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At the point the moving van was unloaded, many of the local children of the village came to see our arrival, there was little to do in the village and anyone new moving in was of interest.
The rest of the day was spent unpacking, I was pleased with the attic, compared with everywhere else I had lived it was unusual, large wooden beams were exposed at various points, these both my mother and myself often seemed to hit with our heads with quite painful results.
My attic bedroom had a small window in the side wall, had there been a fire it would have been possible to crawl out of this and along the roof of the shop that was at a slightly lower level.
Moving to my new attic room had been quite easy, my toys, clothes and other possessions that I had in my bedroom in London all neatly fitted in.
There was not room for a full size wardrobe in my room; however my uncle gave me one that had come from their house. It was possible to stand up straight in the central part of my bedroom, but the sloping roof made most of the bedroom only suitable for storing items.
Within a few days my aunt had suggested boys of my own age that were suitable as friends, all were eager to see what my attic room was like, as they lived in conventional houses, to have part of a house where you were alone seemed rather scary to them, but in my mind it was ideal.
A disappointment for them was that I had not brought a wide range of toys with me, having seen a large moving van with possessions for just three people, that few items were my toys was strange.
There was a slight problem of was explaining my past. I had little idea what my aunt and uncle had told any of my friends about me prior to my arrival.
I omitted any references to my life at the Home and before, simply explaining that I had been at school in London.
They had expected me to bring clothing that were the height of London fashion, as most of my clothes were more school type or for best it was a disappointment. I was teased when they searched my wardrobe and found my riding breeches and boots, it appeared none of them had ever ridden a pony or horse. If I asked casually if they knew anyone even if it was a girl that had a pony it drew a blank. Football it seemed was the only game or sport that anyone played in Blunsdon.
A few of my new friends might have on occasions found me a bit nervous or that I was easily upset.
Since leaving the Home I had managed to adapt to a more normal lifestyle, but I was still on edge both day and night.
It would have been nice to be able to tell my best friends about my life for the last three years, but my mother had wanted me to make a fresh start and put the memories of living in the Home out of my mind.
It would just take a decision from my mother, aunt or uncle that perhaps I would be best going back to the Home, if I did not get on with them all.
There was always the constant worry for me that I might get sent back if things did not work out.
When my bed was first made up my mother told me that I still should have a red rubber sheet on my bed. When she was sure I was settled, then the decision could be made to see if it could be taken off my bed, but only if my bedwetting and the nosebleeds had finished at night.
The only way it really affected me was when friends were invited up to my room. If a boy of my own age found such an item on my bed, it might cause teasing, if he ever fell out with me, the teasing in front of friends as we were in the top year of junior school would have been humiliating.
For the moment it was to stay on my bed, since I arrived there were still a few night problems. It was the fear that I might be returned to the Home that caused the upsets.
At first I expected my mother to punish me, and was quite ready to be caned by her, but no punishments were given. My only thought that she might ask my uncle to give me any punishments, as it was his house that we lived in.
My friends often came to my room, only one boy ever noticed it on my bed, and never seemed to mentioned it to any of the others.
I thought another of my friends might have realised I still had a rubber sheet on my bed. One Saturday, he had been given several chores to do. The best part was to have a bonfire of all the rubbish and other junk that had accumulated over the last year. As there were some heavy old bits of furniture, I had been roped into help.
As well as moving the junk, time was spent by the pair of us deciding what items his mother had told him to get rid of, that might be worth keeping. The original task should have taken less than an hour; slowly the bonfire pile was starting to grow. We could have set fire to it straight away, but both of us decided on one good blaze at the end.
One item, he brought out of the house and announced to me that it was no longer needed, was a large canvas sheet, with a stitched rubber sheet on top, trailing from this were some wires and a small box. He told me that the buzzer sounded if you ever wet the bed, but it had never stopped him wetting the bed.
I was asked did I ever have one of these on my bed. I told him that I had only been given an ordinary rubber sheet, rather than anything with a buzzer.
He told me he was back to the ordinary type, as it didn't happen much now he was eleven. I said that one was on my bed as was still needed on odd nights. We wondered how many of us at our age still had them on our beds and how many of us did need them. It was never something we would really admit to our friends about.
I told him that my mother used to hit me with the plimsoll for bedwetting, but since we came here she has not bothered. He told me that when his father lived with them he was often smacked, but now he didn't get hit.
