A Coventry Kid's Tale

Chapter 3: Frightening Experience

On one of the child's forays, he and a friend (Leslie Belford) went to play on a bomb site backing onto Bishop Street. While they were playing an older child crept up on them and took the child hostage. The child was then tied up, and the friend was ordered to go home and tell nobody. When the friend had gone the moron led the child away and told him to do as he was told. He lead the child by a piece of rope around the bomb site until they came to a hole. The moron then forced the child into the hole and told him to wait. The moron also said he would do horrible things to him if he moved. Then he went away. While he was gone the child, being a very good escapologist, managed to loosen the rope tied to him and ran away as fast as he could. The child ran all the way to Cox Street overtaking his friend. The child was amazed to see his friend as he had been gone for about an hour. This the child thought was a valuable lesson in life. Trust nobody. Friends are funny creatures.

The one thing the child learned was that reading was very enlightening. The library was next on his hit list. Up Hill Top he would walk, a cobbled street leading up to town. The main library was at the back of Broadgate, it was a splendid old building built in sandstone. Inside the library there was a balcony built along one side. This was for the older books which you needed permission to look at. This was out of bounds to the child. Before the child was old enough to have a library ticket he would pick a book and sit down and read it. The next day he would go back and carry on reading the book until he had finished it. This went on until he was old enough to have his own library ticket, but that was not enough enlightenment for the child. So he went to the reading library as well for here he could read all the magazines on space travel. Oh how he loved all this reading (also cutting out the pictures for his scrap book). The library was a must for the child every week.