Harvesting

After Arnold had gone into the Guards Mr. Betison was short of help to carry in the corn harvest so I was volunteered for the job I was fourteen and fairly strong, Mr. Betison cut the corn with two horses and the binder, while I heaved the sheaves into fives or sixes ready for stooking into shocks to wait drying .On the first day I went home for lunch, Aunty wanted to know why I had not staid for dinner. It was explained to me that I was doing a mans work and part of the payment was meals included, so from then I staid for lunch crib or croust lunch afternoon break and a grand supper. The harvesting took about a fortnight and I worked every day except Sunday. In the second week we carried the corn in to build ri.cks in the farmyard. This was done by horse and wagon. One time I pitched up the sheaves with a pike while Mr. Betison was on the wagon to build the load up. The next time I built the wagonload while he led the horse and pitched the sheaves. When he found a sheave with lots of thistles he would ask if that was a hot one, while laughing .Whoever was pitching the sheaves would also lead the horse and wagon into the farmyard. Prince was a shire horse so you had to have a firm grip on his harness close to the bit because he was very strong .He also needed to be held well away to the right to avoid his big feet. In the evenings Uncle would help also some of the locals.

RATS.
Mrs. Gregor kept a few hens in a wire enclosure in her part of the garden. The hens had been disturbed and Uncle thought it was a rat inside the laying boxes. The run was rather auk ward to get at because it was up against the garden wall. Uncle said he could not reach in there. Aunty suggested sending the dog Tiney. Uncle reckoned she would not be up to the job as she was quite elderly b y this time and also not much larger than the rat he had seen. However Aunty insisted the dog was put inside and the small hatch door shut. There was a terrific noise of growling and squeaking. When we finally opened the door out came Tiney dragging a huge rat half as big as herself. She was very pleased with her killing and paraded it all down the garden path.

FOX & HOUNDS.
At school I was older than most of the classes as my father wanted us to stay till the end of the war. Mr. Payne began to teach me Trigonometry and advanced Geometry; I was using Algebra and logarithms. Logarithms and slide rules are no longer used now that we have computers .I used to stay and do mathematics while Mr. Payne took the rest of his class gardening over the allotment in the school house garden. One of these afternoons there were a number of other children in the classroom getting bored? The boredom amounted to watching the clock, someone suggested it was slow and climbed up and altered it a few minuets, then another boy not satisfied put it forward a bit more. The Bell monitor in the next classroom suddenly noticed the time and rang the bell, also outside for Mr. Payne to hear. We all went home about half an hour early. The next day we all had to suffer the consequences. We all had to stay after school to make up the extra time. There was also the episode of The Fox and Hounds game one dinnertime. There was a craze for this particular game, it was summertime and on this day I was elected as fox. of I went with the hounds having to wait for the count of one hundred to run after me , I managed to avoid them all and eventually made my way back to the school but unfortunately I was about half an hour late. We all had to stand for the next hour, and needless to say Fox and Hounds was band.

Iris and Sidney Lazenby were brother and sister, Sidney was about seven or eight Iris was years older than I .This was a large gap, but their personality gap was even larger. Iris was proper well spoken and demure; Sidney was forthright to the point of being rude or brash. He was always in trouble, at school for miner misdemeanours, he, but was not unpleasant just mischievous. Match boxes with spider’s beetles ants even newts or voles. When Mr. Hart called out Sidney to tip out his pockets we all knew it would take some time and would be farley entertaining. Iris seemed to try and distance herself from him .Iris was billeted with a farmer at Retyn. And stayed with the same family for the time she was in Cornwall where as Sidney got moved and shunted from one family to another, until they eventually both went home.

