Hullo Old Home

[brian daley]

We were a right motley crew in that hut, there were Scousers,Mancs , Devon Boys, a local lad
from Lydney , a kiddie from Somerset and one from Cornwall,there was a Geordie ,he had an accent so strong that we took a while to grasp what he was saying ,there a Lad from Rochester too. Together ,we comprised the survivors, 2 more boys had slipped away after evening meal.
We represented the different classes that made up most of British society. One of the Devon Lads was really top drawer ,not aristocracy ,but from the upper middle class. He wore clothes that fitted him perfectly , Tattersal check shirts ,with a cravat and waistcoat ,topped with a classy blazer,he looked like he had walked in from a drawing room drama. . A lovely guy though, self deprecating and not all snobbish. Harry the ,Geordie was from the other end of the scale,from a mining village near Hartlepool ,he had Viking good looks and a perpetual laugh upon his lips .
Colin from over the bridge in Lydney , he had a shock of golden brown hair and an accent that had a soft Gloucestershire burr. He could see where he lived ,but he was a Vindi Boy now and there was no going home at night for him. Frank was from Manchester ,a quietly funny guy ,not pushy ,nor
sarcastic ,you could'nt help liking him , there was Dickie ,the kid from Rochester ,he was the closest to me in age and appearance ,but he came from a more affluent background than me, there was George and Alan too, but you have already met them. Of the rest of our hut,time and distance has
erased them from my memory. So, the task before us now was to get our uniforms in order.
We were expected to look like the boys who had met us at the gate ,but the outfits we had been given looked shapeless and were a bit ill fitting. Some of the older trainees came and gave us a few tips on how to smarten the uniforms up. The first thing was to swap sizes with kids who clothes were either too large or too small.We muddled through that and then we learn how to press the outfit and get those razor sharp creases , the secret was to run soap along the inside of the sleeves and backs down the inside of the trouser legs. When you applied a wet handkerchief over the intended area ,the application of a hot iron flattened the nap and produced very sharp ,creases.
Getting the beret to sit at the right angle was the next task ,badge over the right eye put a dimple just above the badge and then pulling it down to the left at a jaunty angle..Yes !! that was the business.
The boots took a little longer ,they were army issue and had a surface like a pebble dashed wall,
We had to bone them , this was done with the back of a tablespoon handle, .you had to exert maximum pressure and plenty of polish ,plus gobfuls of spit . It was hard labour ,but,as the week passed by those toecaps started to look like polished glass..That was'nt the only entertainment we had though . The camp had a sports hall and a big recreation room ,in which there was the biggest television that I had ever seen ,remember ,this was 1958 ,two channels only ,and both of those in black and white . But that t.v. ,it had a 36 inch screen ,enormous in them days ,and it allowed people at the back of the room to watch the programmes too. Not that there was anything you would want to see,outside of Oh Boy and Cool for Cats it was a bit of a waste of time when there was so much else going on. The music that filled our lives at that was made by Buddy Holly,Elvis ,
Connie Francis ,the Everleys,there was also Tommy Steele,Marty Wilde and a raucous newcomer with a mean streak ,bad attitude and the essence of teenage cool it was ,and I kid you not,Cliff Richard !! When he burst on to the screen singing "Move It" he had a snarling aggression that marked him out from all the rest of the British rockers ,you should have seen us Vindi Boys that Saturday night when he came on Oh Boy,we could'nt believe he was a Brit.
He took hold of that mike and snarled his song as his group laid down a beat that had us kids up and boppin ,hobnailed boots and all. Did'nt last long that eh? But that is getting ahead of meself.
We had to start learning some seamanship soon.