Page 14 - Demo

12PART 1 CHARACTER-FORMING! AT LEAST SOME OF IT WAS.Getting ThereIt was unmissable - anyone watching could see the pattern. Forty or so young men all aged between 17 and 18; all wearing ties and sports jackets; all carrying a single suitcase; all waiting on the northbound platform at King%u2019s Cross. After a signal from the conductor, each of them moved into the train carriages, stowed their case and took a seat. Mostly, they did not speak. Very few of them knew one another, although there was a group %u2013 slightly older %u2013 who we all later learned had been apprentices together. After about twenty minutes the doors were shut, the whistle sounded and the train began to move. Gradually, as we relaxed and started to look at newspapers, books or magazines, the bravest amongst us provoked a round of introductions. We all knew we were heading for the same place and just over an hour later, we arrived at Grantham where we disembarked and waited outside for further instructions. It was a Sunday afternoon, the end of February 1966. After a very short wait, a couple of long, single-decker coaches arrived; both painted the same shade of mucky blue. %u201cGood afternoon, gentlemen!%u201d bellowed a stocky, middle-aged man, dressed in uniform, with a long stick tucked under his left arm. He marched up and down, splitting us into two groups and directing each group onto a separate coach.On the 30-minute journey through Ancaster, we all lapsed back into silence until we reached a small Lincolnshire village called Cranwell. The coaches stopped outside a large, two-stored building and we were