大象传媒

In the summer there was a change of venue for our parade, it then took place round the bandstand in Abington Park, it was assumed that if you made repeated dates with the same girl that you had met then you would be 鈥榞oing steady鈥� after a while then such a couple would get engaged, that was the traditional way those days, a sort of understanding and commitment to one another. Something like a promise of marriage. Sometimes a couple could be engaged for years before being actually wed, more often than not waiting until they could afford to do so.
As we grew older, one by one the lads were spending more time with their girlfriends, so that our group became somewhat slimmer, we could count on meeting up with them at the County Ground either to watch the Cobblers or the County cricket team. That was of course in the days when the football club shared the ground, where also tennis and bowls were played, long before Sixfields was even dreamed of, I鈥檝e tried to recall players鈥� names of that period who turned out for the Cobblers but only a few come to mind.
Anyway I do remember goalkeeper, Bill Gormlie, Danny Toland, Shadow Wells, the Dawes brothers, Fred and Albert, Thane, McMenemy, MacQuire, Fanny Walden, and that is as far as I can go, maybe I can do better when I name the cricketers of the time, there was Jupp, Bakewell, Timms, Nelson, Clarke, Snowden, Northway, and Greenwood, Partridge and Bellamy, that is a little better provided that I have them in the appropriate order as it is quite easy I find, to mix up the seasons in which they played having followed each club for so many seasons.
My association with the county ground began at the age of twelve and I was fortunate enough to watch some of the great names of both sports who then graced the county ground. In the early days when I first watched it was only for brief periods, the first time that I set foot inside the ground was on a Saturday afternoon in 1930 while I was delivering parcels for the wool shop, I was allowed by the stewards to stand inside the gates in Abington Avenue and I saw the second half of a Division Three South match. I cannot remember who the opposition were that day, but from then on whenever possible I would arrange my deliveries to coincide with a match and to spend as much time as possible there, after a while I became known to the gatemen, I saw quite a lot of part games in that way.
It seems strange that after leaving school and working either as an errand boy or baker鈥檚 van boy I still found myself doing the same thing: calling round the same streets as before, indeed in some cases calling at the same houses and able to continue my calls in at the ground whenever it was possible, and that, when I was with Fred on the van, was fairly frequently because he was a sports lover and would switch the round so that we could time our Abington Avenue calls in order to get in a spell, of whichever was in season, football or cricket.
We knew when the gatemen were most likely to allow us inside and as all roundsmen wore a smock in those days they realised that we were dodging work for perhaps an hour and not intent on staying and would allow us in. It all worked out so well and made our delivery work that much more interesting, then amazingly when I took over the laundry round once again I worked that same area and with the County Ground on my route was able still to and watch occasionally.
As the summer of 1938 approached a few of us, about six in all, decided to set up a tented camp at Great Billing mill. As it turned out it was not always the same six for various reasons and there were others who came just for the odd weekend. In fact one of my workmates, Gilbert, came on one or two occasions. We were fortunate with regard to the weather for it turned out to be one of those rare long hot summers, so that we set up camp early in the year and as the summer rolled on it was just so ideal that we longed for the weekends to come around so that we could get over to Billing, to get our clothes off and into the water. I suppose that when we were young and healthy all summers were such as that one, sunny and hot. Whether that be so or not the one I write of was, and is the most remembered of my life.
It could possibly have had something to do with the freedom and relaxation in which we found in getting away from the uneasiness which most people then felt due to the daily news of the happenings in Germany, Neville Chamberlain had become Prime Minister in May 1937 and Winston Churchill鈥檚 lone voice was continually warning Parliament that the Nazis were hell bent on war and predicted what could happen if some means were not urgently found to halt the drift towards it.
So we camped each week from early summer and into the late autumn (an Indian summer?), sometimes staying over and sleeping there and going into work from camp. We swam in the locks nearby, but our evenings were spent at the 鈥楻oyal Oak鈥� or the Working Men鈥檚 Club in Cogenhoe, all the tents and huts were situated to the rear of the mill. This was long before the aquadrome was developed.
Those lads in full-time work would have to work on Saturday mornings others were able to go over early and open up the camp which amounted mainly to drawing enough buckets of water and buying eggs and milk. In my case I could not go until I had completed my deliveries, which depended on how soon my work was ready; once finished it was a matter of dash home, put some rations together and arrive at Billing as soon as I could.
We had a wind-up gramophone and a few records I can still recall a few of them, some 鈥榡azz鈥�, because that was most popular at that time and among them were some of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. A couple of tunes were 鈥楧inah鈥� and 鈥楪eorgia on my Mind鈥�, there were one or two cowboy songs of which there seemed to be a spate of them, one was 鈥楶rairie Moon鈥� and another 鈥楻oll Along Covered Wagon鈥� due no doubt to the number of Western films being made.
