The Day We Set Earith On Fire

A Memory of Earith.

Well . . . not all of it!

My dad was enlisted USAF stationed at Alconbury 1959-1960 and he found us a place on High Street that we shared with a number of other people. I believe it was one of the first three buildings backed up to the river, right downtown. I do know it was across the street and only three or four buildings down from the grocery store. Dad was out as usual and pregnant Mom was home with us four boys (the fifth brother on the way). Mom took one of the younger brothers and walked a few doors up the street to the grocer's to get some milk. Older brother (aged 8) was left in charge of the youngest of the clan and me. Couple of minutes after she left, the older brother decided he wanted to get a glass of water. Mom had saved up and bought a nice new set of beverage glasses and promptly forbidden us boys to use them as they were for "guests and grownups". No problem, we liked our old ones just fine. Problem! - She had all the new glasses front and center in a nice display with all of our old glasses tucked behind them. Older brother couldn't quite reach up behind to get to the old ones so he climbed up on the counter and accidentally knocked the full laundry basket off the counter. Good news was, the clean clothes didn't hit the floor. Bad news was, the clean clothes landed on the oil fired potbelly stove and promptly caught fire! We tried beating out the flames but they kept coming back. I dashed down the street and found my mom at the grocers and she came running back as fast as her pregnant body would allow, the shopkeeper right behind her. They managed to get the fire out and I seem to remember the damage as being not too catastrophic. Years later mom told me the landlord was already trying to evict us before this incident. My dad was one of the first of his squadron to get stationed here and had signed a lease cheap. Later, when the rest of the squadron arrived (the officers), there was a housing shortage and the owners were charging a great deal more for their units. The landlord was furious that he had rented to us so cheap. If anyone here remembers "The Great Earith Fire" I'd love to hear about it.

My only other 1st grade memories of Earith are:

Running up the stairs to put shillings in the meter to keep the lights on.

The triangle shaped back yard that ended in a point into the River Ouse.

We tried to raise a couple of rabbits but I seem to remember they were stung by some sort of wasp and died.

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