We salvaged the buzzer and spent a little while working out in which order the wires went together to get it to sound. Tasks like this took time when we should have been concentrating on the moving of the rubbish out of the house.
Eventually we started the bonfire, his garden was big enough to allow the fire to take hold and burn down without causing any problems.
SCHOOL
With the summer holidays not been far away, there was the hope that I would not have to start school until after the holidays when senior school would start, but a local junior school had a place available, I would go there for the last few weeks of the term. Returning to junior school was a bit disappointing.
As it was a village school, there were not several classes to each year but instead one class covered a complete year. It seemed a little strange where for some lessons we were taught as one group and for others small groups according to ability were formed.
I reasonably settled into school life with out getting into too much trouble. As I went home for lunch I managed to miss the event where several of my friends were given the cane by the headmaster for throwing small amounts of potato during the meal, but having already received similar punishment for that type of crime whilst at the boarding school, it would not have been a new event.
I was told that if the headmaster gave you the cane it did not hurt that much, if it was given by our teacher you were always in tears afterwards.
An event at school I was to be involved in was to be caught exploding full rolls of gun caps in the lids of our desks during our afternoon break period.
The five of us had been taken out into the playground; our punishment was in front of everyone that was out at play. All thought it was sever punishment to be hit on the rear with the three foot long board ruler by our master, the open space of the playground allowed him to get a good swing with the board ruler, all that were watching could hear the loud crack as it hit our rears.
The sharp edges made it seem to my friends to hurt more than the cane, in my mind it was about equal for pain with the cane used on my legs. We were all in tears, in the last year of junior school, it might have been felt we should have been able to take such pain. It was that every boy and girl here could see our pain that made it worse.
Once released, we headed for the boy's lavatories to see if there were any marks. As it was summer we had all been in rather thin school shorts, if it had been winter then thick school shorts would have lessened the pain. The edges of the long ruler showed up as two lines, although we had only each been hit three times, the marks made it look as if we had been given six strokes of the cane.
The only reason our teacher had selected the board ruler to punish us with was that the cane was in the headmasters office and it was locked at the moment. As this was a village school, by the time we were returning home at the end of the day many parents soon knew about the few of us that had been punished.
There was a hope of keeping such matter a secret from my mother, it did not take long for her to hear about the events of the day. Even before we had sat down for tea, one of the other parents had been in the shop and mentioning to my aunt that I was one of the boys who was punished that afternoon. There was no real telling off at tea for the events, it was just hoped from my mother I would not be in any further trouble.
On going to bed that night my mother wanted to know if I was still in any pain. I replied that it still felt a little tender, there was a rather embarrassing moment when I had to display the marks to her. There was little sympathy from her, in her view it was my own fault next time I should be not involved if others were doing stupid things.
SUMMER HOLIDAYS
Holiday time in the village was even more boring than the rest of the year, to me there seemed so few things to do.
If I wanted a holiday away from the village, then the NCH organising two weeks of my summer holiday was slightly odd.
The majority of my friends seemed to be going with their parents to a wide range of locations, some were going to the seaside, one was going camping and a couple of the really lucky ones were travelling abroad.
When I left the Home, if I had been asked, 'Would you like to spend two weeks of your holiday in a Children's Home?' The answer would have been a definite No. This offer of a holiday was phrased in a slightly more attractive format, but it was still in reality that my life for two weeks was to be in a Children's Home.
Life in the village must have been so boring for me to have accepted it instantly.
On meeting up with the group that were going on the holiday, it was easy to see that we were quite a mixed assortment between eight and twelve years of age.
If there was an odd feeling when we did move into the Home, it was the thought of was this really going to be a holiday, or was it a way of getting us back into care?
Only the adults reassuring us that the regular residents would want the place back in two weeks time, made us settle into the place and start to have some fun. If there was one reason that we might have wondered if the original residents were coming back, it was every trace of them and their possessions had been removed.
All of us had been various Homes so we all knew how we should act. However this was our holiday, we were going to have fun. On our arrival we had been given a short lecture over the various rules we needed to follow and that if we misbehaved even if this was our holiday, we would be punished with either the cane or plimsoll, any of us that were ten or over would be receiving the cane for any problems of bad behaviour.
With memories of the slipper from the Houseparent on the last holiday I had with them, I could guess that as I was older, the punishments might be worse. All of us having been in their care knew these were not normally just threats.
