So, after we moved into the cottage in Darsham me and my brother had a nice time mostly. We had a lot of freedom to roam, and the family next door had two children a son called Alec and a daughter Carol, I think their surname was Robinson. The children were both older than me but were friendly I would sometimes go of on walks to the woods with Carol when my brother Brian was out with Alec. I got my first bike while here and soon learned to ride it. On one memorable day I rode across the bridge in our garden that crossed a deep ditch that ran through the garden. I say I rode across it, but I skidded on the slippery railway sleepers that it was made from and fell into the ditch. With my bike on top of me. Brian alerted my dad who ran to my aid. He jumped into the ditch and threw the bike onto the bank followed by me luckily there was not a lot of water running through it at the time. Sometimes there was a couple of feet as it carried the runoff from some of the fields around us. I went to the village school which had two classrooms separated by a wooden divider. I wish I could remember my teachers name it may have been Edwards I can remember how she looked, and I remember sitting on her knee. She would probably be accused of child abuse now, but she was very nice. We had PE in the playground which often involved climbing a rope hung from a tree I recall her standing below as if to catch us if we fell. On the way home from school walking with my mother and sister we would often see a man called Nobby Clark in his garden he would always ask me what I was going to do when I left school. I am going to join the merchant navy I would reply. That never happened as at sometime in my future I was told I was colour blind as it turns out I don’t think I am.

While at Darsham I learnt a skill that I still have, with the help of my brother I learned to smoke. This came about because while my mother was in the garden Brian would ask me to keep watch while he made a cigarette from her tin in exchange he would let me have a few drags on it. After stealing the cigarette, we would go to some old cars that were lined up in a unmade road opposite our house get in and smoke. I can remember going for a family walk and encountering an electric cattle fence for the first time Brian told me it was switched of which was a lie. I seem to have been drawn to electricity around this time because on some Sundays we would go by bicycle to walberswick. This is where my Fathers parents lived, on the way home I would receive several shocks from the headlight on his bike as I was sitting on a seat attached to the crossbar and would be holding the handlebar which the light was attached to. One day when the water that ran through the ditch in our garden was running fast Brian Alec and I decided to block the tunnel that ran under the road into our garden. We went across the road into a meadow and blocked it with a five-gallon drum and bits of wood. This was very exciting because the water rose extremely fast and started to flood the meadow. I don’t know how my dad found out but he came along and unblocked it which was disappointing as I recall.