The Swing Bite

My earliest memory of Cudworth’s house was playing in their back garden on the wooden swing with Simon Cudworth. Our Dad allegedly made this swing, and it was one of those swings that would lift its base if you managed to swing it high enough, unlike the O’Connor’s metal swing which was embedded in a concrete base and was solid. That one was the best swing on the road, allowing you to swing so high that if you put your head back you’d get completely dizzy.

Simon was standing on the seat of the wooden swing and using the ropes to get to swing higher and the higher he got the more the seat lifted and made a loud banging noise.  This wasn’t a great idea as it overexcited our Labrador, who must have been called Barry, as all of our dogs were called Barry – our Dad showed huge creativity when it came to naming dogs. Barry had come with me to play in the Cudworth’s garden. After lots of barking, Barry jumped up and bit Simon on the bum!

This constituted a major incident necessitating a visit from Jack Cudworth to our house to remonstrate with our parents.  Jack was the most gentle, quiet person and must have been really riled to take such extreme action. The outcome was that we didn’t get to play with the Cudworths for a long time.