We left Springfield in bright sunshine and headed for Witt a tiny village/hamlet/settlement near to Nokomis and Litchfield. We had yet another date with family who ran a farm in the area. Yet another example of the better life our family found when they paid their third class steerage and sailed to New York from Liverpool. Witt was most definately off the beaten track - population 1200 or thereabouts. It must have been bustling in the early part of the 20th century with local mines employing the menfolk of the town however times had moved on and it now felt and looked like a ghost town. Tumbleweed being blown down the street making it look like a film set for a spaghetti western. There was a cafe on one side of the only street and a ... read more

Can you believe it I have never flown before apart from a quick flight in the 1960’s with the Royal Observer Corps. For those uninitiated the Royal Observer Corps was set up to monitor radiation fall out and nuclear attacks. It sounds daft now but the threat in the 60’s was very real and we were told to make shelters under our tables and under the stairs. A network of stations were set up around the country, some little bigger than holes in the ground where information was supposed to be relayed to the command centres giving information on bombs and fall out. I volunteered for a command centre and worked there for a few years. As part of the training I found myself in RAFValley flying low over the Menai Straits. Since then I have ... read more