I come from a family with very strong links with the Isle of Wight. My paternal grandfather William Hedges was, for many years, the manager of the W.H. Smith and Son bookstall in Freshwater. This was in the days when the railway came to Freshwater, and the bookstall was on the station. Later, when the railway closed, the bookstall was dismantled and re-erected in one of the main streets of the village. Despite being a rather ramshackle wooden structure, it is still standing - several decades later - and is now a local junk shop cum antiques shop called Aladdin's Cave.

As a child, in the 1950s, I sometimes used to visit my grandfather on the station where I was allowed to wave a flag just as a train was about to leave the platform. I fondly believed that I was responsible for sending the train on its way, though in reality I was told to wave the flag just at the moment when the train was due to depart anyway. My paternal grandparents lived in the house called Sarsfeld, in Copse Lane, Freshwater, and lived there until they moved to the mainland in 1967.

My other pair of grandparents - my mother's parents - lived on the other side of the island in Lake. My grandfather, Charles Barnes, was a projectionist in the old Rivoli cinema in Sandown. The cinema closed long ago, but the building remains and is now a supplier of theatrical costumes, next to the Baptist church.

Both of my parents spent their childhoods on the island, eventually meeting in Newport, where they both worked. One of my mother's more dubious claims to fame is that, as a girl, she knew Dorothy O'Grady, the infamous Sandown landlady (wrongly?) imprisoned for spying for the Germans in World War II! Having two sets of grandparents on the island, my parents, my two brothers, Alan and Neil, and I spent almost all of our summer holidays on the IOW in the 1950s and 1960s, usually spending one week at Freshwater and one week at Lake. I also spent additional weeks at Freshwater with my cousin, Tony.

Memories of these weeks are too numerous to mention, but I vividly recall the occasion in 1965 when the Queen and Prince Philip visited Yarmouth. I remember seeing them come ashore in a launch from the Royal Yacht Britannica - and was later amused at the minor controversy when Prince Philip described the Ryde councillors' robes as "dressing gowns". In those days, we often attended the services at Colwell Baptist Church, where the minister was Mr. Vincent. A more embarrassing memory is of spilling a bottle of ink in the museum at Carisbrooke Castle, in 1962, when I was twelve. This was not appreciated by the attendant who had just cleaned the floor!

As a child I was very keen on the I-SPY books and spent many happy hours scoring points in such books as "I-SPY At the Seaside" and "I-SPY History", when on the island. Attractions such as the the Roman Villa at Brading were much appreciated. Along with my brother, cousin, and the boy living next door to my grandparents in Frsshwater, I formed a rudimentary I-SPY "patrol" and we made a "camp" in a nearby field. Later, home in Essex, I formed a more elaborate local group of I-SPY enthusiasts, the Red Arrow Patrol, which lasted for some years.

In the 1970s I attended several holidays at the Brighstone Holiday Camp, organised by the Christian youth organisation, Musical Gospel Outreach. On those holidays I remember hearing (and meeting) some of the popular Christian folk and rock musicians of the day, such as the guitarist Gordon Giltrap, then on the fringes of the Christian scene. The holidays had some lighter-hearted moments, such as the occasion, in 1972, when we staged a mock "protest march" to save Sandown Pier which we said was about to be towed away to the United States! Not many people believed us, but our antics earned us coverage in the local newspaper.

Many years later, in 1995, I was in Yarmouth when the BBC filmed a black gospel concert in the town square for broadcasting a couple of weeks later. My visits to the island have continued over the years, and I generally spend a few days at Sandown each summer, usually at the Alendel Hotel in Sandown where I enjoy the hospitality of Terry and Isobel Purdy. Even after 50+ years the island still has the ability to surprise and delight me. For example, in 2002, I was pleased to re-visit the parish church at Freshwater and discover the memorial to the poet Tennyson and the stained glass window of Sir Galahad.

These memories have probably gone on for long enough - but I would be pleased to hear from anyone who remembers the Hedges family of Freshwater or the Barnes family of Lake.