大象传媒

This is a true story about a man who served in the 39/25 war.First we must look at the way he was brought up.When he was about 12 years old his parents split up,his two brothers,and sister went with the mother,but he had to stay with his father.The father was a selfmade man who had his own bus company,he ran three buses in London.He also had his own garage to park the buses,and a four storey house next to the garage.He also had petrol tankers that delivered to Service stations.The future soldier was named Percy,and he didnt have things easy like other childrenof his age,for instance one day percy ask for some money to go to the cinema,and the father's reply was,if you want money you must earn it,of course percy had no idea of what he had to do to to earn money.One day he noticed one of the tanker drivers go to the back of the tanker which was empty,and turn on a tap,and a small amount of petrol came out.The driver used it to wash his very dirty hands.Percy ask where did this small amount of petrol come from if the tanker was empty,and he was told there were three small compartments at the bottom of the tanker to catch any water thet might be in the petol,and these copartments must be syphoned out every now and again.Each of the compartments hold about half a gallon of petrol,and the water can be seperated by using a special sieve.The driver said he usually throws the petrol down the drain because he cannot be bothered with it.Percy said he would do the syphoning each night,which he did and after getting the water out he would sell the petrol to the people who garaged their cars there.His father had two tankers,so he did them both.Another little job he had to do for his father,and that was to mind the garage while he went out drinking with his friends.Percy had to look after the garage until the night washer came to was the buses,that was about 11oclock each night.Anothe little income he had,people used to park their cars for a few hours,and they were charged a shilling for the evening,out of that shilling Percy got threepence.Percy was doing quite well for money now,so he used to save it for when he went on holiday with his mother who lived round the next street.Percy left school when he was 14 years old and his father told him to go and get a job,and dont come back without one.He did manage to get one in a cinema selling ices chockalate and cigarettes.He liked this job because now he can see the films for free.This went on for a couple of years,then his father was forced to sell his buses to the London Transport him and all the other indepentant bus owners of which there were quite a few.They were called pirate bus owners.Of course the were compensated for the lose of their bisiness.Now the father was quite wealthy,and decide to move from London to Buckingham,where he bought a house in a place called Langley near Slough.Again Percy was told to get a job,and he got one at Liptons in Slough.At first he was a bit of a dogsbody,had to scrub the floors each morning at opening time.Later on he was taught how to dress chickens ready for the oven,and how to skin and chop rabbits.He finally left Liptons and got a job driving for Macfisheries.Percy learnt how d to drive when he was in the garage in London.The bus drivers gave him leassons,and he passed his driving test first time.He was working in Macfishereis until the war came.He volenteered for the navy with several of his friends,but he was the only one that didnt get in,just because he was colour blind.at a later date he was called up for the Army,and he was put in the R.a.s.c because he was able to drive.He had to do his military training then sent to a driving school to be tested.He was a very good drver and was given the job of teaching other men to drive.He became very popular with the learner drivers,because he would not keep to the desinated routes,which were very boring,he would take the men to where his girlfriend lived,and they would all have a cup of tea,then back to where he should have been.He was lucky to have this job,because after the men passed their test they were shipped of to all sorts of places,some to France.Percy was lucky he was kept back as an instructor or else he might have ended up in France.After a while the driving school closed for some reason maybe they had all the drivers they neede.Percy was posted to Aldershot which was a working company.It was a nice barracks with about twenty men to a large room.For some unknown reason he got on very well with the sargeant.One day Percy got in a spot of bother with the corperal who slept in the same room as the twenty me.It was avery rainey day and anybody that was fully kitted up was told to get outside,Percy didnt fancy standing in the rain waiting for the otheres getting ready,so he just stood waiting,the corperal said I gave you an order to get outside,Percy said Sod You I am not standing in the rain.At this the corperal said you are in a charge for swearing at me.this meant he would have to appear in from of the company officer.The next day he did have toappear in front of his captain.the charge was read out,and was ask ,what do you have to say foryourself.After telling the officer why he didnt want to go outsde in the rain and wait for the others,he was told because of the serious charge the captain said he would remand me for the colonel.The captain could give me 28 days punishment,but the colonel could give me much more,and this didnt look very good for me.After I was marched out of the orderly room,I went to the sargeant,and told him I wanted an interview with the captain,this he agreed to do.After a while I was marched back in front of the officer,and he said if it anything to do with my chatge he couldnt listen to me.At this I really let go,saying this corperal was always picking on me for all sorts of things,and that if he kept on I would desert.This outburst really shook the officer up,and said I shouldnt say things like that,so I said that is the state he has got me in.The officer then ask the sargeant if he knew about this,and he said he had been told by me,but he thought it would blow over.At that the officer sent for the corperal,and I was marched out.In went the corperal,and when he came out after about five minutes,he looked daggers at me.I was marched in again to confront the officer,and he said after considering my case he would give me seven days CB which means confined to the barracks for seven days.This suited me fine,it was better than landing up in the Glasshouse which was a military prison.From that day on Percy had no more trouble from the corperal.
Each night one of the drivers had to spend a night in the Company office in case the phone would ringPercy got this duty one night,and while he was ther he would rummage through the drawers to see what he could find,and lo and behold he found some blank passes these he would stamp with the Company name,and if any man in his company wanted to go away for the weekend he would sell him one of these passes,signed with a factious name.Whenever Percy was going away for the weekend he would tell the sargeant he was going,and he would say if you get in any bother,let me know so I can mark you absent,of course this would never happen because he alwaus had one of these passes to show the Red Caps if he was pulled up.
There was another corperal that took a dislike to Percy,maybe because he was so friendly with the sargeant.He would always hang aound where ever Percy was.This got up his nose,so he decide to do something to show the corperal up.

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