Gina Davis left Spanish Point when she was 14 but the memories of her childhood there never faded.

Sometime around 2005, thinking others might be interested, she began posting short stories on Facebook about growing up in the Pembroke neighbourhood.

She was thrilled by the enthusiasm for her anecdotes and set out to turn them into a book.

But life had other plans. Her writing took a back seat to the demands of parenthood, her work at CedarBridge Academy and her role in the comedic group Friday Night Live.

Last year she got to work and published Spanish Point Tales.

“[A girlfriend] said, ‘Gina, all these people are asking for your stories. Put them in a book so they can buy it.’ And I was like, ‘That’s a good idea!’ So I started to list all the short stories that I could write and that’s how Spanish Point Tales came about,” said Ms Davis, a former English teacher who now oversees staff development at the senior school but plans to retire this year.

“All those memories stayed in my head. All the stories and all the incidents.”

She had no formal writing experience but studied journalism at university and always saw herself as a storyteller.

It helped her craft Spanish Point Tales, a nostalgic journey through her childhood adventures. The book covers the years from 1961 until about 1975 and captures a close-knit community, where children roamed freely. Somehow, their parents always knew exactly what they were up to.

As Ms Davis writes in the introduction: “I had the best childhood. Every experience created the ‘me’ I am today. I can only hope that any child today has fun outside because nothing beats developing friendships as a child that carry on into adulthood.

“I left Bermuda the summer I turned 14. There was/is no place on earth like Spanish Point. I can’t help but smile when I think about those days. So I have written in this book, my Spanish Point tales.”

Ms Davis shares 15 stories aimed at readers between the ages of 8 and 18. The accompanying pictures were drawn by Rhona Pedro, a local illustrator.

Wine Gums is one of the author’s favourites. It is drawn from a trip to a store on her own, at the age of four, to buy a bar of soap for her mother.

“There weren’t a lot of cars on the road and there were corner stores everywhere,” she said.

She had been given five shillings, with change expected. Ms Davis told the storekeeper her mother had said it was OK to use the change to buy candy.

“So she gave me candy. I bought the candy out of the change and it had to be a lot of candy because my mama gave me five shillings and I bought one bar of soap.”

The path she walked to get home allowed her to avoid people seeing her with the candy.

“When I get home my mother already knows that I bought candy out of her change and I get licks,” she said.

“There weren’t cell phones. To this day I marvel at the fact that before I got home my mama knew – and I’d eaten the candy.”

It is likely her earliest recollection in the book. Like the other stories, it is an example of the “little things that occurred that impacted and made your life”.

“The introduction in itself is a story, the conclusion is a story. All the little scenes in between are just little short stories about growing up in Spanish Point. Times were very different back in those days. There was a separation between Black and White, there were neighbourhoods back in those days that you didn't walk in. I sort of paint pictures of what the time was like.”

Spanish Point Tales shows just how mischievous children can be. Without the distractions of technology, they created their own adventures. Ms Davis recalls the fun she and her friends had playing a game where they would “tie a rock on the end of a string and then spin it and spin it and spin it and spin it and then let it go and scream, ‘Watch out below!’”, ignorant of the potential damage.

“People used to get licks a lot in those days, and I got a lot of licks,” she said.

Since she released the book in December, she has had a lot of feedback from people who lived in Spanish Point at that time.

“Or if they didn't grow up in Spanish Point, it reminded them of when they were young. So often we don't take time to think about what life was like when things were simpler,” she said.

“I enjoy knowing that my written memories cause readers to reflect on their memories. I think that was the purpose of my writing.”

Students at CedarBridge have also found the book interesting. A colleague read a story to her class of 16-year-olds and came knocking on Ms Davis’s door with a special request – the students wanted to hear it in the author's own voice.

“I chose this one particular story in there that I thought the children might be interested in. The story is called Marlboros and Movies.”

The teenagers couldn’t believe that, back in the day, even five-year-olds were allowed to walk into a store and buy cigarettes themselves. They were equally amazed to learn that people once smoked in theatres.

“These are things that they can’t do now. I’m grateful that children can't buy cigarettes any more and I'm grateful that you can't smoke in the movies, but [for them] it was a time that they had never experienced.”

She remembers spending days at the beach with friends, and not a parent in sight. They would walk there barefoot, oblivious to the heat of the pavement; food also was not a concern.

“And it's not like we were poor – if we were, I didn't know it – but children would just go to the beach, spend an entire day at the beach, with no adult. My son never went to the beach without me,” she said.

“But it was those types of days and the time that existed that I wanted to write about. It started for fun and then when my book arrived … it was amazing to me.”

• Spanish Point Tales is available on Amazon.com and other online bookstores and at The Bookmart at Brown & Co. Gina Davis will sign copies at the store on February 21 and 22 between 11am and 2pm. Hard copies of the book are available from Ms Davis for $32. If interested send an e-mail: ngedavis78@gmail.com