The staff had worked out who was going to sleep with who in the various bedrooms, we might have wanted to change the ideas, but they were quite firm.
I was quite pleased with the two boys in my room, as we were all aged between ten and twelve, both wanted to see how much fun could be allowed, before the staff started to punish us or give poor reports to our parents.
The room I was in was at the very end of the building that was over what once must have been a garage and had now been turned into a laundry room and ironing room. The three of us had been told not to be scared if in the middle of night if we heard rumblings it was either the washing machine or the boiler firing up.
Our room was equipped with a trap door, in the case of a fire we would be able to exit our room if the narrow corridor that lead to our room was blocked. In the normal way this room appeared to be used as the sick room rather than an ordinary bedroom as it allowed anyone that was ill total quiet from the rest children in the building.
In a cupboard in our room there were extra clean sheets and blankets if we needed them, it was hinted that it was hoped we still knew how to fully make our beds in the morning.
The other interesting area just outside our room it was a concealed cupboard that ran the length of the passageway in a roof space.
We had been told that any clothing or sheets that needed to be washed were to be put down the trap door, the other rooms had laundry baskets to put their dirty things in. The benefit to our room, it was that we did not have to share the main bathrooms that were for the other boys and girls.
We had our own washroom and bath close to our room, the only problem was that this was in between two staff bedrooms so there would be little opportunity for any fun, for a lavatory it was a walk to the far end of the corridor to share the main boys' lavatory.
Eventually the staff managed to get various groups off to bed, today it was easier to get us to bed in room groups rather than by age. Our advantage was that our odd room was left until last.
There was jealousy from the others that we were not been hurried off to our rooms, if there was a threat from the other boys it was for fun, it was that they would get revenge for us having such a privilege.
The staff knowing how much of a nuisance the two rooms of boys could be, sent them off first before even turning any attention to the girls. Our eventual turn came much later.
When it came to us going to bed we found some of the boys had got their revenge, someone had managed to sneak into our room.
As it was mid summer the three of us had each been given a glass of water on our side tables for if we felt thirsty in the night, this was down to the water in our bathroom was not fit enough to drink.
When we had unpacked our cases and left the room the glasses had been full, now they were empty. The mischief had only taken a few minutes, the contents of the glasses was now in each of our beds.
The staff were tired of us all after a full day of collecting us all and settling us in. As it was almost ten o'clock we were persuaded that the damp patch in our beds was not too bad, if we lay at one side of the bed there would not be any discomfort. Having to see that we made up our beds with dry sheets at this time of night was not something they wanted to do unless we were totally upset over the matter.
The three of us could see it was not worth causing trouble; the adults having got the other two boys rooms settled were not going to bother asking questions tonight as to who was responsible. Bed making was a chore we did not want to do at this time of night.
We settled down in our beds and the lights were turned off, if we had wanted to cause problems we could have told the staff we felt thirsty, but that might be the final breaking point.
This was our holiday; there were still twelve days of punishments available. Our beds were not too uncomfortable; as it was rather warm and stuffy in our rooms the slightly damp bed was actually very nice.
When the lights were out we were meant to be silent and quiet, with our room so isolated from the others we were able to talk without the risk of a telling off.
As long as the member of staff was around in the morning to tell the other staff, that a glass of water had been put in our beds there should not be the risk of a caning. Each of us had a red rubber sheet on top of the mattress, so no real damage had been done.
In the normal way I was always an early riser, with our late night the three of us had to be woken up. We appeared to be responsible enough once woken up for us to get out of bed and go for our wash.
Allowed to get up on our own was a blessing, as all three of us got out of bed at the same time there was evidence that our beds seemed much damper than the night before.
There was no shame, it was just hysterics and fun between us, it might have been just our reactions during the nights in lying on a damp sheet that we wet our beds, but each of us could have had the inkling that although we would not admit to doing it on purpose, we did not do anything to prevent it.
There was slight fear of what the staff would say, whilst they could ignore the slight dampness from a glass of water soaking our sheets, there might not be any forgiveness over our sheets now.
We swore ourselves to secrecy over the matter and admitted that whilst we had been in care we had each had some wet beds. We all knew that they would be keeping a note of any problems, ready to report to our parents at the end of the holiday.
