Chertsey Tales Part Fifteen.

Chertsey Tales Part Fifteen.

The Royal visit.

Chertsey is full of surprises you never know what is going to happen next. Here we are in Wadies garden. It is full of kids, chickens, rabbit hutches and even two pig sties. Whenever there were too many kids milling around, we would jump over Dummies stream into the open ground between Wadies garden and those of Frithwald Road. This is where we have a nice camp. It is really just a hole in the ground with a bit of corrugated iron as a roof, but we think it’s lovely, we are away from prying eyes. We had pinched some potatoes from Wadies Mum and were cooking them in a tin with some water from the stream. The water looks a bit muddy, but Wadie said it will give the spuds some flavour, I’m not too sure about that but he knows all about these things.

This was the same day that we saw the row from one of the houses in Frithwald Road with lots of shouting and swearing, it was family row. Family rows were a common sight in our part of Chertsey and would often take place outside in the road. Kids would gather and watch the fun; this one was extra special.

Out of the bedroom window came a chair then a mattress followed by all sorts of things. We quickly jumped back over the stream and up into the hollow tree stump in Wadies garden for a better view. There must have been six or seven of us up there, it’s a wonder we didn’t fall out. But it was worth the risk as the row went on all afternoon.

In the garden below I heard my brother Bernard asking for me, he had come around to tell me that we had important visitors. With all the noise going on I couldn’t really hear what he was shouting, but it sounded like the King’s sister had come for tea. Before I could ask what was going on, he just got on his bike and left me to walk home in some sort of shock. Did he say The Kings Sister?

My Mum was standing at the scullery door looking a bit mad, she whispered something which I couldn’t understand then gave me a clip round the ear and started washing my face with a cold wet flannel before pushing me into the kitchen.

All the family were sitting at the tea table, there were lots of sandwiches and cakes, it looked like Christmas had come early. They were all looking very smart and at the top were two people in uniform. The lady had a hat with gold trimmings, like a crown almost, was this the Kings sister I asked myself?

 I didn’t know what to do, so I just gave her a nice low bow, like I have seen people do for the King. This made Iris start to giggle.

Then Mum said.

“Sit down Alan and stop being silly, say hello to your auntie Tina and uncle Alfred, they have come all the way up from Hastings”.  

Then the penny dropped, it wasn’t the Kings sister at all, it was my mum’s sister from Hastings—an easy mistake to make as it sounded like that to me when I was up the tree.

 She and her husband were officers in the Salvation Army and had been visiting a local Chapel In Addlestone.

They all kept looking at me and I thought they were waiting for me to say something.

I’m only seven, so, I said in my most posh voice.

‘May we start?’

And everyone started laughing, even my aunt and uncle.

It seems that what-ever I do is wrong, I wished I was back in Teddy’s garden eating the rest of those lovely potatoes and watching the show in Frithwald road.