DENNIS
Dennis Dorrington and I were desk mates, weather it was the D.D. our initials or something else I do not know but Dennis always sat on my left hand side. Dennnis was very good at mathematics', I was rotten at mathematics'. Most other subjects we were even on, but my drawing was the only thing I was definitely better at. There was always a sort of rivalry on my part a feeling that he was Mr. Hart’s favourite pupil. He was very good at getting people to do what he wanted. After going home I kept in touch with him for quite a long while. Along with a number of other boys. I knew

THE STALLION
Thomas ***** was probably dyslectic although the disorder was not recognised at that time. he lived on a farm at Retyn . He had great difficulty with reading and at the age of twelve was still struggling with John and Mary books. He did try very hard and had a lot of praise from Mr. Hart. Thomas was very good at horses he could drive a four in hand i.e. four horses harnessed to a cart or wagon, he could get them to do anything he wanted he liked them very much and would not see them miss treated. One day he saw his younger sister with her friend talking to two horses, one a gelding the other a stallion and that if they talked soothingly to the horses in their high-pitched voices they could get the stallion exited. And see his member enlarge. It was as big as a mans arm. The horse was getting much exited when Thomas noticed what was going on. Said stop teasing the stallion, as there are no way you can satisfy him.

AMERICAN SOLDIERS
Just before D Day there were lots of American Troops in the district. All day long the troops marched down the A 30. Main road Mostly the British marched. TheYanks rode in their Lorries and tanks. All we had to do was to stand outside the school to get a showering of chewing gum.. We had never seen so many differing varieties’s and tastes. Suddenly there was a new craze collecting chewing gum wrappers .at this time Mr. Hart posed us a conundrum; what is the difference between a person chewing gum, and a cow-chewing cud. Answer it’s the intelligent look on the cows face. The waste paper basket by this time was sticky with discarded. Half chewed gum. I also remember the long white balloons drifting down the school lane The Americans had a compulsory issue of protectives which they had given away to children. One evening a jeep with four American soldiers pulled up outside the house they asked for water Uncle asked them in and Aunty provided supper. I thought they were all very young; they looked even younger than Wallace had looked when he was conscripted. They were far from their homeland and were very serious men Uncle tried to lighten the atmosphere by talking about his experiences in the U.S.A. I believed they left us some sugar and coffee, before climbing back into their jeep and disappearing into the night. I wonder how they got on as D-Day happened soon after.
On one occasion we got to climb all over a tank while the convoy waited to continue. Some of the Americans camped outside the village, in fields but the tank and truck wheels soon turned them into mud so steel holed sheeting had to be laid to give the wheels grip-Especially in gateway’s. The first group of Americans who arrived were all coloured troops they got on well with some of the local girls but when the American white G.I’s arrived there was fighting between the two and we had our first taste of coloured prejudice even knife fights were believed to have happened.

So many troops went down the A.30. That they must have been all crowded into the southwestern part of Cornwall. After D. Day we realized that some of it must have been a deception some of them must have been returning back to Devon under the cover of darkness. There was also the case of St Evil air- drome we believed that a set of landing lights were placed on the Goss moor for the Germans to bomb.

D-DAY THEN HOME.
Soon we got the news that allied forces had landed in France. Mr. Hart drew sketch maps showing how far our troops had progressed in fact he had done this from the N. African campaigns onward. Finally when Victory in Europe arrived we prepared and had big celebrations, in the Village, in the church and chapels everyone was very relieved. Mary and I began to have thoughts about going back to London, Mary to continue at school and me to get a job. I had already decided that I wanted a job in art or in a visual occupation. Mr. Payne advised me to go to life drawing classes, as soon as I could. Mr. Hart gave me his London address but in the excitement of getting home I must have lost it. He also gave me a lot of the paintings I had made in school, but a few were left with the Women's Institute.
We said our good by’s to all of our friends and neighbours and teachers I think Mr. Hart had to stay in Cornwall for a short while after we had gone. We said goodbye to all our Aunts and Uncles.
I cannot remember much about the first part of the journey home I believe we went to the village school and then by coach to a station that joined the London Train. We saw the devastation of Plymouth and wondered if London would be the same, we would soon know. The train took all day after it passed the Wormwood scrubs and Ladbroke Grove we knew we were home. After arriving at Paddington Station we were bussed to Oxford Gardens School where our parents had to sign for us and take us home.