The Rough and Tumbles of Early Life

The birth of a baby is normally the cause for major celebration in all families. In this instance, the joy was matched with an equal dose of relief, since both parents had survived the worst that the Second World War could throw at them, and were looking forward to a return to civilian life with their newborn son. On his discharge from the armed forces, the father said his goodbyes to his in-laws and started the long journey back to the ancestral tribe in Wales, with his wary wife and indifferent son in tow. He looked forward to the forthcoming reunion with those of his brothers who had stayed at home to help run the family business. There is little doubt that they too were looking forward to smoking the pipe of peace and burying the hatchet - in him. It was a large family and they had all suffered the rough and tumbles of living in it. War had been a relief. The newly anointed Mother Tumbler came from a more genteel family background in Kent, but it was not entirely a normal household; suffice it to say that her parents had bought a new three bedroom semi-detached house in the 1930s, and the first thing that was added to it was a sign on the vehicle gate indicating where the Tradesman's Entrance was located. Father Tumbler was perplexed by the behaviour of this strange creature that he had sired. In reality, father and son had inherited a defective gene that made them behave in an amoral way; that is to say, each could distinguish right from wrong, but neither cared about the consequences of taking either route. When faced with a dilemma or opportunity, anyone around them could unpredictably suffer or be amused; it was pot luck. As life unfolds, the growing boy encounters and deals with a series of unfortunate events, the majority of them amusing and others surrounded by pathos. Witnessing the ongoing drama from the sidelines, an increasingly stressed mother makes her presence felt as she despairingly tries to cope with the gruesome twosome. This is an uplifting and humorous tale of a passage through life. It is also a warning to teachers everywhere.