...........We were stunned, I had never heard a Father treat anyone with such a harsh contempt, and my heart went out to the daughter who later visited my then local pub The Unicorn to seek me out....
Thats right, the 18 year old daughter turned up in my local pub and brought her 20 year old witness brother along with her. After several pints of ale, he informed me that he was heavily into smoking pot and that he was concerned that he might get DF'd if he was caught. He didn't see why he couldn't enjoy a joint without giving up being a witness, she had just finished watching the movie "Shirley Valentine", did I know what a clitoris was?
We all met up several times after that, although back then they still wanted to remain JW's, they just wanted to experience the things that had been forbidden to them. We agreed that DF'ing was ludicrous, please would I not take offence if they shunned me in front of Father?
Shortly after this, the linked property on the other side of our house became available. Several persons came to view, until finally a couple with 2 teenage daughters (more teenage daughters!) knocked on our door to enquire as to what sort of schools were available in the area. He was a bearded fellow, ex-sailor maybe, and he was very concerned that his children should go to a GOOD school, not that awful Phoenix school that had such a bad reputation! Oh yes, no way was he having his girls playing in the school orchestra either, they had much more important things to occupy them!
What an intense fellow, I thought.
A couple of weeks passed by, and sure enough, they moved in. I watched it all out of the front room window. Just as they were unloading their gear from the removal van, the dubs on the other side arrived home from a shopping trip. I watched them as they caught sight of the new arrivals, and also saw their sudden recognition for one another. Big Kingdom Smiles appeared all round, lots of 'Bon homie' and 'Hail fellow well mets', manly handshakes from the men, big hugs and smiles from the ladies, lots of "Well I nevers!" from everyone, do you know bro so and so, you get the picture.
Suddenly, all went quiet. Dub pair number 1 nodded meaningfully at our house in-between, whispered a few words, and dub pair number 2's mouthes formed into great big "O's", and they all engaged in a bout of discreet nodding with a few "Ah's" and "I sees" thrown in. So now our new neighbours on the other side knew about the DF'd person in the middle. Me.
"Bugger this", I thought, "I'm going to give this lot a piece of my mind!" I opened the front door and walked towards the 2 sets of witness neighbours...
End of Part 2.
In Part 3, I endure cat-calling from visiting witnesses.
Englishman.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be....