Friday is lunch at the club day. After going for years with Lionel and Tui, I join up. It's an RSA, Returned and Services' Association and, according to Google, one of the largest volunteer welfare organisations in New Zealand. Lionel served in World War Two in the Royal Navy. He was posted to Malta which came under seige by the Germans. The island was starving and Lionel says it would have fallen but Hitler stopped bombing. Malta was strategically vital for the North African campaign. Lionel was at the ceremony where the Maltese received the highest civilian honour, the George Cross. He also took part in the D Day landing at Omaha Beach, sealed below deck doing communications. A torpedo hit the ship, HMS Erebus, but it didn't go down. He says there was incredible noise and when he came back up after several hours the sea was filled with floating corpses. As for World War One, both my grandfathers served. I don't know details of my English grandad but Ernie Morris, Tui's father, was in the Otago Battalion and had his 21st on the front line. His commanding officer wished him a happy birthday and gave him an extra tot of whiskey. Ernie was at Passendaele and was gassed and he died in his 60's. I never knew him, but I respect the sacrifice he and generations of others made for what they thought was right and necessary.
Outside the barometer soars and by the time I get to the lake the stones are too hot to walk barefoot. When I visit a friend I find her sitting in a stand of pine trees keeping cool. Around and about there's a festive air as classic cars arrive for an annual rally in Cromwell.
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| Clyde war memorial |
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| Clyde cemetery |
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| Cyde's watering hole- the old post office |
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