Moon Super Memories of a grit kid by Fiona Richardson T


he recent Super Moon sparked a memory for me of the 1970s – almost as clear as this one was dull. Of a time when kids had Chopper bikes and Space Hoppers,


ate deliciously novel Pot Noodle meals and spent holidays at Pontins. Unlike the latest moon, hidden behind a shroud of deliberately dismal cloud to match our times, it was full, vibrant, larger than life, and was shining across the moors from Stanage to Sheffield. Almost violently orange and purple to match the heather in equal measure, it framed a moment in time that could never be replicated.


I was a ‘grit kid’ at the time: the child of a Sheffield climber who was a member of the Alpha Club, a child whose holidays were almost exclusively


spent near mountains or sea cliffs, and whose mothers spent inexorable days in the foothills of fear, waiting for their husbands to return. Climbing on the grit for these old-schoolers was par for the course – a mere playground for the greater dangers and challenges of the Karakorum and the Alps. Their wives, partners and offspring – the grit kids – dutifully tagged along, forging enduring friendships and camaraderie that only those who live in fear can understand. We spent hours with our fathers in various venues such as Tanky’s shop at the bottom of Sheffield Moor, waiting patiently whilst our dads pawed over ropes and crampons, and chatted with fellow climbers they’d seen the night before and would inevitably meet up with again at the weekend on Stanage or in the Moon pub.


SUMMIT#85 | SPRING 2017 | 27


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61