We did a lot of tree climbing and had much fun from the raft which we made and used in the stream which ran on into a small pond. At weekends girls came over to see us and to swim. We had lots of fun with them in the woods and fields. They went home at night of course, we could not accommodate them, as much as we would have liked to, it would not have been permissible for them to have stayed in those times. They would certainly have their parents to deal with as we were all considered to be minors, and not of adult age until we were twenty-one, being answerable to our parents most of whom ruled rather strictly.
Several of the lads, particularly those who were unemployed, had then joined the Territorial Army. It gave them a few bob in their pockets, a summer camp and training weekends, also there is no doubt that it did something towards their self-respect, where not being able to find work they felt unwanted, it helped restore their dignity.
It so happened that behind our camp a group of 鈥楾erries鈥� had set up their tents. One day I saw that they were setting up a boxing ring and being interested went along; I had owned a pair of gloves since I was very young, the sport in those days was much more popular then than today, with many boys participating, we could watch professional boxing every week within a few miles distance. There would be a programme at the Drill Hall in town, at Wellingborough, Bedford, Kettering, Rushden, and other nearby towns, we followed the progress of our Far Cotton welterweight, Norman Snow, he was the southern area champion and contender for the British title.
I became friendly with these men and spent a lot of my time with them, they seeing my interest, one day asked if I would like to put the gloves on and to do some sparring with them. I had never previously as much as set foot in a boxing ring and then the opportunity for me to do so was offered. So I accepted the challenge. I couldn鈥檛 at that stage back out anyway after appearing to be so keen, so I next found myself gloved and ducking under the ropes, facing a man about ten years older than myself and weighing I guess between ten to eleven stone. I began to wonder what my puny eight and half stone body was doing being within a mile of him.
My early thoughts that they were in need of a punchbag, and I was to fill that need - someone at whom they could throw punches with no threat of hurt to themselves. Nothing could have been further from the truth because I found that they required me to hit them. That was not so easy though, because whichever one was in the ring with me the result was the same; they were never where my flaying arms and fist were, I so rarely landed a punch on them; if I had done so I would have been surprised, I had been known around home and school from quite young as being able to fight, it was in fact said of me that 鈥渉e can use 鈥榚m a bit鈥� and what鈥檚 more I thought I could too.
A few bigger and stronger boys were reluctant to put the gloves on with me. There however, with those men, I was made to realise that I knew nothing, although learning fast. They really took me in hand and tried to instill in me something of the art of Boxing, as opposed to fighting, just slogging and striking out in all directions, each taking turns in my instruction teaching me to use my feet, to dance on my toes, how to cover up for protection and very importantly how to breathe.
There was much more too, most of which I have forgotten now. Some years later when I was an Army boxer, if I had remembered just part of what they had taught me then, it might have saved me from some of the bashings which I received.
I learned that they were members of their regimental boxing team and were training for a contest. But I was most surprised and disappointed one weekend to find that my friends had struck camp and left, maybe they had been recalled to their regiment and posted away. Such things were happening then, men were being called back into service and we were living in unusual times.
I would have liked to have said 鈥榗heerio鈥� to them and thanked them for their friendship and interest. For a while I felt a little lost in not being able to be part of what I had become to accept as their 鈥榤an鈥檚 world鈥� but at the same time grateful to have known them. This sudden parting was to be one of the many partings which everyone would become accustomed to in the years that followed.
As the long hot summer continued we enjoyed to the full the Great Outdoors, all of us brown-skinned and fit. Sleeping under the stars on balmy nights, the air filled with the scent of the recently-mown hay, our cooking for sure was not perhaps up to mother鈥檚 standard, but it seemed to do us no harm.
At the time many young and middle-aged people had taken up outdoor pursuits, probably encouraged to do so by the fine weather, hiking became a thing of the time. The walkers could be seen along the highways or over the fields dressed in shorts, wearing stout boots, long stockings, carrying a stick ambling along in groups of both sexes, footpaths then connected most villages, or by skirting edge of the farmer鈥檚 crops they could be reached and in that way avoided using the roads.
It is possible that the sudden urge for the Great Outdoors had something to do with what we had been witnessing on our newsreel screens at the cinema, where we were shown pictures of the Germans at their exercises, especially the young folk, the difference being that theirs were mass exercises and walks with their packs on their backs marching along and singing, as they went. But for them it was compulsory, part of the programme of fitness for all Germans which Hitler had instigated, where by order all Germans must be physically fit what he called his 鈥楽trength through Joy movement鈥�.
Winston Churchill, although at the time holding no government appointment, followed closely the rise of Hitler and his Nazi Party, and noted and informed our nation of the marching and drilling of German troops, and of the complete and extensive training for war, with the overwhelming mass of the population enthusiastically involved and supportive.
We were able to see evidence of this at the cinema where the screens displayed the fervour of the crowds of people whenever Hitler or one of his henchmen made a speech, ranting and spewing out hate, it appeared that the whole of the German race was in favour of the warlike aims of their leaders. Everyone with their hands thrust defiantly in the air in way of the Hitler salute.
