Читать книгу Class of '79 - Chris Rooke - Страница 2

I took my ‘A’ levels in 1976, when I was 17 years old. By this time my family had become completely dysfunctional, with my parents living separate lives, and neither of them took responsibility for their offspring. My father, once a pillar of Oxford City council, but by now a disillusioned retiree, had just lost his job, at the age of 64. One day at work he had a big argument with some civic dignitary or other and, being highly principled, he walked out, just like that, and never went back. It was half way through his final year at work and he lost half his pension. Only later did we realise that dad was actually suffering from the beginnings of Alzheimer’s disease and his mental faculties were already failing.

My mother remained as she always had been – slightly out of touch with this world and living in some ‘happy world’ that only she was in touch with. I’m guessing she was on some kind of medication as she once went absolutely ballistic at my elder brother when he played Mother’s little helper by the Stones on the record player in his bedroom. But her mantra was always ‘Boys will be boys’ and she generally left me and my elder brother Peter to our own devices – and we took full advantage. Peter even went as far as fitting a Yale lock to his bedroom door.

I guess that’s all you need to know about my family – my brother fitted a Yale lock to his bedroom door. From that you can probably kind of guess the rest. Why would a child want to hide things from their parents so much that they wanted to fit a Yale lock to their bedroom door, and what parents in their right minds would ever let him do so!?