I suppose I've visited every pub in Cardiff at one time or other.
But the Rose and Crown in Kingsway (now Barfly) holds a special memory for me.
I remember when Dave Williams a six foot something fifteen stone scrum half and steelworker, was knocking back Brains with me and the others in that pub.
He said he was going up on the coach with his girl friend to help with the digging at Aberfan. That was about 11.30 am the day or so after the slag heap moved (21 October 1966).
When they got back to the Rose and Crown it was about 8.30 pm. They were both blackened and Dave's hands were blistered and bleeding.
But what struck me as odd was that they were both crying. Weird that was, because I didn't think a six foot something fifteen stone scrum half and steelworker could cry.
By the time he'd finished telling us what he'd saw that day - and there was no brag or bull about the way he told us, or answered our questions - nothing like the usual beer gab you get from blokes overloaded with Brains in the pub.
By the time he'd finished telling us, he wasn't the only one crying in the Rose and Crown that night.
That's the way I've always remembered that pub. And that incident.
your comments
Andrea McCulloch
Last October I mentioned to a group of adults I teach (aged 35-58) that it was 40 years since Aberfan, and was met with blank stares by the younger members of the group. After the story was related, one of them asked 'Why weren't we taught this when I was at school?' The short answer is that it was probably still too recent then to have become incorporated into lessons. But now it is history and it deserves to be taught. I was at junior school (Peter Lea in Fairwater) myself at the time, the same age as many who died, and the impact on me and my classmates was tremendous. We should never forget, and it is gratifying that Ahmed and Mohammed knew of Aberfan. May their land remain in peace.
Ahmed & Mohammed from Kuwait
We both heard that story about the Aberfan incident in school, and we both think that this tragedy was hard to take for any of the people who lived through it ... we both know what it's like to experience that sort of loss... we faced the same in 1990 when Kuwait was invaded; we lost many loved ones, and we feel your pain.
