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It was the summer holidays and my parents had arranged that Sheila came to play with me while my they went out to work. Sheila was the daughter of Win and Bob, and she had two brothers David and John, and an older sister called Maureen. Later on Maureen's new boyfriend, called Peter, introduced me to the group Pink Floyd and let me listen to their new album called Dark Side of The Moon which is the most fantastic album in the universe ever, except maybe Electric Warrior by T Rex. I thought that this was all really great and that I had arrived in the most bohemian world I could ever be in.
John later became a glass blower for nuclear waste at Dounreay Nuclear Power Plant and my dad later took photos of him blowing glass for a trade magazine. I was fourteen then, and I think it was 1973. But I digress, let's go back to the summer holidays.
Sheila and I played in my bedroom with dolls and card games, and went through my collection of board games. We were playing by my built-in cupboards and I had the idea of going in them to hide while Sheila closed the door on me. I knew that my dad was due back soon and we concocted the idea of writing a “kidnap” note along the lines of “Dad, I have been kidnapped and taken away, you will get further instructions soon”.
We left it sellotaped to the bedroom door and tucked our bodies in side the cupboard, giggling and heaving with delight. We waited a little while in expectation and then heard his key in the lock downstairs, as entered into the hall way. All was silent. We heard him look round downstairs and then running upstairs; you knew it was him as his money always rattled in his pockets.
He came in the bedroom. We held our breath and looked at each other, with a glee of fear as he ripped off the note, sighed loudly and ran downstairs again. We burst out of the cupboard and giggled loudly. The front door slammed and he drove off. I then realised he was going to pick my mum up by car from her morning part-time job as it was lunch time.
I then got a cold stab of fear as to how he would be reacting when when he got back with my mum. He wasn't very pleased and my mum told me that it was a good joke but I should have told him immediately that it was a joke before he left to pick her up. Later on we watched the evening news; milk had gone up a penny a pint and he was upset over that, then he looked at me and stuck his tongue out at me.
We had boiled eggs for tea.