One could wonder why after suffering so much from such a costly defeat only about eighteen years before, when they had lost so many of their country鈥檚 young lives and their economy in ruins, that they should be so ready, so keen to enter into another conflict which would be an event more hideous, destructive and devastating than any previous war, with the danger that such a conflagration would be so disastrous that it was foreseen that it might even destroy the whole of the world. And yet they were allowing themselves to be led into what was certain catastrophe.
It was not difficult to understand that when suffering so much poverty and deprivation after the last war, that when someone appears on the scene as Hitler did, to lead them and to give them the means to be able to purchase that loaf of bread, where previously there was none, with the promise of jam tomorrow, that they would be only too ready to support him. There was no doubt another reason as well for giving that support, and that was perhaps the lust for revenge after the defeat from which they had only recently emerged, and were enthralled with a leadership which could bring it about.
It was obviously difficult and dangerous to oppose the new regime in any way, because it had then secured such a hold on minds and actions that any dissident would be sure to be aware of the consequences, and readily dealt with by the Gestapo, and likely to be despatched to one of the concentration camps set up for the purpose. It was not only the Jews who were dealt with in that way but any political opponents, Communists, Trade Unionist, Gypsies, and anyone who got in their way.
In Britain at the time, in spite of the promises made, there was an air of troubled anxiety. Many of the aristocracy and some members of Parliament, particularly on the Conservative benches, were in favour of appeasing Hitler and would have gladly settled for a compromise. Among the population opinions varied, some would have settled for a pact of non-aggression if one could be obtained, mainly due to the fear of what would be the consequences of bombing which they expected the Luftwaffe would subject them to.
On 15th September 1938, Prime Minister Chamberlain met with Hitler and the whole country breathed a sigh of relief when on his return he was able to assure us that Germany had 鈥渘o further claims in Europe鈥� and that there would be 鈥減eace in our time鈥�. Pathe News showed him on the steps of the plane waving the piece of paper which was to have been a guarantee of peace. So it appeared that all was well, we all hoped so anyway, at least it gave us a breathing space. The wonderful long golden summer was at last drawing to its end and it drifted gently into a warm many-coloured autumn. I remember one of the popular songs of the time was 鈥楽eptember in the Rain鈥�, that was the one which the errand boys were all whistling, but for us at camp the whole month was rain-free, in fact only once or twice during the summer through did we witness any rain.
There was on one occasion a very heavy downpour, but it was quite welcome and made a refreshing change from the hot sultry spell. It was then that our tents (two bivouacs joined together with safety pins) let us down rather badly, they leaked in so many places that hardly a dry spot could be found. So that we more or less sat the night through huddled in wet blankets, with the morning though with everything laid out on the bushes all soon were dry again. How refreshed the earth seemed afterwards with a feeling of new cleanliness, the scents of the hedgerows and grasses, the fragrance of the fields appeared to be all the sweeter that morning, our little stream where we often laid down our sweating bodies to lap up its clear water as it flowed over the washed white pebbles, babbled along then in more than its usual hurry. The air too which always seemed to be that much cleaner than that of the town was even more invigorating.
After the Czech nation had been overrun our Prime Minister was still reluctant to rearm, still hoping for a favourable outcome to negotiations rather than to put ourselves on a complete war footing, but opinion began to sway towards those such as Mr Churchill who advocated a full rearmament programme, and that intensified after Hitler signed a Non-Aggression Pact with Russia, then with the likelihood of Poland being next on the list for the Germans to overrun there was a wholesale surge of people who were in favour of complete rearmament. In America there were statesmen who admired Hitler and the German Nation and thought that Britain would not survive many months and that we would soon succumb if war did come.
When getting up for work in the first week of October a low mist hung over the fields and locks where we had spent and enjoyed so much of our time that summer, and the dew glistened on the grass as we pushed our bikes out onto the road, deciding as we did so, to go over on the following Saturday and strike camp (actually what we meant was that we would pull down the remnants of the tents). And that is what we did, having gathered together what equipment we thought was worth salvaging we pedalled it home on our backs, with pots and pans dangling down from the handlebars and crossbars, to be stored away for use the following year, we were not to know then that no such summer would be ours to enjoy ever again, because in little less than a year we were at war with Germany. Just some very pleasant memories however still remain with me.
Our weekends then were resumed much as before, going to the dance on Saturdays. The first time we went I took a girl home who lived in one of the roads off St. Andrew鈥檚 Road, and we had to rush along because she feared that she would be late home, and was concerned because her dad who was very strict about what time she returned home. If she was late he would be angry. I intended to leave her at the corner of the street, but anyway carried on and turned the corner. I had no intention of confronting an angry father who would possibly blame me for keeping her out, but a little further on she said 鈥淗ere he is,鈥� and then I saw this shape hurrying towards us, and I am ashamed to tell of it now that I ran, putting as much distance between them as quickly as possible. Only later did I realise what a cowardly thing I had done.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.