MØPMB
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Peter ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There was not much of a future in Cornwall for young kids when I left school in 1959 and even the local engineering works, which I quite fancied getting into, was not taking on apprentices any more .

     

So in May 1961 at the tender age of 16½ I joined the Royal Air Force.  I wanted to be a bandsman because I had been playing in the local brass band since I was 10, but the recruiting sergeant was having none of that and said I had to be a radio technician because the RAF was short of them.   You didn't argue in those days, so it all started for me with a 3 year apprenticeship in the 98th entry of the RAF's No1 Radio School.

   

It finished 33 years later, in December 1994, when I retired from the RAF at the not so tender age of 50, (click here to see my journey through the RAF).  On retirement I returned with my wife and two daughters to our native Cornwall to re-occupy our house in Porthleven which had been let to a succession of tenants while we moved around with the RAF.  Luckily the house was still in one piece.

 Retirement allowed me to get on with all the things I had always wanted to do, but with which work had previously got in the way.  These things included the acquisition of a full radio amateur licence, doing some serious motor biking, picking up my music again after leaving it behind when I joined the RAF, learning the Cornish language and getting myself a fishing boat, and I'm happy to say that I have managed to achieve them all.

       

So that's about it:  our two daughters have fled the nest, one of them presenting us with a beautiful grand-daughter in the process and the other one going solo after obtaining a National Diploma in conservation and countryside management.

That just leaves Dawn, me and our Border terrier, Cracker, to live out our days in peace and tranquillity, and if I believe that I will believe anything!!