6th December 2020
Howard Jones was painting the top window frame at the front of my house last weekend. Like myself he used to live in Shiphay. This reminded me of one of my first friends called Anthony Bromell who lived next door. Anthony was about three years older than me and one of my most vivid childhood memories is walking with him up Dairy Hill when he escorted me to my first day at the junior school in Chelston. At the bottom of Dairy Hill he took me along a paved footpath to Stanbury Road. Why that moment in my life remains in my memory I do not know as I have no other memories of that day.
When Anthony moved with his parents to live in Tavistock I was terribly disappointed although our parents kept in touch with each other and over the years I was very pleased to see him occasionally. Not very long after he moved from Torquay the new neighbours arrived and I can vividly recall the excitement of Tony and Kay Perry running around their new house. We soon became very good friends and had lots of happy times together as children.