Playing With Fire!

A Memory of Ashurst Wood.

I once visited this store after dark one evening with another pupil [surname Menzies] boarding at The Abbey School. It must have been around 1959. Other than the school's buildings and grounds, the whole village was out of bounds for the boys. The purpose was to buy a packet of cigarettes. Menzies and I were only 10 years old at the time. The shopkeeper had no qualms in handing over a packet of ten Park Drive in exchange for the money. One shilling and ten pence rings a bell. The taste was foul and the smoke made me dizzy. It didn't occur to us at the time the smell of nicotine on our breath could give us away. Had we been caught, well, the school was renowned for corporal discipline.