Biography, Autobiography, Old Steve of Scarborough, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom

1. I decided that I needed a 'proper' and good education and that all I had was the snob value of a Grammar School education and that was rubbish despite the Air Force being taken in by it. So to start with I decided to get rid of the accent that caused a great deal of amusement among my piers who found the 'flat cap and dog-knot' image of a Yorkshireman, fascinating. I was not a music hall turn for their benefit and so along with others, who had the same idea, went off to elocution lessons. I also took a course on etiquette and besides polishing up my manners learnt how to mix, eat and behave with the best of them. I took correspondence courses, all subsidised by the Air Force Education Section, on just about everything that took my fancy. I studied English and Maths, Book Keeping and Accountancy, Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology, Para-psychology and Comparative Religions and one or two other bits and bats. I took First Aid courses, sex education courses, went and listened to the Station Band at practice and joined the rifle club and became a reasonable shot and obtained my 'Marksman' badge and got paid at the rate of 2 1/2p a day for it and that was useful extra money. For a short period of time I even learnt how to cut sheet glass and earned a few useful coppers cutting hundreds of pains of glass for a contractor working on the camp. There was a constant demand for windows around that time as the local natives were very active with their explosive devices.

2. One the subject of money; always a tough one for me, when first called up the pay was twenty-nine shillings a week (£1-45p) but I had ten and sixpence deducted from mine as my compulsory contribution to the marriage allowance, thus leaving me with only eighteen and sixpence (92 1/2p). The deducted ten and sixpence was added to an allowance that totalled two pounds, twelve and sixpence (£2-62 1/2p) and was paid to my wife. She was also working and while I struggled along to get an education and being tied, very much, to where I was, she saved up and then when I came home had sufficient for the deposit on a tiny terrace house, which was to be our first home.

3. As one does in the services I mixed with a lot of people from all sorts of backgrounds and listened, and soon learnt that there was much more to life than I had imagined and I wanted some. I also learnt that people have to come and go in your life and no more so than in the services, but also that that it is not the end of the world, as I once thought it was, and that those who leave are quickly replaced. But I did feel very badly let down on two particular occasions. The first was while still in the Air Force; I had met up with a guy, prior to us both being posted out to Cyprus and we shared the same billet and became good friends. He was due home the week before me and the night before he was due to leave, he announced to everyone present that he had enjoyed our company and comradeship but didn't want to see or hear from any of us ever again. I felt hurt and badly let down and on the morning he left, early, I couldn't get out of bed and see him off. We had shared a room, worked together, eaten together and spent a lot of our spare time together, for nearly two years and I thought he was my friend. I have often wondered where he is now and what he is doing, but he taught me one thing, even best friends can let you down and if you don't want to get hurt then don't get too close to anyone. So, with the exception of my wife and immediate family, I have never allowed that to happen since. The second let down was another Air Force friend with whom I had worked for nearly two years. We promised to keep in touch and shortly after demob he turned up at my house unannounced, looked round at what little we had, laughed and walked out and I have never seen him since. I don't know what he expected but in uniform and all living together and earning the same, all are equal. Outside some of us were not so equal and I swore I would try and do something about that.

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