The School Holidays by Mary Johnston
I was married young, and I had four boys quick in my marriage. They were wild boys as boys are, so they could be hard work at times. I was glad to see them go to their bed at night, so I had time for myself. I loved them to bits but the could be monsters sometimes.
So when it was time for the school holidays I did not like them being in the house all the time. They used to drive me crazy, they were always fighting. My husband was a good worker, and some years when we could afford a holiday we would take the boys to a caravan holiday. I always enjoyed those kind of holidays, they did not cost much money.
But some years we could not afford a holiday so I had to entertain them myself, not easy. In the late 70s the weather was good, a lot of sunny days, so one day when they were driving me crazy, I decided to take them on a picnic. Money was tight some years, so I got the cheapest meat to put on the bread and I took a packet of biscuits out of the cupboard and I also made up some diluted juice and poured it into an Irn Bru bottle. It did not cost me any money. So I asked my oldest son where will we go on our picnic? He was a boy that would venture a lot of places. There was a small river called the River Almond near where we lived and he said, 'Mum, there is a Tarzan swing there' so off we went on our picnic.
It was a lovely sunny day, we sat on the grass and ate our picnic. We all could see the Tarzan swing from where we were sitting. It was down in a gully so the boys ran down the gully and on to the swing. They all took their turn. I can hear them call out to me, 'Look at me, mum!' They had a great time and I will not forget that day. My family are all men now and have family of their own, but that day I will never forget.
