大象传媒

What some of you my dear friends may not realise is, that this is proving to release so many built up memories of the past.
That this procedure is a type of therapy, especially equal to the many notes I have collected over the years.
The positive result is that it is similar to a computer, to clear up more memory, also indeed allowing me to discard so much hard copy into the re-cycling bin.

This was a great treat, the cost for an adult was 3d and 1d for a child. I cannot remember what the film was.
But I do remember that the only thing I had seen similar to this. Was when the mobile cinema in a van used to visit the Henry Prince Est. and showed Felix the cat from the back of the van.

From our first arrival to Wales, I instantly became fascinated with the local accent, some of the locals seemed to speak very fast and sometimes it proved to be quite difficult to understand them.

Eric and I were not too happy to attend the local school for quite a while, the local children seemed to think we were rather strange. On second thoughts we may also have felt the same way towards them.

Johnny Jenkins became our best friend from the very start, together we were to have many adventures. Johnny taught us how to count to ten in Welsh, both Eric and I felt great to have such a friend.

There were two ways to get to school, either by walking down the Parade or along the lane at the back of the houses. We had to be very careful going along the lane, because of the big dragonflies, at least that's what Johnny had told us.

We also had a previous warning from uncle Bill, that we should never try to make a short cut through the farmers fields because of the big black bull.

N.B. Many people have contacted me and asked me how is it that I, as a child of only five can remember things in so much detail.
The only true answer I can give is, I could read and I could write, I would write down a single word or just one sentence.
I never kept a diary because I never knew what a diary was, what I kept was scraps of paper that I brought back home with me when we returned home.

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WHAT EVER YOU DO! DON'T.

Most of the family had returned to London, so there was only brother Eric and I left in Wales.

The tin bath was always kept outside hanging on the wall next to the outside lavatory. A few weeks later during our bath time, Eric had had his bath, then it was my turn.

The tin bath was placed on the top of the kitchen table, we first had to sit down while our top half was scrubbed. Then we would have to stand up to finish the rest.

Came to the point when I had to stand up and aunt Dora told me to stand still while she went to get a towel. Her advice was for me to stand still, if there is one thing that you cannot say to Ray - is don't.

You've guessed it, while aunt Dora was out of sight, I moved forward, within seconds the bath over tipped slinging the Ray to the floor with the bath on top of me. Water was everywhere, what a commotion ensued, they were more worried about what had happened to me, than the mess all over the place.

Aunt Dora was frantic blaming herself for leaving me alone and worried in case I had hurt myself. Aunt Phylis came in over turned the bath, checked to see if I was o'k. The worst for aunt Phylis was to try to calm down aunty Dora.

What a laugh we had that evening explaining to uncle Bill what had happened. It was then decided that in future when our bath day came along, the bath was to be placed on the floor.

The reason we had our bath at night on the Saturday was because we had to be nice and clean for the Sunday Chapel. (Isn鈥檛 it?).

I used to love going to the Chapel because it was always packed with people and they had such a lovely choir.

Right from the start I believe that uncle Bill realised he was going to have problems with The Ray, brother Eric on the other hand was always, prim and proper, very timid in fact a little Angel.

When it came to filth, Ray would fall in it or play in it, I was forever arriving home dirty and smelly, more often than not with a rip in my clothes. My trousers were always getting patched up because of my reckless behaviour.

The difference between brother Eric and I is our temperament, this came into fruition more readily, when Johnny Jenkins came up with the idea of visiting the quarry with the Angel's and Devil's ladder.

When you entered the quarry both on left and right there were various boulders and rocks, you would have to climb over these rocks before you were faced with the ladders.

Johnny showed us the Devil's ladder first, this was easy to climb, but when it came to the Angel's ladder, this proved very difficult to climb. From the base to the top was about twenty feet.

The surface was almost like a straight edge completely flat, the only points were staggered two inch finger grips with the occasional hand holes.

Before Eric and I had to make a choice of which ladder to choose, Johnny had to tell us another story.

If you were ever to find a dead cow, sheep or a chicken while you are out playing, you must tell an adult as soon as possible.

The adult would then tell the local butcher for collection (seems they were not concerned with a vet). The butcher would collect the carcass and the news would quickly spread that there was fresh meat on offer today.

Johnny Jenkins tossed a coin, bro. Eric won so he was able to choose the Angel or Devil's ladder, which the later was the easiest to climb.

I made four attempts at the Angel's ladder, the first I slipped back down after only reaching a couple of feet, the second and third were just as bad.

Johnny whispered in my ear that the best way to climb to the top was to take your shoes (boots) off.

Eric's face was a picture of pure delight seeing his little brother was able to make it to the top. But fair play to him, though it was several months later, Eric did eventually master the Angel's ladder.

