I am starting a short series recollecting episodes from my youth. These stories are largely true about the boys but I have inserted parts from the adults perspective to add some interest.
When I was twelve I was invited to stay for a half term holiday at the home of my best friend at school. We shared the same dorm and had similar interests, mainly sport and outdoor activities rather than the academic side of life. We coped with scvhoolwork and although we were not down for the same senior school we were the closest of friends.
William was due to go to his fathers old school. His granfather had also gone to the school and his two older brothers were there. William felt a lot of pressure to become team captain in all the sports at school and to learn to play the piano and violin, both of which he hated, and to do well in his school work.
Even at the age of tweleve I remember being glad that I was not William.
The time for the stay at William's house apoproached. We each chatted after lights out about the fun we would have.
I came from a well off background. My father was head of a large law firm in the city and mother remained at home to look after me and my two younger sisters. Of course as the oldest child and the only boy in the family, my dad had ambitions for me. What made matters worse was that he had not attended private school so he put me under some pressure to do well. In my family it was rare that dad ever needed to punish me. Up to the age of tweleve my mother did a good job on that front. I was often bending over my bed with her slipper spanking my bare bottom for all sorts of common childhood misbehaviour, mainly pranks or teasing my sisters. They were so easy to wind up!
I think the swinging sixties, with its liberal lifestyle, never arrived in our more old fashioned and conservative part of the country.
Mother packed my clothes for the week. Although I was at boarding school in termtime this was the firts time I had been away from home. It did not bother me and I was rreally looking forweard to spending a week with a boy rather than being in the company of my mother and my sisters. William's family owned a large farm and he had a pony. We wre in for a great week.
Tha morning I was due to leave my father deleivered the usual lecture about remembering my manners and I groaned, but not too much to upset him. My mother glanced that ''watch yourself'' look at me and so I agreed that I would be a good boy and not let them down. Williams dad was often buying land, my father added, and he used my father's firm for the legal work. My dad and William's dad met up for a business lunch every quarter, so any reports of bad behaviour would get back to him, he told me. I thought how great it would be to be an adult, they could tell their children what to do all the time and then whack them on the bottom until they cried if they misbehaved. I couldn't wait to stop being a shoolboy.
Mother drove me to William's home. I had not been there before and it took nearly two hours to arrive mainly due to me needing what we call today 'comfort breaks'.
We arrived in time for lunch and were met at the front door of a very large house by a lady I thought was William's mother, but it turned out to be a maid. I was really impressed that William had a maid, It made me feel more important to think that my best friend had a servant. I don't know why! William's house was much bigger than my house. Looking back it must have been massive because our family home is large and in fifteen acres.
As we were shown into the hall, I struggled with my suitcase, I saw William running towards me. He was calling out that it was great to see me. He was closely followed by this wonderful looking lady. She was quite beautiful and well dressed. She said hello to my mother and me and then she suggested that William and I take my case to his room and asked the maid to fetch my mother and her a coffee and sandwiches.
Willaim asked very politely if we could have lunch in the garden as it was fine weather and his mother agreed ( I thought it was starnge how he called her ''mother'' all the time, rather than 'mum'. She was constantly smiling and I think I had a crush on her. I thought Willaim was very lucky to have such a lovely mother as well as a maid and a huge house with a pony!!
We climbed the stairs and William showed me his room. It was huge and he had so may things in it. He pointed to a bed on the other side of the room to his.
''This is yours'' he told me, adding that George, who turned out to be the gardener, had brought it from a loft room that morning.
We ste off to explore the house. William had everything in his house. He showed me the outside of the rooms we were not allowed to enter, his father's study, the bar and a billiards room. There were so many other room that I thought I would get lost if Willaim was not there to show me around. At one point on the tour we met Willaim's older brothers, they seemed ok but the middle one pushed William to one side of the hallway. I guess he was showing me that they were in charge and anyway we were used to some minor bullying from older boys at school so we did not take much notice. William just accepted it and I thought that it was just what happened when you had an older borther.
We went into the garden and Wiliam sat at a table on the terrace. The maid arrived with lunch. At home my sisters or I always hepled mum take meals into and out of the dining room and I was amazed at what happened at William's house.
In the next part we will arrive at the intersting events that happened later that afternoon.