Fencer Hill: Pack school stuff and give Mum a list of necessities to get: deodorant, shampoo, etc. There was always sadness around putting school things into the trunk. There was a checklist of items required. Most had been purchased from Isaac Walton’s (school ties, tweed jacket, games kit) or Marks & Spencer (derigour white Y-fronts, socks, vests, black school trousers).
My brother sells some old engines. He had engines from scooters, motorbikes and maybe a random abandoned car. He sold them through small ads in the local paper or some car paper, I imagine.
Go to my new girlfriend on my brother’s bike. My bike had a puncture. Grandpa would fix it in due course. My brother had long ago abandoned pedal transport. Sixteen at the time, he got around on a Vespa, or possibly, even in a car.
Newcastle: Given a lift into town. I imagine Mum had stuff to do. She’d have dropped me by the Civic Centre, or she would have parked
Dragged around Chemists (as girls do). Boots.
Kiss goodbye. This was the third time lucky. We went our separate ways at the bus stop in front of the University Theatre next to Thornes on the Haymarket. A kiss was something. At least a peck on the cheek! Perhaps on the lips? We’d be dating, sort of, for a couple of weeks.
Lunch. Change.
Melton Park: The Sedbergh bus collected Newcastle boys outside one of the larger detached houses. It was great to have a girl present (who wasn’t my sister) to wave J bye.
The bus gets a puncture. I have no recollection of where. Most likely on the A66 between Scotch Corner and Brough. Did they fix the tyre? Was there a replacement bus? Had a boy let a tyre down, hoping to get another day at home? That’s what I’d like to think.
Sedbergh: Two hours late. Parked up in the Library Car Park. We then had to man handle on mass our trunks and tuck boxes to our various Houses. For us, this meant out along Lupton Drive. I’m sure the older ‘hearty’ rugger players, especially those in the scrum, shoulder their trunk on one shoulder, their tuck box on the other and just legged out. The rest of us took it in turns to use one of two luggage-trolleys, or borrowed the Housemaster’s wheelbarrow. I’d loved it if my brother had come down in his home-made GoKart towing a trailer and got his and my trunks and tuck boxes up to the House that way. He could have charged 10p a trunk for it.
Winder House: Unpack trunk. D made out the fag list, and I wrote who did what. The ‘Fag List’ was a list of duties assigned to junior boys, i.e., us, the 3rd Formers. Nothing was fair about it. I’d been made ‘Head of Fags’ by the Housemaster, so I had responsibility for allocation and the roster. A few tough nuts would have made it clear they would do nothing beyond what their allocated Prefect required of them; this varied: clean shoes, or just shoe; may include rugger kit (not good), clean study/put out rubbish, make tea and toast … bring tea and toast to the prefect wallowing in a bath; warm the outdoor bog seat. Take a message to Simon Brown-Fumes in Sedgwick House and wait for a reply.
Looked at pic of my girlfriend. We’re both fourteen. Or maybe she’s fourteen in June? Not at a lot of difference!
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