80 The Summer of Love

Summer1967: the summer of love, they called it. Flower power they said, when a load of American oddballs appeared on the television news. Hippies they were called and yes, they really did wear flowers in their hair. Even the Beatles got in on the act. I thought they were all daft.

Petham Green, Twydall: I put the phone down feeling very pleased with myself. At twelve years old I’d worked out the complexities of button A and button B, and made my first phone call, to schoolmate Peter Burtenshaw, who lived at the Anglo Saxon pub in Gillingham. We agreed when school broke up that I’d visit him during the holidays and now we’d arranged it, I only needed to cadge the bus fare off my mam.

For the next month I visited Burty every weekend and had the time of my life. We feasted on Coca Cola and crisps, played bar billiards, explored the Great Lines, wandered the High Street and went to the Odeon. The Magnificent Two, The Plank and The Fighting Prince of Donegal were just some of the films we saw whilst whilst wolfing hot dogs, ice cream and Pepsi Cola.

Behind it lay a shameful secret; a secret that came out when Mam asked me outright if I’d taken money from her purse. I couldn’t deny that on successive Friday nights I’d stolen up to three half crowns to fund my selfish adventures. Tears of shame turned to tears of terror when I thought about the consequences. I begged her not to tell Dad. If stealing from her purse didn’t get me murdered, it’d surely get me half murdered and cast out with my meagre possessions wrapped in a spotted hankie on the end of a stick.

‘I’ll see,’ she said.

Twenty four nerve jangling hours passed before the red alert subsided and even then, I was subdued for days. I never touched Mam’s purse again. Just the sight of it filled me with dread.

Mam sent me on an errand to Twydall shops. Amongst other things she needed some packets of tea. With no great hope I asked if we could switch from PG to Typhoo; as Typhoo had pictures of footballers on the packets that could be collected and sent off in exchange for large picture cards. I was chuffed when Mam agreed. A family our size went through an awful lot of tea and I soon had a growing collection.

In the news…

Brian Epstein died. People seemed shocked, yet old people dying were always on the news.