I had loved aeroplanes and the excitement of flying for as long as I could remember having been bought up on a diet of Biggles and the exploits of Battle of Britain Aces. It was therefore inevitable that I should join the RAF as soon as I left school.
Following days of tests, and being too young to become a pilot – my dream since childhood, I was selected to become an student apprentice at a training school in the West Country.
Thus began three of the most glorious years of my life. Initially they were hard but as time passed I grew to love the camaraderie we experienced. I was also to grow to enjoy the girls, ever present both locally and in Bristol - a city some miles away.
The first year of my training had passed quickly, even the two weeks on Dartmoor in the early summer, when our physical reserves had been drained, seemed a far memory, but it did mean that the major part of my "Duke of Edinburgh's Silver Award" had been completed. Only one more part to do.
Looking down the list of acceptable activities I saw 'Ballroom Dancing' close to the bottom. It may not have been the most masculine of pursuits, but gaining a bronze award in ballroom dancing sounded an easy way of obtaining the last part of the DoE award. I soon found three other apprentices, equally stuck for what to do, to join me at the 'West Country Ballroom Dancing Academy'.
This academy was to be where we could learn the necessary steps to complete our Award tasks and, as it turned out, other vital life skills!
Further enquiries revealed that it was Tuesday evenings when the beginner's classes were held. On the first night of the next course, four well-scrubbed teenagers dressed in blazers and grey slacks arrived on the doorstep - well, not actually the doorstep, but at the foot of a poorly lit staircase leading up to a first floor landing and a shabby door. This opened onto two large adjoining rooms where the regular attendees had assembled.
Gloria - an extremely well preserved forty-something who ran the classes, met us.
"Welcome boys," she gushed, "come and join the others."
We were guided to a group of about eight other newcomers standing awkwardly in one corner - six boys and two girls.
After exchanging nods Gloria addressed us and explained how the six-week introduction course would proceed.
It was a mainstay of the course that eminently better-qualified pupils, all of whom happened to be female, helped Gloria in her task of training the new recruits. They acted as partners to guide and coach us through the complexities of the Waltz, the Quickstep, the Slow Foxtrot, the Jive and the Cha-Cha in which, competence was required to obtain our Award.
We learned the Waltz first, but before a single 3/4 note was played, Gloria herself and a willing helper demonstrated the steps. It seemed straightforward enough so we were instructed to pair off and practice while Gloria voiced instructions
" One two three, one two three -that's right - one two three, one two three -splendid!"
By the end of the first session most of us could shamble through a robotic waltz and by the end of the second lesson we could also do something which might be recognised as a Slow Foxtrot. For each dance we exchanged partners: in this way we danced with a succession of young females - some nice - some not so nice. Gloria herself would also take turns with each of us.
Dancing with Gloria was an 'experience': she would extend her left arm to meet mine and then clamp my body to hers, vice like, with her right arm, bringing them into contact at every point. The theory being that in order to follow her steps required direct contact with her legs at the thigh. The problem with that was that, as a teenage boy, so intimately connected to a women, I began to experience sexual arousal that made me squirm uncomfortably in an effort to hide my growing problem. Concentration on the dancing then took second place to not having my erection detected.
In hindsight I suspect that Gloria enjoyed an evening of having her mons veritas rubbed with the erect member of a succession of ardent male teenagers but, like a consummate professional, never showed that she did.
It was on the third week that the team of helpers included Sandy, a petite brunette who was exquisitely proportioned and devastatingly beautiful. Sandy was a gold medallist and danced like an angel.
It was inevitable that I, along with half a dozen other young hopefuls, would fall in love with her at first sight. Over the next two of three weeks we attended more dance sessions and at each session I had the pleasure of dancing with Sandy at least once - I even chatted to her over an orange juice during the interval, embarrassing myself with awful repartee that left, even me, cringing. I was convinced that I had no chance with her until late one Thursday night a student from a more advanced class, came into our room on the base and handed me a note. He smiled and left me to open it.
"Dear John,
Please don't think me forward but I would like to see you on Friday night if you can make it - say about 8:00 by the pier. Maybe we could go to the cinema or something? If you don't want to I will understand.
Sandy."
I'm sure my face turned pink as I read it, but my heart leapt.
***
Out first date was at the Odeon cinema. We sat near the back in the gloom and it took two hours to hold each other's hand and kiss. I felt unbelievably awkward and it was clear that Sandy was the one with confidence. It was her who leaned against me and it was her who offered her lips to be kissed after waiting such a long time for me to make the first move.
We arranged to meet at the same time the next night and I showered and shaved for my date with enthusiasm. I even applied a little after-shave despite it being considered effeminate in those early days of masculine personal hygiene. James Bond had responded in the book
From Russia with love,