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Original poster

Anyone watch the Aberfan documentary???

19 replies

moondog · 14/09/2006 22:19

What can you say???

OP posts:
notasheep · 14/09/2006 22:20

couldnt pluck up the courage to watch it-im in Wales with you

Original poster
moondog · 14/09/2006 22:22

I kow NAS.
It was harrowing but I felt I had to.

OP posts:
UrsulatheSeaWitch · 14/09/2006 22:23

No; but I remember Aberfan

I was only 15 but I remember seeing on TV an interviewer finding a lone child afterwards and asking it (girl I think but not sure now) how it felt about having nobody left to play with; and thinking WTF???

Original poster
moondog · 14/09/2006 22:26

It was the first widely televised disaster wasn't it?

Totally unsensational,but they referred to one child (who died) having drawn a picture the night before.
His mother found it again weeks later.It was a picture of the village and at the top,near where he had drawn the tip,he had written 'The End'.

Was a real example of ordinary peopel standing up to authority.

OP posts:
IvortheEngine · 14/09/2006 22:27

Yes, dh and I watched it. I felt very moved and learnt a lot that I hadn't known before.

I was sorry to read the other day that your dh's back is bad. I must have missed hearing that when it was first spoken of. How is he?

helsy · 14/09/2006 22:34

Yes, watched it, cried all the way through. My mum was in hospital in Wales having my little sister when Aberfan happened and I remember her telling me that the nurses didn't want the pregnant women to know about it in case they became distressed.
I was shocked to see how a labour government had behaved towards that community - quite a few things I hadn't known before.

southeastastra · 14/09/2006 22:36

that was one of the most awful things , i didn't see the doc but know what happened

hitchcock · 14/09/2006 22:37

it was very sad to lose so many children a whole generation gone ..... horrible and very very sad ..... even 40 yrs later

ediemay · 14/09/2006 22:37

couldn't watch
my brother's friend was the only survivor from his class - he was off, sick. He didn't grow for 4 years.
I have been to the memorial, it is beautiful but utterly heartbreaking - at least one family lost 4 children

tamum · 14/09/2006 22:41

I watched about half. Very good, I thought- I was very familiar with all the NCB cover-up stuff and the fund but it bears re-telling. I've never forgotten standing at the bus stop there, in about 1973, and a car pulled up and this woman asked for directions to "where all the children died". My granny just said "I don't know" and I was about to say yes you do, it's up there and then I saw her face Like it was some kind of tourist attraction

hitchcock · 14/09/2006 22:45

words can express what it must have been like for the familys the ones who lost children and the family that lost 4!!!!! dar god and familys whos children who suvived , it must have been very painfull and i hope no com loses so many children again like that again.

Original poster
moondog · 14/09/2006 22:49

Oh God!
And to think it was the day the school was breaking up for half term.!2 hours later and they would be here.

Ivor,we have had a worrying time.Dh told in Turkey his back was broken and needed surgery.Flown home,having to leave his job.Sought second opinion and...news is that it isn't.

What showed up as a fracture on his x ray is actually a very mild form of congenital spina bifida,completely unrelated to (severe) back strain he has developed.

Just needs a few weeks rest and should be ok.

We are so happy.Thanks for your concern.

OP posts:
edam · 14/09/2006 22:55

I saw it. I knew about it, of course, but Good God, to actually see all the details... the way that community was treated was terrible.

Couldn't believe Wilson actually charged them for removing the tip. When they said the Blair government gave them the money back, I was impressed. Until a split second later when they pointed out they paid it at 1968 values ie exactly the same sum of money that had been missing for 30 years...

My dad and a load of his fellow students from Swansea drove down there the minute they heard and joined the rescue effort. As did every other able-bodied person in S Wales, from what he says. The footage of people digging... I mean, today you'd have firefighters and trained rescuers and equipment.

tamum · 14/09/2006 22:56

I think that's one of the things that's so intensely moving about all that footage, isnt it edam, the way it was just people with the bare hands, desperately trying to make a difference. God.

Original poster
moondog · 14/09/2006 22:56

Wow Edam.

Yes,I felt same re that repayment thing.
In a way it makes the original insult even worse...

OP posts:
edam · 14/09/2006 23:04

I don't think he was particularly heroic or anything, just everyone was so shocked they had to try to do something to help. The lads just jumped into the student union minibus and set off. My dad's never actually said much about it apart from the things anyone old enough to register it would say, nothing more detailed than how terrible it was. Might ask him now.

Lilymaid · 14/09/2006 23:39

I remember being told about it at school (mid-morning?) on the day it happened. As we were in a convent I expect we had to pray. I think it was a turning point - the end of an industrial age and the beginning of a time when the cost of industry (pollution, accidents etc) was beginning to be recognised more - Torrey Canyon was around the same time.

southeastastra · 14/09/2006 23:42

v sad

IvortheEngine · 15/09/2006 08:50

moondog - that's excellent news. I'm very pleased for your dh and you. Does he have new work plans at all?

I had to smile when I read about you cutting the grass as I did it when dh was away some weeks ago. It hadn't been cut for 2 weeks and he wasn't due back for another week so the choice was either to cut it or to borrow some cows so I bit the bullet and got the mower and instructions out. Now that I've shown myself I can do it and I'm on a roll and really enjoy doing it! It's on my list for today as I don't work on Fridays.

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