Archive: “Youth”

My first employer

At the age of fifteen I went to work at a garage in Orpington where the proprietor was a singularly stupid man called Bert Ditcher. In his capacity as storeman he used to wear a khaki knee-length coat. One day he needed to order a new one so he went around to all the employees […]

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Cycling

Bicycle

I can remember being taught to ride a bike by my older brothers. The majority of these lessons took place at a remote edge of the local park, in the evening, when the park keeper had gone off duty! The grass was short and did me little harm in the inevitable crashes, which preceded my […]

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