Later when we were evacuated to Brighton, the way home went past a monumental mason working in his outside workshop. I got lost in amazement as I watched him chisel out the lettering on a gravestone then later fill it with little lead triangles and then paint over the top. How I wanted to go in and get a closer look and learn how to do it, and the time went by!
When we moved to Guildford and I was billeted at Shalford which was about two and half miles from school then there were plenty of distractions along the way. Lewis Carrol's house with illustrations from Alice on the garden entrance: the river Wey ran for quite a long way along the road and at times there were folk rowing there or the water birds to watch. In the winter months a meadow alongside the river was flooded from a sluice gate in the river and froze. Custom designed for small boys to skate on.
Living with my mum after running away from my evacuee billets we lived in a small cottage in Trinity churchyard. At the foot of the stairs leading into the churchyard there was a second hand bookshop which had a box of damaged books available for free. Always worth a look for a few minutes or more.
And so it went on. Going straight home was never an option.
