Life on the Run Read Online Free PDF Page A

Windsor; Trudgeons. I remember my rate of pay, which was one shilling and three pence (6p) per hour, and I earned ten shillings (50p) a week for an hour after school on four days and four hours on Saturday morning.
    My main task was riding one of several ancient delivery bikes, which either had two wheels the same size, or one that had the small wheel at the front so that it could have an even bigger load. Whichever bicycle I was on, I was always carrying the maximum load, delivering mainly to the large houses in the better areas of Windsor. Although I say it myself, I was good at the job and never fell off or lost my loads, and worked faster than other delivery boys who came and went, while I soldiered on for the whole time I was at school.
    The only problem that my employer had with me, was that I did enjoy the biscuits, that in those days were weighed and put into open bags. Frequently the bag would be short of biscuits by the time I got them to their destination. The strange thing was, I never got told off about this, and I think the manager used to overweigh the biscuits in the first place to allow for those that he knew would disappear. I cannot have been too bad at the job as I collected many tips at Christmas, most of them around two shillings and sixpence, or the equivalent of two hours’ work.
    As well as the deliveries, I did carry out other work, including the weighing out of dried fruit (which I often sampled) and sugar. I also worked in the cellar of the shop, scraping the wax from the rind of the cheese and repairing the damage mice made to the cheese to make it presentable to the customers.
    There was a row of glass-top biscuit tins in front of the counter, so that customers could select what biscuits they liked.
    The owner of the shop was a dapper little man with a stiff winged collar, and he and his wife used to trust me with taking the money to the bank. I well remember those big white £5 notes, but I did deliver them all to the bank and did not do what I did with those biscuits. It was an interesting time and I think it probably helped to shape my future in retail trade.
    In those early days in Windsor, I had my only short-lived interest in playing football and ran my own team. I got all the lads in the street together, and we went off to play against other similar teams in the area where I lived. Although we only had small back yards, we never played in the street and always went off to find a field or recreation ground for our games.
    I enjoyed cycling and bought my first bike from the money I got for my grocery round. Sometimes alone, and sometimes with a friend from the scouts, I would cycle quite long distances. On one occasion with this friend, we cycled to Southampton and back; a total distance of over 100 miles in a day to see an aunt of mine. My lone trips took me to see other relatives in Wiltshire; about eighty-four miles away. Most of these trips were when I was twelve to thirteen years old; before I really got the running bug.
    I was good at saving my money from my grocer’s round, and when I wanted to buy my first running spikes, I went off to the Eton College sports shop. This was a shop that specialised in supplying the Eton boys with their sports clothing and equipment, so it was all top of the range kit. The sports at the college were always held before Easter, and as soon as they were over, boys would sell back to the shop those very expensive spikes bought for them by their wealthy fathers. They had probably only run one or two races in them, and so the shoes were virtually new but secondhand. I bought a pair of G. T. Laws handmade white snakeskin shoes for £3, and they remained my treasured possession for some years.
    I also saved up and paid for a ski trip out of my earnings, and we were due to travel out on a Christmas Eve, but at the very last minute it was cancelled, due I believe to lack of numbers after some of my school mates pulled out. I was very disappointed but