
.
Some may remember back in the mid 40s on the little island in the centre of Peter Pan’s Pool among the trees there was a small hut with coloured statues of Snow White and the seven dwarfs, one Sunday afternoon a friend of mine named Kenny who also lived in Goudhurst Road and I hired one of the little paddle boats and were happily paddling around the pond when Kenny had the bright idea that one of the dwarfs would ‘look really good in his mum’s garden’, so we paddled round to the back of the island out of sight, Kenny stood up in the boat and attempted to jump ashore, slipped and landed up to his knees in the water, he managed to clamber ashore onto the island and with all thoughts of acquiring a dwarf now forgotten, tried to step back into the boat but only managed to push the boat further away and slid back into the water, after managing to haul him back into the boat, we paddled the boat back and started walking home, I couldn’t stop smiling, Kenny kept saying over and over again that it wasn’t funny and that his mum would give him a good hiding, on the way home Kenny was beginning to dry out and his legs, socks and trousers were turning a light brownish grey colour, I said goodbye to him at his gate and dashed home to tell my mum all about it.
Kenny didn’t come to school on the Monday; apparently his one and only pair of school trousers were still drying out.