European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 29, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                I ill l i by Roy Reed new York times Laugharne Harbor area was the source of Many Dylan characters. Of that Dylan Thomas and Captain cat have gone the medieval Welsh Seaside town of Laugharne is a somewhat Tamer place. Dylan As those who knew him there still Call him. Had the place alive with the boisterous creatures of his imagination cat the old Blind sea Captain Polly Garter the Loose woman and All the others who people his radio play. Under milk Wood. The town in the play was very Uke Laugharne his adopted Home for several years. Dylan now lies under a wooden Cross up the Hill in St. Martin s churchyard. And the fishermen the real life characters who fuelled his imagination and who used to drink with him at the corporation arms pub and Brown s hotel have almost All disappeared with the cockles. Why Dylan died so Young is less mysterious to the people of laugh me than Why the cockles have Digap  is widely believed in Laugharne and elsewhere that the poet drank himself to death. He was touring the United states in 1953 when he died in new York at the age of 39. As for the Cockle the shellfish that used to be important to the1 fishing Economy of the South coast of Wales it apparently was also the victim in some Way of human frailty. It might have been the effluent from the industries along the coast one Man  say the Oyster Man ruined the cockles another said. And some say it was Over picking by the Cockle col  the reason fishermen no longer walk Down the narrow streets to the foot of the Hill and push their boats into the Flat Grey tide of the Estuary. The fishermen now live in Cardiff or Swansea and work in factories or they drive Down the Road to the government arms testing Plant and get paid by the hour not by the laboriously filled  Are on the dote and live in the new Low cod Public housing on the Hill facing Dylan s  was a brawling town when the lither no a were there i be seen them Start fighting As soon As the boats came in rolling around there in the mud John Leonard Hughes a former Fisherman who knew Dylan said As he drank his bitter in the corporation Anns the other in Ihl. The Only brawling Here now is when the Young men take it out in a  match of  t life / i -1 woks Ivi i bin  j by the arms testing Plant and by tourism the latter inspired mainly by Dylan s memory. There arc no fancy hotels and Only a few gift shop but thousands of Thomas fans from All Over the world come every year to look at the modest House Over the Estuary where he and his wife Caitlin lived she no longer lives there and perhaps to try to catch a glimpse of the people who inspired the fictional characters. Dylan was bom and reared in Swansea about 40 Miles East along the coast. He moved to Laugharne in april 1938. He later wrote that he just came one Day for the Day and never left got off the bus and forgot to get on  actually he was attracted by others like himself who lived there during the 1930s and 1940s. They included Richard Hughes the novelist and Augustus John the Painter. They were All attracted by the fishermen and other eccentrics thrown up there by 1,000 years of history. Before the  Leonard Hughes said pointing with his Beer Mug. That room in there was always full of fish Ermen. That was what Laugharne was All  Hughes is a teacher in England now and comes Home Ordy for holidays. But when he was a boy and a Young Man. He collected cockles in the icy water warming his hands on heated Beach pebbles lifting 100-Pound baskets. Wading the mud and learning the Brittle resentments that led to hard drinking and hard fighting. It was slave work he said. But it was healthy. It was the fishermen Here and the brawling that appealed to Dylan. Now the Young people Are moving away. They want nine to five  for All the cling a. Laugharne which Lias about 1.000" people is still medieval in some ways. The old Castle that has been in ruins for centuries no one knows when it was built is being repaired to make it Safe for the tourists. The biggest Man in own is not a mayor but a por Reeve. The chief official of the municipal corporation that Cui Strols and leases hundreds of acres of Public Farmland. And on Whit monday every third year the elders and anyone wow cares to join them walk the Hilly Boundary of the town a distance of More than 20 Miles. To break the Monotony As they reassure them selves that the Boundary is intact the walkers Stop frequently and refresh themselves. Some become so refreshed that they have to give up the trip. The1.1 still talk about a physician on the Dulk a few years it  Vici Ivord so much ref Rishi int Tut he Cali kick