The evidence of our sheets and pyjamas now vanished down the trap door, before any of the boys from the other rooms visited us. If we were going to get a caning, it would only be later when the staff found our sheets and pyjama trousers in the laundry.
The bonus was that none of us had to travel the length of the corridor to the lavatory. As the bathroom had a shower, we all used that rather than bothering to fill a bath each. The adults also used this bathroom so we had to leave it neat after use.
While we dressed we were planning revenge, our only need was to find out which of the rooms was responsible. They were bound to soon boast about getting us, if we were going to be caned, they would have to suffer to in some way.
During breakfast we were all in good moods, various members of staff were also eating breakfast with us to keep some form of table manners under control.
In rather loud voices so that the whole table would hear, there was a question from a few of the other boys directed to us three. As to did all three of us wet our beds last night? We were narrowing down the culprits, as none of them had seen us since last night we knew they had the full details of the prank.
Staff that had not yet been told about the deeds of the mischief makers, now came to what they thought was our rescue and explained that some of us might be unsettled at returning to such a group, there was no problem if we wet the bed, as this was a holiday such events didn't matter.
Most of the table must have been unaware of the original event and would have been sympathetic to the three of us. It was four boys now laughing at us, that they could not understand.
It was a little embarrassing for the three of us, that now most at the breakfast table thought we had been put in our own single room for that very reason so as not to be teased by the others over bedwetting.
The staff having more important matters on the events of today now brought more interesting attention to everyone on what would we like to do today.
With breakfast over, a few boys came up, they were a little sorry that their joke had not been explained to the rest at breakfast. They were happy that we had not told on them and none of the staff had punished them over the matter, they could guess that it would have been the cane.
We did not let on that at least one of the staff already knew about the trick that had been played on us, in our minds it was best to let them think we had admitted to wetting our beds rather than getting them into trouble.
An apology made things a little better; we had in our minds though if there was to be any fun and we needed victims we had an easy short list forming.
The day went off quite happily, we were informed as to all the trips and events that were planned, most would occur as to the weather, this Home was really just the base for us to work from, and the confinement of its grounds was not really going to apply during this holiday. In the evening a more organised assortment of bedtimes according to age was sorted out, our room could not be visited by the other boys without us knowing. There was not really much difference in bed times for us due to age, we were sent off quite early, simply down to having our own washroom to use.
Our three glasses of water were full to the brim. If we could cause trouble we soon thought of a way. If our beds were soaked for a second night then the staff were bound punish the other boys for this repeat nuisance, even if they were actually innocent.
It would be just revenge for the embarrassment we had been made us to feel at breakfast today, we wondered if we would be able to hear the four getting the cane.
Pouring the glass of water in our own beds seemed a bit drastic, but it was the only way to prove to the staff that there had been a repeat of the events from last night.
Eventually a member of staff came round to see that were in bed, she had not been told of the prank that was played on us last night, so took little notice that the glasses were empty, all she had known was that we were teased at breakfast time over our bedwetting.
We did not have the chance to explain that our beds were already were wet again tonight. We were told that she was sorry that we all had night time accidents, if we were teased by the others we should tell the staff, but if we did not let the other boys know of our problem they could not really tease us.
Sympathy from staff at the Home was a very rare thing to receive, all three of us now played up to her. If we were good and made our beds with clean sheets from the linen cupboard each morning, she would see that we had an extra reward of sweets each day.
Finally we were left alone; all of us wished that we had been looked after this way in the various Homes we had been in. That there was a possible reward for bad behaviour was certainly odd.
We were not as tired as last night; we simply spent most of the evening chatting. Now we were friends we were able to talk about our time in care.
The sweets the following day were given to us without any telling off over our wet beds, that we made up our own beds seemed the important matter.
During the holiday we repeated our actions each night, but never all at one time, and were rewarded with extra sweets each morning, all we had to do was then share out the rewards between ourselves. The other boys never knew about our rewards we were receiving, had they ever found out, either our lives would have been a misery or there would have been a large number of sheets to wash each day.
MY RETURN HOME
Shortly after returning to the village the Child Care Officer came to see us to see how the holiday had gone. For a while I was seen on my own. We discussed the 'minor night time problems' as she put it, that had happened during the holiday and the reason why they had occurred. I had told her it was over my fear of returning into the Home.
As the reports from the staff had been good and that I seemed to have enjoyed myself during the holiday, she seemed to understand that the problems at night mattered little to me.
