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October 31, 2008

A Ghastly Tale

The time: Mid-to-late 1960s. Summer holidays.

The place: South West England.

A disused civil defense structure on the playing fields. It had long fallen into disrepair and so was the perfect place for small boys in shorts to play. I was there with a bunch of friends, exploring unlit rooms deep in the bowels of the place, when all of a sudden we spotted ghostly shapes.

Arms. And legs.

We all stood riveted to the spot, each egging the other to go closer to look. I seem to remember being there for an hour, staring into the darkness. I would love to be able to say it was I who broke the ice, but I’m sure that it was one of the others. We all moved forward to look closer . . .

only to find it was a room full of artificial legs and arms — in itself quite scary, as none of us had ever encountered such things!

Well, we gradually warmed to them and started to play and eventually decided that it would be fun to carry them to the canal and see if they would float. They did, so if you can, picture six small boys carrying artificial arms and legs, setting them adrift in the water, returning for more, on and on and on.