By now Eric and I became used to the idea that our family had returned to London. At the best of times Eric still remained very quiet, then again he never ever said much.

But then he was becoming more and more strange to me, just before we both went off to sleep. We would say our prayers and he would give me a gentle, re-assuring me that everything would be all right and that he would look after me, bless him.

One day Eric had developed a terrible cold and aunt Phylis told us that we were not allowed to go out and play. But Johnny (the life saver) managed to persuade aunt Phylis, that he would look after me and promised her that we would not go to the quarries.

I have mentioned earlier that two of uncle Bill's rules was, that we should never go into his greenhouse and never touch his tomatoes.

THEN WHAT HAPPENED?

Johnny offered me a dare to nick one of uncle Bill's tomatoes, I nipped in and chose to take one nearest to the bottom of the plant, in the hopes that uncle Bill wouldn鈥檛 notice.

Even the ones at the bottom were as big as a closed fist, later that evening uncle Bill came in fuming, he had discovered that one of his tomatoes had gone missing.

Since Bro. Eric was not allowed to go out because of his cold, it must be one of two, Johnny Jenkins or me, uncle Bill straight away dismissed Johnny, because he had been warned several times in the past and was scared of uncle Bill.

So uncle Bill sat me down in the corner by the side of the oven, he looked at me straight in the eyes. I was dead frit (frightened) and he told me that I would tell him the truth, otherwise he would write to my mum and dad.

He further told me if I admitted my guilt, I would receive a punishment, but he would not contact my parents. So there I am a five year old child caught out in a simple game of dare. Naturally I admitted to be the culprit.

I was more scared of what the punishment would be, but I never disclosed anything about Johnnies involvement.

THE PUNISHMENT.

I was to take a bucket and without gloves or a shovel, collect a full bucket of sheeps droppings from the mountainside, I must not return until I had achieved my target. The project was that efforts gained, would be used in uncle Bills vegetable garden.

Needless to say I was in my element, if this was a punishment for breaking a simple rule. I would willingly fill two buckets for something far worse (the introduction of Ray's positive thinking) and I have survived to tell this tale.

ADJUSTMENT.

It didn鈥檛 take long for bro. Eric and I to acquire the local accent, we began to refer to each other as Boy'o. There seemed to us to be a musical trend with the Welsh dialect, it contained high and lows of content. More of a joyful nature in order to make one feel more relaxed.

Many times Eric and I would repeat to each other, indeed to goodness, isn鈥檛 it, Di, Bach, Merthyr Tydvil, Ponty Pridd, Tony Pandy etc.

THE PIT.

We were told never to go down to the pit, so what did we do go down to the pit?
We had to walk to towards Mardy, turn left at the Chapel, under the bridge and climb the wall to the roof of the derelict building.
We took slates from the roof and chipped them into the shape of handguns, tommy guns and clappers.

The guns were used for obvious reasons, but the clappers were to be used to produce a rhythm for any old song. We used to hide our finds under the bridge. We could never take them home for fear of being found out where we had been.

The Winter began to come, showering the mountainside with snow.

BEWARE.

What a lovely sight seeing all the snow covered mountains with the light dustings on the treetops and houses all over the Valley.

We were told that we must never climb to the quarries in the wintertime, because of the danger of ice on the paths and the quarries. But as ever children rarely listen to their elders mostly to their cost and I was one of the biggest culprits.

One day brother Eric didn鈥檛 want to go out into the cold, so he stayed indoors, but Johnnie and I were restless and decided to take a chance. It must have taken us at least half an hour to reach the quarry entrance.
When we eventually arrived, Johnnie insisted that we mustn鈥檛 go into the quarry itself, because of the dangers.

We began a snow fight which was a jolly good laugh, but we soon got bored, then Johnnie suggested that we make a big snowball. We kept rolling it and it became bigger and bigger, then it became too big for us to roll.

I found an old broken tree branch and together we placed it under one side of the great snowball we danced up and down on the branch until the snowball began to move.

Little did we realise what the outcome would be, soon the snowball began to move on it's own running down the mountainside freely. It began to get larger and larger as it made it's way down towards the Valley below.

Johnnie and I was terrified as we watched the large snowball head towards the allotment fences below. Someone up above must have forgiven us for our naughtiness. Because as the large snowball headed for the fence it went completely out of sight.

About thirty yards from the allotment fences was a large dip at the base of the mountain, Johnnie and I was so relieved that the snowball had totally broken up.

When we got back home we went into Johnnie's house and we both agreed that if anyone asked questions, we should say that we played out for a while, got cold and decided to go indoors and play games together.

N.B. Remember we were just children doing children's things, not really evil more of a mischievous nature.
I must bring to your attention that just recently on a news programme, a large snowball rolled onto a young boy with tragic consequences.

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