A Sunday Escapade

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Win Hilling. Stories for my Grandchildren

A Sunday Escapade

Sundays for my sister and I were sometimes quite uninteresting, e.g. going for a walk with our dolls pram was not allowed on Sunday.

We had to go to Sunday School in the morning and when we returned home there was little to do until dinner time which was midday. We lived in premises behind and above our corn chandlers shop on a very busy road. On this particular Sunday we were both dressed in our Sunday best dresses usually with frills and sashes and our hair was carefully combed and plaited or in ringlets. Once we arrived home from Sunday School we had to wear pinafores over our dresses. These pinafores were carefully starched and had epaulettes around the top of the arm which were crimped with a hot goffering iron – all very pretty, but we didn’t appreciate them and thought they were fussy. We were told to go for a walk until dinner was ready. I think I might have been about 8 years old then.

So we walked and kept coming back and asking was dinner ready. Eventually we decided to walk a bit further which we knew we shouldn’t be doing as we were told “don’t go far away”.

Then we decided to go a little further and a little further and we realised that we were on the road that Dad always took when he drove us to our farm, which was looked after by a distant relative. We walked and walked and got quite excited when we realised that if we kept going we would reach the farm which was about 5 miles from home. I don’t think either of us ever thought that we would be missed and that people would be searching for us. When eventually we reached the farm we were very tired but happy at our achievement.

Our uncle came to meet us and asked where was Dad? We happily told our story and were surprised when he didn’t appreciate our long walk. Instead he said, “Your parents will be searching for you. Get into the back of the trap (a horse-drawn two wheeled vehicle) and get under this blanket. I expect the police will also be looking for you.” We felt very deflated, hungry and anxious by then as we began to realise that what we had thought was a wonderful adventure was going to get us into real trouble.

However Mum and Dad were so pleased to see us safe and well that after a good scolding things settled down and we began to think that our long walk was being appreciated after all. We also decided that we had no wish to repeat the adventure.