Dad is on the far right of this photo. In the front row, on the right of the girl with the sign, is his twin sister and to the right of her is Joan, who became my sister's mother-in-law. She is now in a care home costing 700 pounds a week, so her house is being emptied and sold, which is how these old photos came to light. Nearly all the girls had the same short hairstyle with a fringe. Now all the girls in my granddaughter's class have long hair.
Dad was full of mischief as a boy. A few years after this photo, he tried to climb onto the back of a lorry for a free ride. Before he could get his foot out of the wheel, it set off taking his foot round and round. He ended up with a long stay in hospital, where they inserted a metal plate into his ankle. There was also a deep hole which remained there for ever, but amazingly he walked without a limp.
All this saved him from being conscripted into the armed forces, so he spent the war in Dad's Army, mainly spending nights watching out for German bombers heading over the Pennines for Manchester. The planes were navigating using the moon shining on reservoirs in the area.
Both my parents worked in one of the West Riding's textile mills, producing high quality worsted suiting. I was born in December 1944.
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