Page 191 - Demo

187through a backdoor and entered a large room with a large table in it surrounded by chairs with a second row of wooden settles further back. We sat at the table and the landlord came in and chatted to Penny and Clive who knew him. I was introduced and after a bit he asked if we would like a beer, when we said yes, he disappeared into a back room and eventually reappeared with the beers. There was no sign of a bar or a till or any other of the normal bar furniture. We paid and he took the money next door and came back with the change. Other people slowly came in until there was quite a crowd sitting around the table. I think he filled up glasses as required from a jug. It was a step back in time many many years. Eventually the brothers died and the pub was empty for some years before it was refurbished and opened again as a very popular pub with good food called %u201cThe Farmers%u201d. It is a private house now.I must have done 2 months as the Squadron and Flight Commander and got substitution pay. I bought a ladder with that and called it my promotion ladder. The Commandant at one stage went away for some reason and as the next officer down from him was a Wing Commander, the substitution pay would have been really worthwhile. The Wing Commander promised us a barrel of beer if it came off. Everyone had more work to do with the Commandant being away. He just had to be away 2 months. In the end he came back one day early even though he could easily have stayed away just one more day. We were all very unimpressed, particularly as we thought he was having an affair with his Corporal driver. Years later I met the WRAF officer who was his ADCat the time. She assured me that he was not.The Basic Wing Squadrons were referred to as %u201cthe waterfront%u201d. And we got plenty of flying there. The basic exercise sorties were 1 hour 15 minutes long and we were not so held up by bad weather. We could %u201cimagine%u201d a horizon if need be and could adjust what sorties we did to suit the conditions. But we detached to find better weather quite often