Fact or Fiction? - 31

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The story yesterday - Here

Was...

All...

Again, it was all TRUE - Every bit of it.

I'll answer a few of the queries here -

My grandmother didn't know my aunt - actually, I didn't know my aunt either, it was pure luck that I found her house from the memories of what my mother had told me - and so would have no reason to speak with her. I believe she said thank you to her for taking me in and keeping me safe, but that's as far as it went.

Why on earth would I want to sleep at a stranger's house and go to school straight from here the next morning? I didn't have my school uniform with me and apart from the fact that the family wouldn't really want a stranger in their house, my grandmother had a car and could fetch me.

The questionable facts are probably more down to my memory than anything else LOL - 40 years since this event, I'm pretty sure I got most things right... but who knows? ;)

Ponies are expensive now, and I'm sure they were back then, too... but when you like horses, you seek out the school friends who own one. ;)

Today's story then... Truth or Fiction? Let me know in the comments.

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Have you ever looked back on your life and thought:

‘How the hell am I still living?’

I do… frequently.

I must say I’ve done some really stupid stuff and some really dangerous stuff!

Just off our estate, there was an old pear orchard. The trees were tall with huge trunks and most of the branches were really high off the ground – around fifteen feet. They stood quite far apart, but the upper branches were close to each other and I was sure that if I could get up there, I’d be able to clamber from one tree to the next and have my own tree domain.

The orchard had been neglected and abandoned, along with the house right next to it. Over the years, the undergrowth took over and the scrubby bushes became trees in their own right. Elder trees mainly, but an apple tree and one solitary horse chestnut tree spring to mind.

Those trees were a doddle to climb because they weren’t anywhere near as tall and bereft of lower branches as those ancient pear trees.

At the more dilapidated end of the orchard were lots of hawthorn bushes – thick, dense masses of prickly, spindly bushes that deterred us from venturing further. A gap in the boundary hedge made a convenient exit from the orchard and that was another reason we didn’t venture further down the orchard – we had no need to.

I used to go into that orchard and look up at the pear trees, wondering if I’d ever manage to climb one and gain access to that lofty playground.

Of course, the usual solutions went through my head. I could take a ladder to give me a good start – but getting the ladder to the orchard seemed a lot of trouble to go to.

I could get a rope… but for similar reasons to the ladder idea, I abandoned it. Plus, I didn’t want my ‘challenge’ bested by ‘cheats’. I wanted to climb those trees – or at least one of them – under my own steam.

So I went to the orchard and I studied the trees and I went home again without completing the self-appointed task.

I had to look at things from a different angle.

Toward the bottom of the orchard, where we never seemed to go, the solution lay. I spotted the tree during winter, when the hawthorn tangles were easier to see through. The trunk of an elder tree that had self-set and been allowed to grow because no one had been to cut it down.

Elder trees grow quite fast, but the wood is fibrous, brittle and not as sturdy as slower-growing trees. That means, if you clamber up their trunks, you have to have a number of things in your favour. It’s best if you’re light, agile and good at climbing (of course).

I was all of those and I saw a way of using the elder tree to climb up the last in the row of the pear trees. If I climbed up really high (about 12 feet of the fifteen feet of elder tree), my weight would hopefully be enough to lean the elder tree onto the pear tree and I was pretty sure I could scramble the last couple of feet to the lower branches of that pear tree.

At last! I would meet the challenge I’d set myself! I would be at the top of those trees before I knew it!

As usual, I was down at the orchard alone and it never occurred to me how dangerous my plan could be.

I clambered up the elder tree. Even then, when I was pre-teen and scrawny, the tree was beginning to bend under my weight.

I climbed up through the branches, making sure to test each one for weight-bearing. The last half of that elder tree was nerve-wracking but I didn’t want to give up. I was so close, I could almost taste victory.

I looked up and the lowest branch of that old pear tree was inches from my hand. If I jumped, I was sure I’d reach it.

I didn’t look down. I knew I’d give myself second-thoughts if I did and I took a deep breath, swallowed hard and leaped.

The CRACK of the elder tree snapping under my weight made my heart lurch in my chest. I reached for the branch of the pear tree, willing it to be closer.

One hand grabbed the branch, the other slipped on the mossy slime and I slammed into the trunk. I kept hold of the branch through sheer determination and grabbed the branch with my other hand.

Have you heard the saying, “Your mind is writing cheques your body can’t cash”?

Take a look… under that saying is a picture of me, dangling from an old pear tree trying for one mighty pull-up to enable me to complete the challenge I’d set myself.

All I managed was to scramble across the slippery, treacherous branch and slither down the trunk to safety.

My clothes were stained moss-green and when I got home, I had a deep scratch down my cheek too.

The poor elder tree decided to grow in another direction, just in case the crazy ginger-kid should try to kill herself again and I never did get up into the lofty boughs of those pear trees.