The long dark corridor

The place had old wiring and at night the corridor that lead from the end of livingroom all the way to the bathroom was as black as night. There was only one natural skylight window about three quarters along it and the only lightswitch was at the opposite end.

I supposed now, it wouldnt seem taht long a corridor, but it did then, long and straight with spooky shadows and the noises of the old building swaying and creaking and yawning.

Its scared the living shit out of me.

Finally dad came to rescue me and brought with him a hand made bi-plane. Now, my dad was a mechanic by trade, he was great with his hands and could fix about anything that had an engine.

Over the years, i have seen him bend a bit metal to any shape you want, fix boats, cars, lawnmowers, and everything in between. Nothing short of mechanical genuis

But, give him a bit wood and he was a disaster zone.

So, picture this bi-plane, big thick planks of wood for the wings. Thick downling between the two to make it look like a bi-plane. The body of the plane, fashioned out of one thick chunk of pine.

A big round bit stuck on the front and a black throttle handle from a lawnmower painted with a white chocks away simon face.

The wheels were off a lawnmower as well I think, they would have been the little wood spindles on an old atco or something that would be right at the front in front of the cutting blades.

It originally had a propeller too, actually properly shaped like one, but this was the first to break when I threw it off the banister at the bates mansion.

Other than that, it was bullet proof, and it was for a long time my very favourite toy.

I still own it and every so often, I ask him to make a new propeller for it, he hates it and see's it as a failure as he is now quite good at woodwork, so he wont do it.

it recently lost its tail, but my wife assures me that it will be in the house somewhere, but I have my doubts that she has thrown it away.

I cant explain how much this toy meant to me, my dad was a great dad. I sometime think that he made it to compensate for me being left at the Hazelwood, but probably closer to the truth was that he couldnt afford to buy an airfix kit and had knocked something up instead.

Im sure that it would have took him weeks and I will never through it out. Its in the top shelf of my wardrobe just now and I seen it every time that I put a dress shirt on. It reminds me of my dad and thats important to me.