When we moved to live in Wales communication technology was just coming on the
scene,the first mobile phones were huge,the first introduction came by way of a handset
that had a base station and gave you a range of about 2 miles.
Our neighbour lived well within this range,we used to have to pass through his farm on the
way to our local village,on this particular day we were testing out our new toy and as we
passed though his farm he appeared at his front door so we stopped and talked about things
in general unknown to him I dialled his home phone,just a minute he said my phone is ringing
after a brief conversation he appeared at his front door ''how did you do that'' it was as if by
magic and this was only 40 years ago
Some things never change
Not to long after the land-line started to improve its performance,one thing it introduced was
to tell you the receiver who it was calling by giving you the number that was calling you.
We subscribed to this service and I had some fun with this,there was a man used to call on us
and buy lambs on a regular basis and would ring us when he was in the area to see if we had
anything ready for marketing on this occasion he rang and I was able to say '' Hello Idris''
before he spoke,there was a short silence before the inevitable question ''how did you know it
was me'' I just passed it off as being something of a clairvoyant about people calling me on the
phone,he seemed happy with that explanation,but he obviously wasn't convinced as the next
time he contacted me I answered the phone with the same routine,''Hello Idris'' but this time
the silence lasted longer and I had to ask him ''Idris are you there?'' all I could here was ''I
never said anything'' as in disbelief ! I never did tell him the secret and he lived further away
from civilisation so it would be a long time before he would find out.
When we 1st moved there we were told by the people leaving that ''you won't get a TV signal''
we did, but we had to alter the landscape to do it there were some trees nearby that had to be
trimmed they were blocking any signal coming through
BSB were producing 8 satellite channels then so we set up that also I remember we bought the
system and set it up ourselves,that was a lot of fun with someone inside the house shouting to
the person outside we have got a picture,its gone,its back that's better,finally it was a good
picture much to the surprise of the people who had lived there before.Yeah who have little faith.
We had a short wave radio which could pick up the signal of aircraft landing in Ireland and there
was a big game on there and the pilot was asking whether anyone had the score,the Irish radio
was very funny someone had rung in to say his bike had been taken,and whoever had taken it
was to return it immediately,there was a competition on and someone had won a toaster,the
host was asking him whether he had a toaster,the reply was ''I have to''which after translation
means yes,the reply came back now you have three ,
Living in a tourist area we attracted many visitors family and friends most would travel and
explore the area on there own but on the odd times we were able to join them we would
always take the video camera with us,now we used to get some interesting film but it wasn't
unusual for me to forget to turn it off and the number of takes of feet became the norm.
However all was not lost as the conversation continued to be recorded on tape and this
could be more interesting than the film at times,especially with such colourful characters
as Bill Dutton on the tape.there was so much to see there and a variety of land and
seascape Tenby was a favourite with family's with children ,and one of the favourite spots
with the retired (Mr and Mrs Sanders,Reg and Joan ) was St David's
http://www.st-davids.net/
The picture of the Cathedral with the people sitting was the exact spot we used to sit.
It was one of our favourite spots to visit and would often go there,we were only a 20
minute drive from there
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