Six kids in our family, two girls four boys. Our Village was bombed but luckily the only casualties were the farmers pigs. Being the second youngest left me free to roam the Welsh countryside, playing in old castles and swimming in rivers. Making tin boasts out of six by eight sheets of tin plate; which may have got me ready for sea.
My own kids I like to think; and so they say, had a great life in NZ, being on the coast meant I was home a lot, not much different than a long distance lorry driver. With the bush at the bottom of the block and the sea over the hill an ideal life.
Des