Category:  Biography
Publisher: Johnny Dowling
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 388
Copyright: July 20th 2008

The life in detail of a boy growing up in post war England.
No doubt, as you will agree - there has to be a 'hook' in the first chapter of a book. Therefore I`d like to run a little piece of my 'hook' from the aforesaid chapter...
My aggressor jumped off me and thankfully took his full-bodied, shiny caterpillar with him, the majority of it by now, spread somewhat glowingly across his top lip, shirt-sleeve cuff and grubby little hand as he moved off at speed to join the others in the noisy run to the van.
As I lay there, looking up at the blue sky 'n' arranging a brick under my head as a suitable pillow, I smiled.It`d been a super weekend; it always was when staying at my Auntie Bridie`s flat.
My mind wandered. I thought... I thought...
"If I didn`t have this leg-iron on, and I could run like all the other boys, I bet I`d have got a lick of an ice lolly.....!"
Time passed; the boys were running back, puffing, panting, jostling and arguing amongst themselves as to who had 'n' who hadn`t gotten a lick of an ice lolly.
"Come on, Johnny, tea-time. Your mummy will be ever-so-cross with you if you`re late."
The kids knew I`d difficulty in moving from a horizontal to a vertical position, the full-length caliper impeding leg-bending action. As usual, two little lads, one each side of me, lifted me to my feet, then, with my arms around their shoulders, they whisked me across the bomb-site at speed, my legs trailing behind me in the rubble 'n' dust `til we arrived outside my auntie`s flat.
I was ushered in, face 'n' hands washed, hair combed and yet again, given the same line as last week, the week before and the week before that...
"You mustn`t play with those boys, Johnny, they`re naughty boys... Jasus, Mary 'n' Joseph, sure they`re very rough boys, so they are!"
I didn`t like to tell them...
I WAS one of 'those boys'!

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