When Phil was a little boy, about the age of four or five, living in Orchard Cottage, Station Road, Sawbridgeworth with his family, he was often put into the care of his brother Steve who was five years his senior. They were free to roam and would stay out of doors for hours at a time. Sawbridgeworth at that time was a kind of big village with a network of footpaths, right of ways, back alleys and twitchels, all of them free from cars and quite safe.
Garden boundaries were not always boy – proof.
Phil recalled one such outing on a fine, late summer’s day when he and Steve and a friend of Steve’s, whose name I forget, found themselves in a small, somewhat neglected orchard, containing a derelict looking greenhouse, where the apple season had come and gone and the long grass was strewn with rather small, fallen apples.
Steve’s friend, who shall be nameless, picked up one of these apples and lobbed it at the greenhouse. They were rewarded with the satisfying sound of shattering glass and swiftly legged it to a safe distance where they waited for some response. When no response was forthcoming they returned to their original position and Steve and his nameless companion began pelting the greenhouse with apples. Phil followed their example and in a few , short, frenzied minutes they managed to demolish every pane of the greenhouse glass.
At which point the owner of the house where all this was happening in his quiet, private, back garden arrived on the scene in a fury.
Exit the three boys at high speed. running as if their lives depended on it.
I’m not sure if what followed happened directly after this incident or happened at a later date but at some point later the owner of the greenhouse arrived at Orchard Cottage, having ascertained that Steve and Phil were two of the culprits who had destroyed his greenhouse. Their father David was livid and took his slipper to Steve on the spot. Mr Greenhouse was not satisfied with this and said to David “And the nipper! He was doing it as well” but David decreed that Phil was too young to know the difference between right and wrong and shouldn’t be held responsible for his actions.
Phil described all this to me as being absolutely terrifying. Never before had he known his loving, caring father to be violent. It was seared on his memory for ever and was something he never forgot and he never really developed the “naughty” streak that was such a prominent part of Steve’s character.