A Short History of a Nearly Nobody

1947. Sitting in the front row right under the eagle eye of Mrs. X. The lesson was "learning to write!! My writing book had lines to guide me so that I knew the correct height for each part of a letter as we started with learning proper script. We had to copy the letters only as a first exercise and later full words. If we made a mistake then the dreaded "ruler" would come crashing down on our knuckles. This certainly helped with "attention". To add to the excitement we were using pen and ink from the ink wells in our desks. All together lots of chances to make a mess and get bruised knuckles again. It worked!!! And so began almost five years at St. John's School Weymouth.

Don't you remember that Uncle who was always pleased to see you, give you a sweet and tell you interesting stories. Well I was lucky enough to have a number of these. The earliest of that I remember lived in The "George Inn" on Weymouth harbor quay. I recall there being a pool table in the bar and going there when it was closed to visit my Grandparents and coming across Uncle Pat. He was home from the Air Force I think and had a funny little hat on the side of his head and his blue uniform. The pub was closed so it was OK for me (about six I think) to be in the bar and I wanted to play pool. It needed a coin to get the balls out but Pat knew how to make it play for free!!! My Hero!!! The second memorable Uncle was another of my Dad's brothers and I always called him Uncle Buster. And just up the street and around the corner from Derby Street by the railway he had a workshop and made wrought iron gates and things. I used to feel very grown up when I visited him as he w...