A Coventry Kid's Tale

Chapter 6: Approx 9 years of age to 10 years

It was at this time that the father bought another vehicle to fetch supplies for the shop. A Ford Anglia van. He deemed the child safe enough not to put sand in the petrol tank. The child had learned to only take the cap off and sniff the fumes. Wow, did he get high, it's a wonder he never exploded when he lit a fag after.

The father decided they would take up camping for a holiday, so off they set for the south coast. Two days later they arrived. This being because the father went to see a man about a dog half way there, they stayed bed and breakfast in the pub. In the night the child had to go to the loo. Horrors awaited him, on the back of the door was a photo of what your hands looked like after using three sheets of paper. This had a profound effect on the child. From then on it was five sheets of the Daily Mirror he used and to hell with blocking up the toilet. Washing his hands twice he would then try to get out of the door without touching it, what a horror that night.
Upon arriving at the south coast, they set up camp in a farmer's field. What a fine tent they had, two sleeping compartments, one to keep out the insects the other to be bitten alive, you can guess which one the child had. "Here son" said the father, giving the child a spade "go dig a hole". So the child dug a hole. "Son" said the father "not outside the tent, but other side of hedge". The son fearing the worst went the other side of the hedge and dug another hole. "Son" said the father, "that's better" and handed the child a toilet roll to hang on the hedge. The child was elated, he thought he had dug a hole for himself. (The child was used to digging holes for himself to climb out of.)

The following morning after breakfast, the mother was preparing dinner (shows how long breakfast took). Father said "right, we are off to fetch water" so everybody climbed into the van except the mother who was doing the potatoes. The father, upon driving off from the back of the tent, had forgotten he had not untied the front awning of the tent from the roof rack. The piercing shriek my father heard stopped him in his tracks. "CYRIIIIIIIL" the cry rang from my mother's lips (considering mother was only 4ft nothing her lips resembled a ships foghorn that day), as the front of the tent was torn off. "My god what was that" said my father, everybody still had a ringing noise in their ears. The rest of the campers in the field had all dived for cover. Upon seeing half of the tent laying behind the van, the father calmly untied it from the van and drove off to see a man about a dog.
Upon returning, with no dog, the tent had been stitched back together and dinner was cooking. Mother said nothing, father said nothing and the child went to his hole the other side of the hedge. He said nothing.
The events of the last two days had been that traumatic to the child, he lost his memory of the next twelve days, thus he has no recollection of the rest of this holiday.