cold to eat, or travelling to the cities to sell the shellfish that is too abundant for the locals to consume by themselves. Some might desperately try to hone their other talents such as painting or poetry, in the hope that next year their income will be two-fold and enough to help them survive the bitter frost when nobody comes to visit, save the few avid walkers that seek fresh air and solitude.

As children, we wouldn't have given a second thought to the seasiders whom we left behind after our day trip or when our holiday had come to an end, but their lives continued just the same as it always had. We would travel home, sun-kissed and exhausted from the salty sea air, back to our homes, our families and our secrets. And just as we were bound to keep hidden gems that we only told those in our inner circle of friends, those seasiders held secrets of their own. Maybe not as shocking or as bold as those of their counterparts in the cities and towns but, nevertheless, they were things that were kept behind closed doors, shuffled away to a place where everyday folk couldn't see or hear about them, secrets that belonged exclusively to the seasiders. This is the tale of one such place.