I remember Washi Bach very well

by Gaenor Williams
(Budleigh Salterton, Devon)

I was brought up in Bryn Refail. Penrhoslligwy and I remember Washi Bach very well.

He used to call at our house for hot water and mam used to make him some tea and a sandwich or a piece of bara brith. Sometimes she would give him something to take with him for later.

My friend and I once made fun of him and Dad gave us such a telling off, we never did it again. Dad told us even a tramp had been somebody's baby once and every human bieng deserved respect.

I never knew why or how he had become a tramp but Dad did mention something about lots of tramps were men who had been to war and traumatised and couldn't settle down after they came back from the war because of what they had witnessed. I don't know if this applied to Washi Bach.

Dad used to talke to him for sometime when he called. I had heard that he had been found dead under a bush somewhere but by that time I had moved away from Anglesey.

I would like to know more about him. So I will be reading all the comments on here.

Regards

Gaenor

Comments for I remember Washi Bach very well

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Apr 03, 2017
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Washi Bach in Dulas
by: Wil

Annwyl Gyfaill

Washi Bach certainly did get around, didn't he?

He knew his good places and also the bad. As I have written on another of the countless messages we've received from friends across the world, I am glad to say, poverty and losing everything was a much feared reality in cefn gwlad (countryside) in the past.

My great grandparents at Glanrhyd in Llynfaes, used to say that looking after the very poor was cymwynas (the gift of being able to give) and also an investment so that you would be cared for if you ever because destitute or too old to look after yourself.

Thank you for visiting.

I wish you good health.

Diolch

Wil

Jan 18, 2017
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Washi Bach
by: Wil from Anglesey Hidden Gem

Hi Gaenor

Thank you for writing to Anglesey Hidden Gem.

For someone who lived in a world of his own most of the time, so I've heard, he seems to have travelled around Anglesey a great deal.

Tramsps like Washi Bach knew where they would receive a kind welcome; you're family's home for one. I spoke to someone in Amlwch, just up the road from where you used to live, and his father remembers Washi Bach showing him his White Star Lines paybook. This was probably after the First World War. Mental Health would not have proecluded him from menial work.

People like Washi Bach seemed to just gently drift out of normal society and any association he might have had become disconnected. My friends Gordon and Andrew Weare remember him in Llangefni where he used to wander up to Felin Graig Farm as an entity merely, moving through another world, talking to himself.

Washi Bach would have endured many hardships and cruelties, I'm sure, but he would also have been the subject of enormous gestures of kindness.

Thank you for writing. You'll find plenty of observations about him from other readers who found their way here by accident or drawn by a vague memory.

My best wishes to you.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda, Gaenor.
Happy New Year.

Jan 18, 2017
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Washi Bach in Dulas
by: Anonymous

WashiBach used to call at the back door of the Pilot Boat Inn in Dulas, which is down the road to BrynRefail.

I remember my mother giving him tea and lobscouse. This was in the 1940/1950s. He was harmless ..

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