Ok so now you'll probably know me as the penny sweet thief....oh the shame. I was about 5 or 6 years old when I did that but as I said in my last entry after having the living daylights scared out of me by my Mum surely I wouldn't ever attempt something like that again!!!!! WRONG! It was about 4 years later and when I really should have known better....
The shop closed about 6pm each evening and we would all sit down for tea. Afterwards I asked if I could go to my friends who literally just lived across the road and through a little ginnel (harrogate is full of little ginnels) and she said yes. I had got a bit too old for the 10 pennies by this age so every now and again I was allowed to choose a few sweets, pop or crisps. So I asked if it was alright for me to go down to the shop and pick a few sweets to take and share with my friend Simone and was given the go ahead but was limited to a small bag each. I went down to the shop and obviously with it being closed there was no one around... I looked at the full array of what we sold and it was then for the first time that I realised how much choice there really was. Now here was a kid confronted by a vast choice of goodies, shop closed, no one around and to get to my friends I wouldn't have to go back through the house... I grabbed a paper bag which was usually used for putting boxes of chocolates in. I reached for the large bars of chocolates, couple of nutty bars, packs of pacer mints, mars bars etc..... oh and a few penny sweets for good measure. And feeling rather smug left the shop and walked down the garden path, well... I can assure you that I certainly hadn't led mum down the garden path cos no sooner had I reached the gate when there was a loud knocking coming from the upstairs of the house. I looked up and could see mum stood at the lounge window with THAT look on her face, and she mouthed "IN ...NOW". Once again head down, face colouring and heart beating 10 to the dozen.. sound familiar?? I went back into the house and I'm sure you can imagine after the bollocking I got I never stole a single SWEET again, note the word sweet....
Because there was just one more episode of my thieving and that was when I started hanging around kids a couple of years older than me... Of course I wanted to impress, be cool just like they were, hung onto their every word. So when I was asked could I get them any cigarettes from the shop, of course the answer was a cool "Yeah I can get anything I like" (Fool Lesley, fool). Now this I was never caught for as I was now 11 and getting very clever... My Dad had a big double doored metal cabinet in the back storeroom that he kept damaged stock in, especially cigarettes. He'd receive a big delivery of cigarettes which came in packs of 200. If any of the individual packs inside were squashed in any way then he would put them in this cabinet and when it got full he would return them to the tobacco supplier who would replace them. Now I knew this didn't happen very often and he never kept count of what was in there. So one day I decided to see if I could snaffle a couple of packs and then maybe I would then be seen to be really cool. So thats what I did... to cut a long story short, yes I was then seen as cool (but looking back I now know I was just being used) and to look even cooler joined in with the smoking. Stupid I know, especially as now I'm 34 and still smoking...........
The shop closed about 6pm each evening and we would all sit down for tea. Afterwards I asked if I could go to my friends who literally just lived across the road and through a little ginnel (harrogate is full of little ginnels) and she said yes. I had got a bit too old for the 10 pennies by this age so every now and again I was allowed to choose a few sweets, pop or crisps. So I asked if it was alright for me to go down to the shop and pick a few sweets to take and share with my friend Simone and was given the go ahead but was limited to a small bag each. I went down to the shop and obviously with it being closed there was no one around... I looked at the full array of what we sold and it was then for the first time that I realised how much choice there really was. Now here was a kid confronted by a vast choice of goodies, shop closed, no one around and to get to my friends I wouldn't have to go back through the house... I grabbed a paper bag which was usually used for putting boxes of chocolates in. I reached for the large bars of chocolates, couple of nutty bars, packs of pacer mints, mars bars etc..... oh and a few penny sweets for good measure. And feeling rather smug left the shop and walked down the garden path, well... I can assure you that I certainly hadn't led mum down the garden path cos no sooner had I reached the gate when there was a loud knocking coming from the upstairs of the house. I looked up and could see mum stood at the lounge window with THAT look on her face, and she mouthed "IN ...NOW". Once again head down, face colouring and heart beating 10 to the dozen.. sound familiar?? I went back into the house and I'm sure you can imagine after the bollocking I got I never stole a single SWEET again, note the word sweet....
Because there was just one more episode of my thieving and that was when I started hanging around kids a couple of years older than me... Of course I wanted to impress, be cool just like they were, hung onto their every word. So when I was asked could I get them any cigarettes from the shop, of course the answer was a cool "Yeah I can get anything I like" (Fool Lesley, fool). Now this I was never caught for as I was now 11 and getting very clever... My Dad had a big double doored metal cabinet in the back storeroom that he kept damaged stock in, especially cigarettes. He'd receive a big delivery of cigarettes which came in packs of 200. If any of the individual packs inside were squashed in any way then he would put them in this cabinet and when it got full he would return them to the tobacco supplier who would replace them. Now I knew this didn't happen very often and he never kept count of what was in there. So one day I decided to see if I could snaffle a couple of packs and then maybe I would then be seen to be really cool. So thats what I did... to cut a long story short, yes I was then seen as cool (but looking back I now know I was just being used) and to look even cooler joined in with the smoking. Stupid I know, especially as now I'm 34 and still smoking...........
