WHISPERING SMITH: Mewsbrook memories of art deco shelters and a first snog

My sister swam in its lake as a girl, when the beach was inaccessible and too dangerous for bathers, littered as it was with tank traps, barbed wire and mines.

Later, I fished in it for fish that did not exist but my dad insisted were in there, bountifully. Then, we young boys and girlfriends experimented in the semi-privacy of the art deco shelters – the windows of which were glazed back in the day – and maybe tasted our first Woodbine cigarette and learned to ‘snog’ – what a strange word that is!

The park was wilder back then, unkempt even, but not now. Last evening, I walked round the pond and counted 17 dogs, but not a single trace of their passing was apparent.

Two boys invented a game of ‘rescue the football from the lake’, by using a lifebelt and safely returned it to its rack when the game was over.

People nodded or said ‘good evening’ with a genuine smile. The grass is well kept and the place has an air of usage, but also of care and respect.

On the borderline of Rustington and LA, it is cared for by Arun District Council and, to its credit – you don’t hear me saying that too often – the council does an exemplary job, as does the park’s support group of volunteers, who also lovingly care for the place.

Only one note of irritation, and that is the unfriendly sign on a gate in Hendon Avenue, leading to the park, which says ‘NO TURNING PLEASE’.

Uhmm, luckily the public road is wide enough to turn a vehicle without straying onto their hallowed ground, else it would be difficult to drop off an aged parent for a morning coffee at the splendid, open all year round, café.

On Sunday (August 18), from 11.30am, there is a charity event with bands, a disco, stalls, bar and other stuff to raise funds for two important causes, Breast Cancer and Enable Me. Be there!

PULP FICTION: Why does Arun perpetuate the myth that it is trying to sort out the cinema club and provide ‘suitable projection equipment’, according to the summer issue of Arun Times – when there is ‘suitable equipment’ gathering dust in the Windmill projection room?

It’s 190 days since that equipment was last used, and counting…