Stories Written By: Rennie

Back in the days when we still played marbles in the summer and football in the winter the autumn highlight was the time for conkers. So being the budding entrepreneur me and my friend Steve used to walk up to Whipps Cross where there was a plethora of conker trees ready for the picking.

So when the leaves started to fall Steve and I took a trip to the Hollow Ponds up Whipps Cross way, where from previous adventures we’d found some great Conker trees, with swag bag in hand to go collect our conker supply ready to sell to our classmates.

Now the normal procedure would be for me to go and climb right up the tree and shake the branches to bring all the conkers raining down whilst Steve collected them all up which saved us from getting severe arm ache from the normal stick throwing method. But this day for some unknown reason Steve decided he wanted to do the climbing, maybe he was fed up with me shaking the branches while he was still collecting the conkers from the last shake, who knows but anyways it was he who took the trip up the tree.

So up he went leaving me standing at the bottom getting the bag ready when along came a few lads. One looked a bit younger than me, one was a blond chubby kid and the leader was a real wide boy. Now I was around 10 or 11 but small for my age so a lot of guys thought I was younger than I actually was so when these guys decided that they wanted to see me fight the youngest of their group they may have been a bit surprised when I got the better of him straight away. Also having a dad who boxed in the army may have helped me a little bit too.

As I was getting the better of him the ringleader told chubby to join in so I had two of them to contend with. Now I wasn’t too bad with my fists but two against one isn’t good odds so I decided to go for the ring leader in an effort to “cut off the head”. This tactic did catch him by surprise and I managed to land a couple of good ones but these guys really didn’t fight fair at all and I was soon getting bashed with sticks and when Chubby picked up a
bottle I decided in this instance it was time to run away to fight another day.

So off I ran with Chubby and the younger lad chasing me but with so many scrumping chases standing me in good stead I managed to easily out run them only deciding to stop when their jeers were almost out of earshot.

When I thought I was safe I turned around to see if they were still chasing me but couldn’t see them anywhere so I just sat down to reflect on what had just happened and check myself for damages. It was at this time that I remembered Steve and the fact that he was still up the tree. Then the questions started pulling at my brain. Why didn’t he come down and help me? I thought he was my best friend, yeah right. Best friends don’t leave each other to get a good hiding. He was probably up there watching it all.

Why did he not come down and help me???

After 40 years I think it’s time I got an answer.

So Steve here’s your chance to tell me, you can put your answer in the comment box below.

They say revenge is a dish best served cold I had to wait 40 years for mine