Page 91 - Exile-ebook

90 AN EXILE OF THE MIND TIDDLERS IN A JAM JAR 91

kissed the girls and vice versa. An on ‘the book’ at the corner store
improved version of ‘Knock Down and farthings wrapped in silver
Ginger’ was to attach door knockers foil were rubbed in our hair to get
with string between houses opposite a better definition were mistaken
one another. As one door opened to for sixpences by the short-sighted
the tap, tapping we set in motion, storekeeper.
the opposite knocker would clatter A lone ‘duckling’ I rescued
in reply. Opening the door would was lovingly nurtured and
then activate the opposite knocker mutated into a large swan a
again. And so it would go on. few weeks later. I released
Knucklebones or Jacks was it on the canal and found it
also another popular game. waiting for me when I got
Five stones were tossed home. It left eventually.
and caught on the back Cows came mooing in
of the hand in dextrous from the nearby meadows
The corner store on Apostles Row, Countesthorpe Road, South Wigston. moves. My favourite was faded green in the dawning
conkers, played in the chill light. Their udders swol-
of autumn with chestnuts len with our breakfast. We
aplenty. Two opponents, each would lie in the soft dewy
with a chestnut threaded onto grass beneath a teat and pull
string, took turns to shatter the gently for a squirt of unpasteur-
opposing conker. And so I was ized milk. We finished off with a
introduced to cheating where feast of apples scrumped from
highly competitive boys would Big Mooney’s orchard when he
boil a conker in vinegar or fill it with wasn’t looking. In the spinney be-
glue. low we screamed in suspended fright
We moved to a house in semi- swinging over the creek on a knotted
rural Leicestershire in an uninviting rope tied to the overhanging branch
Photo: Paul Leicester. obscure reason. It was several pegs tallied for best fisherman.
terrace called Apostles Row for some of a tree.
Tiddlers were patiently hooked
down from the one we had vacated, with a bent pin, put in a jam jars and
at a much cheaper rent. Still church-

Blue Bank canal lock, South Wigston. mouse poor, my father had difficulty Our favourite sport was to shoot
finding work. Groceries were bought pointy-ended arrows into the air