A Break in the Clouds - my Memories of living at Faslane Peace Camp back in August 1983

The rain stopped! We emerged from our peace caravans. 

Jenny fanned the sparks from the local newspaper The Helensburgh Times. The sparks from the damp newspaper caught and set alight the dampish splinters that then caught onto the sleepers from the old now disused railway line. The day before, Scott and I had laboriously lugged those large railway sleepers down the woody lane that was snaggled with old tree roots, back down to the camp.

I had later watched American Kate who was brought up on the edge of Portland Oregon split wood with an axe and I had had a clumsy try at this myself. I was nowhere near as skilled at splitting wood as Kate who literally had ancestry that dated back to Oregon County had been part of the Wild West. However but I had just about been able to sever a small branch of tree from a larger branch with our rusty old saw and then to place a part of the branch onto an old tree stump that Lee had planed down to create a chopping block and to split a few chunks of wood with an axe. First time for everything!

And right here right now we had sun and we had the start of a warmth and hot drinks!!

I lifted the huge kettle, blacked by the open fire and walked back to our communal caravan. I then made myself a peanut butter sandwich using the peanut butter from the jar that was stashed in the unit beneath the sink. I ate the sandwich all to myself. I then filled the kettle with water, carried the kettle back outside and lifted it onto the grate atop our makeshift brick fireplace which encompassed the bobbing, sparking darts of flame.

Tony brought out his ghetto blaster that was powered by batteries. We put on a Bob Marley tape. We all loved Bob Marley.

'Sold I to the merchant ships' we sang together. Infected by surprise joy, Jenny, Tony and I jigged around the fire. The others got to their feet too, joining, jigging, turning, arms raised.

Bob Marley, Faslane Peace Camp back in August 1983 and us lot 

Yes - redemption songs.