Honour of the Line Read Free Page A

adventure beyond belief. The Police evacuated the gas works as the Fire Brigade battled to bring the fire under control. We just watched with all of the other passers-by and tried to show our innocence but probably failed miserably. Eventually Mum, Dad, Grandad and my Aunts and Uncles joined the throng and I was petrified but for some reason or another I was never questioned, although I was fairly certain my parents suspected something. The fire was brought under control and again normal service was resumed and everybody returned home.
    After tea I sat in the back room with Grandad trying to bury my head in the sand. That night I hardly slept a wink. The next morning at school Georgina came up to me and said “whatever you do deny it. John and Bob will never split on you so stay strong”. During assembly Miss Morgan, our Head Mistress, asked if anybody knew anything about the fire as children had been seen in the grounds but nobody said a word. Silence was the order of the day.
    Our school was divided into two playgrounds, the upper one for senior boys, the lower one for senior girls and infant boys and girls. Each playground had a large covered cycle shed with bench seats. At morning break one of our footballs was kicked into the girls playground and when I went to retrieve it a couple of the senior girls called me over. One of them said to me “Billy you bring trouble wherever you go, you must know something about the fire”. For the first time in my life I felt totally ashamed.
    I somehow managed to steer clear of trouble for a while except for one minor blip. Quite a few of the lads had this money making idea. A group of the lads would go to the back of the pub and pick two of the lads to go over the back gate into the yard. These two unfortunate lads would then hand two pint bottles of brown ale to the other lads waiting by the gate. We would all then go to the recreation ground, unscrew the tops of the bottles and pour the brown ale into the sandpit. It mixed nicely with the dog shit that was a feature of the sand pit.
    It never really mattered as nobody ever played in the sand, it was far too disgusting for words. We saved the bottles in my friend Brian’s shed and when we collected a lot we took them to the Off Licence in another part of town to get the deposit back from the bottles. The proceeds were spent on stuffing ourselves senseless with bars of chocolate and sticks of liquorice. Needless to say we all suffered from overeating and had a bad nights sleep.
    We took it in turns to scale the gate and it was just my luck that Paddy, who was aware of his beer being stolen, caught me red handed. He promptly marched me home and told my parents what had happened and they asked who else was involved but I would never grass on anybody. It was agreed if my parents gave Paddy fifteen bob, which is 75 pence in today’s money, then he wouldn’t contact the Police.
    For my punishment I was docked eight weeks pocket money and given a two week grounding. One week for getting caught and a further week for not bringing the beer home for Dad to drink. My lesson was finally learned but through all those misdemeanour’s Mum and Dad stood by me solid as rocks.
    They seemed to think an addition to the family might help and so the question of a brother and sister arose.

C HAPTER 5
Babies from Stations
    Early in 1959 Mum and Dad, who had been on the council housing list for ages, were told they could have a brand new council house which was on the very southern perimeter of the Arches. Bless them, they were so excited, it was right near fields where I could play and was regarded as the somewhat better part of the Arches estate. I became really very upset. Firstly leaving my friends on our block but, more importantly, leaving Grandad. After many tantrums it was decided we would all move but I would be able to spend a lot of my free time at Grandad’s i.e. evenings and weekends, but would always come home to sleep.
    By this time