[Margaret Pilkington]

During the school holidays we (my brothers and I) would go on adventures.
These invariably took us up to the five arches......though it would take us a long time to get there.
There was a stream that needed to be crossed three times....this was done by straddling pipes that went over this stream......pipe one was easy....and the lads used to walk over it like it was a tightrope....pipe two was nicknamed the spike bridge.....this was because in the middle it had a sunray of spikes to stop kids like us using it to cross the water.....but we just used to swing round it.
Pipe three was simple too.....unless you were my brother Micheal....with mud on your shoes and showing off.
He plopped into the stream at the deepest part and came out of the water coughing and snotting.
There was no way that we could go back home with him as wet as a stranded codfish...when we got to the five arches we collected wood.
My brother Peter had matches so we lit a fire....it took a lot of matches and wafting.
The aim was to dry Micks clothes.
It was a useless task and there was no way his jumper was going to dry.
We trundled home and as soon as we got in the backdoor Ma could smell woodsmoke.....and Mick was still more than damp.
Needless to say....we got our hides tanned and there was no milk and cookies at bedtime that day either.
I got a very stern lecture as I was the eldest and was deemed to have more sense.
You couldn't tell Ma that sense had nothing to do with it...but a Chinese burn DID.