After a time she wanted to have a chat with my mother without me around. I disappeared for a short while. Eventually I was called down, just to say goodbye.
Once she had left, my mother told me that it appeared that I had been generally good and behaved myself during the holiday, and there was no bad comments about me from the staff. The Child Care Officer had told her that I would be invited to go again next year if I wanted to.
My mother now questioned me as to had I been really happy; I could guess that something had been said about the night events. I simply told my mother that there had been a few upsets, and I thought it was down to sharing a room in a Children's Home again.
The explanation seemed to be accepted, my mother thought that I would not have to go back into the Home to live, as I seemed to have settled here.
With the knowledge now that I would not be put back in the Home, it ended any night problems that I had from this point onwards. SENIOR SCHOOL 1968
The final item that had been given to us at the primary school were details of when we should appear at our new school and information as to what our new uniform should consist of.
Having attended several schools, uniforms could be either non existent or very detailed as to our needs and even down to the exact shade of colour of various items. To my mother the list for the senior school although not horrendous in quantity, would leave a big hole in funds.
My uncle and aunt purchased the blazer for me with the correct senior school badge on the pocket, together with the school tie. Long grey trousers were the other major item to purchase, now I was just over five feet in height I was very happy not to have to wear shorts to school.
Shirts, pullovers and the like could survive from before the summer holidays provided I did not grow too fast, most of these had been new a few months ago. The games kit was the other extra item that was needed, shorts of different colours for PE or games, most things in my games kit were new for the start of school year.
A pair of football boots and a pair of shoes were purchased together with a few other items from a mail order catalogue on weekly terms; this slightly lessened the money that my mother had to find. A few other items like pens, pencils and drawing items were finally added to the new assortment.
The final few days was spent myself dreading the first day of school, if I was starting a new school on my own I would have been less fearful.
The morning arrived, for our new school we needed to wait at a central location in the village for two school coaches to arrive to take us the four miles to the local county town.
Those of us starting huddled together for safety at first, if there was one surprising thing I noticed on meeting up with my friends it was that none of them were wearing the uniform that had been requested, eventually one other friend turned up with a correct blazer.
I had been worried about been teased for having the correct uniform, my friend with the blazer took all the teasing as he was still in shorts, there had been the intention for him to have long trousers but these had not arrived in time.
On talking to my friends the general thoughts on school uniform were that it was a luxury that their parents did not want to fork out for, their only contribution it seemed was for long trousers.
The two coaches arrived, with us been new, the pupils that had previously attended the school took their normal places, those in the last year now bagged the empty rear seats that had become vacant by the previous years leavers.
There was one part of attending this school that might give me a problem it was coach travel, ordinary bus travel is fine, I can travel for any length of journey, coach travel however is totally different, it is the more enclosed feeling or the softer ride. Travel sickness often was a result, throwing up on this first ride to school was something I was dreading. All of us that were new to the school stuck in one group; eventually we were ushered inside and together with other new pupils were grouped in one area. For most of my friends attending a school of this size was awe-inspiring, but compared with the London school I had attended there was nothing odd about the numbers.
Finally assembly was over, all of us that were new were kept back to be allocated to our various forms. I was quite used to the word form, most of my friends were confused until they realised it was simply a more grown up name for the word class. The allocation of forms it seemed was by results that had been passed to the school from the various primary schools we had attended.
My name together with a few other pupils did not appear to be on any of the lists, there was just a thought of horror in my mind that perhaps I was at the wrong school, but knowing that I had not passed an eleven plus exam that was still in use in this area and that the grammar school was not where I should be, simply coming from the village meant that this must be the correct school. Eventually it was found out that I had joined the primary at the very end of term, the results of achievements had already been forwarded to this school before my arrival.
With the teachers having no idea how bright the last few of us stragglers were. A short oral test of a few questions on general knowledge was now given to each of us.
This perhaps was the worst way of testing us for ability, it appeared that I did quite well out of the group, it might have been that the others were simply a little fearful of their new surroundings or were more used to sitting down with pen and paper to give answers.
That my handwriting was not examined at this point, resulted in me been allocated into the 'A' stream, having known my results in our group at my last school the 'B' or the 'C' stream were nearer my mark.
Please click on the link. This will take you to the NCH file on my stay with them, and might explain matters.
http://www.philipastrangechild.com/page_1170507936578.html 
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