 | 11 Chapter 2: Primary School Days (1953)Christmas was a good time for the child. he was allowed the day off from chopping wood, but Boxing day was double work!!
Upon waking he would find presents on the end of his bed. He would find a torch then the Dandy annual, then try to read it under the bedclothes. This was hard for the child because, he could not read and the torch needed batteries. Breakfast was nice on Christmas day for he was allowed to sit at the table (normally he sat on the floor next to his father for scraps of food he gave him), but today he could eat his fill. Christmas dinner, wonderful, all he could eat so long as it was Brussels sprouts for nobody else liked them. Full of wind, he was sent outside to play in the backyard. When the wind had cleared he was allowed back inside for tea.
Instant whip, oh how he loved it. Little did everybody else know the child had learned how to spoon out the insides so it was like a cave, just enough so the top did not collapse. He had plenty, less for everybody else!!!!!!!! Friday night was always a nice night for the child, it was the one night of the week he got to choose what he wanted to eat. The father would go out to see a man about a dog, but always came back home at five minutes to eight. The child would then unwrap his parcel of "cod roe and chips" which his father had bought from "Arthur's" the chippy. Now this piece of cod roe was a whole one, not like the little things you buy today. Covered in a lovely golden crispy batter, with his mouth watering (still is today thinking about it) the child would tuck into it just as "the Army Game" would come on the television. This the child loved (the army game as well) but time for bed after. It was also about this time in the child's life that he found out about the Bogey men. The something told him that the Bogey men lived in the cupboard in the corner of the bedroom. The child now had a problem, did he watch the cupboard or watch the door which was the other side of the room? The Bogey men could come through either! He agonised over this for years. This was why he was born a night shift worker, for years he got no sleep, looking at the cupboard, then the door. It was enough to send him cross eyed!
When it was thundering and lightning he would dread the words "To bed now son". Off he would go on his own, creeping up the stairs, then across the landing, all the time the crash of thunder frightening him and the lightning casting flickering shadows in the corners. A quick dash to his bed then hide under the covers, for he was fearful. Not to be daunted he found out about "Quatermass and the Pit" on Friday nights. Off he would go to bed, then creep back down the stairs to watch it through the key hole in the door. "Blast it" said the child. "Caught you" said the mother as she swung open the door. "Come in and watch it" said the father. The mother and father conferred. "He will never want to watch it again if we let him watch it this time". Quatermass and the Pit became a firm favourite on Friday night for the child. | |
