Pads Brat

The Mycota incident

2007-03-21T18:20:31+01:00

Mycota foot powder was and possibly still is issued to soldiers for the purpose of keeping the likes of athletes foot at bay when their feet are in horrid rough army socks and stinky army boots all day.

My father was out on exercise on the ranges in Germany while we were posted in Lubbecke. My sister and I were aged 4 and 5 respectively at this point.

Anyways he was running with his sqn with his bergen on in full kit when the cry went out GAS GAS GAS! My father put on his respirator and continued to run - suddenly the world turned white, he began choking and he couldn't breathe, ran straight into a tree almost knocking himself out and slid into a ditch - the reason?

When dad was getting his kit ready for exercise my sister and I thought we would help, Unknown to him we had emptied the entire contents of a tin of mycota into the respirator and put it back into its bag. Possibly to assist in the prevention of athletes face.

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It continues ......

2007-03-21T13:27:38+01:00

When we were posted we had to fly out to Germany and the night before we had to stay in this god forsaken put you up known as the Union Jack Club ( not the nice new one, built later. In the morning we were up early and very excited about going on a flight for the first time. But it was a disaster, I forgot sooty, I left him at the Union Jack club and spent the entire journey either howling for the lost sooty or telling my sister that if she undid her seat belt she would fall out of the plane, causing her to scream.
So we moved to Lubbecke in Germany, these were great days to be with the forces in BAOR, the LOA was good, there was little chance of getting sent to a conflict zone for the soldiers. It was only 22yrs since the end of WW2, Germany was bright and vibrant and the soldiers and their famillies were partying in the land of cheap booze and cigs. It was a lovely place from what I remember of it, gorgeous outdoor swimming pool just along the road where we spent a lot of our days in the summer.
Dad bought a car a volkswagen beetle no prizes for guessing what we called it. I started school here B.F.E.S. Lubbecke, santa used to arrive at the school by helicopter, one year santa was my dad and I informed everyone who would listen very loudly about this.
Lubbecke was a land of beer festivals where the fountain in the town would flow with the brew from Barre Brau and they would fill anything with a handle on it,I remember that the REME welded a handle to a metal bath, enterprising chaps. The brewery horses were magnificent beasts, all done up to the 9's pulling the Beir Konig through the town. There was also a huge funfair which arrived not far away, during the Schutzenfest season with the largest big wheel I had ever seen. We loved it there, we learned to love pommes mit mayo, bratwurst, frikadellen, Kotelets and schnitzels etc from the Schell imbiss, i wish someone would start up Schnellies as we called them, over here. Paprika crisps were also a strong favourite in our house.

At the weekends my parents would have parties and the house would be full of people all having fun, this included some people who were very folksy as I remember like Matt McGinn and Archie McCulloch, playing guitars and singing songs like there was an old woman who lived in the woods. Sundays were known as Tatties disco days - Tatty was a young soldier who used to babysit for us, he loved the tunes from the disney albums - particularly Jungle book and would have all the kids from round about in our house dancing to I'm the king of the swingers yeah the Jungle VIP' (tatty later became one of the red freds - thats the red devils parachute display team to those who dont know). There was Mickey Murphy who entertained us for hours with his magic teeth - Mickey was the only person we knew who could take his teeth out! There were sports days and rugby matches a plenty. Dad once injured his leg badly at a rugger match tearing the ligaments and spent ages in BMH Rinteln making Gonks and teddy bears for us while he was laid up. more tomorrow

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It begins ....

2007-03-20T12:29:07+01:00

I was born in 1964 in Farnborough Hants, the daughter of a Soldier, a pads brat. Oh what a wonderful childhood I was to have. At a few weeks old we were posted from Aldershot to Colchester as my father left the Para's for a new role within the RASC soon to become the RCT. Mum didn't want him jumping out of aeroplanes anymore as she deduced that now he was a parent it was pretty irresponsible to continue this lifestyle. So we left to Colchester where within a year I was joined in the family by a new sister. Apparently I wasn't very keen on the new arrival and begged my mother to 'take it back'. It was in Colchesters leafy Grove that I have my earliest memories. This is the most vivid one I can remember, the flats at leafy grove had an indoor area for keeping the bins and I was playing with a boy my own age in this area ( apparently we had gotten bored with the sandpit) and there to our delight someone had been getting ready for handover so they had emptied their cupboards - packets and packets of blancmange powder and tin upon tin of birds custard powder. I can remember vividly throwing this powder into the air and being covered from head to foot. I can also remember my mothers face when she found me - apparently it was Sunday and we were on our way to lunch at the mess when I did this and all my good sunday clothes were ruined. I dont remember much else about Colchester at all, I was too young but apparently there was a piano in the mess and my dad used to find it hillarious to take me in on a sunday when everyone had hangovers from saturday and sit me at the piano where i would bash the keys with gusto increasing the pain for the hangover sufferers.

We were posted from there to Lubbecke in Nord Rhein Westfahlen, Germany in 1967.

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