Whispering Smith Column published in the Littlehampton Gazette December 4th 2014

IN THE USA it is referred to as ‘panhandling,’ ‘mooching’ or simply ‘bumming,’ a more colourfully attractive terminology for what is essentially the very unattractive art of begging in the street. Some of the town’s so called Littlehampton Wine Club members have taken to hanging around the town centre cash points in order to be nearer to the source of the money they can ‘mooch’, especially from the elderly or the kindly gullible by spinning the old ‘I need the train fare to get home to Brighton to see my sick aunt and anything you can spare will help me out’ routine. Not a very worthy attraction to our town centre. So tell me this, why is this not a problem in places such as Rustington or Arundel our closest neighbours, after all they have cash points too don’t they? Just curious is all!

LAST Sunday afternoon I enjoyed my Prom walk in the sun and for a moment or two there I briefly regretted mothballing my bike for the winter such has been the weather, a little wet maybe but still not very cold. However, being afoot has its advantages and you do get to meet and chat with folk more easily when not weaving and wobbling your way around them. I called into the delightful Mewsbrook Park and had a coffee in the sunshine from the café’s all new singing and dancing coffee machine. Excellent brew. I also noted they are open on Christmas Day morning for a bookable breakfast, now that is what I call a very enterprising move.

THE WORD ‘icon’ is much overused but in the case of The Three Brothers it is aptly and rightly used. The Rockall brothers’, Alan, Brian and David, ancient west country crabber is probably the most photographed boat on the river whether rocking on her moorings, belly down on the mud or red sail rigged and heading out to sea. She has featured prominently in advertising Littlehampton as a seaside town with a boating history, to sell flats on the riverside walk and to promote the building of those flats. I hope that she will be safe and secure on the current mooring for the rest of her days along with the three brothers who tend her.