A Coventry Kid's Tale

Chapter 9: 13 years old

The next true love of the child's life was to appear. Her name was Pamela Hutton who lived in Duke Barn Field. A nice girl who liked fun. Blond hair and standing 5ft small they went for a walk over the Morris common. Looking for fun the child threw Pam over his back, up and over to land back on her feet. Two football teams who were playing stopped to give wolf whistles and shouted over "Nice pink panties". Red faced and embarrassed they slunk away, the child was not used to people wearing skirts!!!!!!! He would be more careful from now on. Long walks they would go on, but when it was raining the garden shed was very handy! Pam's father took the child to one side and explained very nicely "No hanky panky with my daughter", and then offered the child a cigarette, which of course he took. Tthey were 3p to buy from the shop. A nice free one came in handy. Pam also had a sister called Shirley who used to take the rip out of the child but in a nice way. The child was to meet a lot of nice people and these were a few of them.

Basil Hopkins was a school friend and with whom the child went to the A.T.C. He lived in Pinner's Croft. On Sundays after the A.T.C. the child would sometimes go to Baz's house on the off chance that he might be invited to stay for dinner, which of course happened quite often. After dinner the child would make his excuses and go home. At home he could then eat his own Sunday dinner. Wow, two Sunday dinners in one day. The child would not starve!!!!!

The time had now come for the A.T.C. to go to summer camp. R.A.F. LEUCHARS, in Scotland just down from Dundee. All the child had to pay for was his board and bed, one shilling a day, eight shillings for the week (40p in today's money), what a bargain. Off they set from Coventry train station, change at Birmingham, then on to Edinburgh in Scotland. Here they changed trains and then stopped at a little station built just for the R.A.F. camp. From here they all marched to the camp. (This was no mean journey, for it took about 10 hours, from Coventry of course.) When they arrived the cadets were allocated a billet then sent to the stores to get their bedding (blankets and pillows). After making up their beds there was a kit inspection to make sure every cadet had made his bed in the right way. Every day was to be different, so was the night?
On the first night when the cadets were asleep, some of the N.C.O.s came charging into the billet, grabbed one of the cadets and dragged him out of bed and into the shower block. Here the N.C.O.s then blacked his balls with shoe polish and ran off. The poor cadet then had to clean himself off as best he could. The N.C.O.s thought this was very funny but the cadets did not.