“I’ll let you go to school as boys today.” she replied,

emphasising ‘today’.

This was a great relief for my brother.

I however knew she wouldn’t really make us go to school dressed as girls.

As we’d done at bedtime,

we removed our nappies and dumped them in the bucket.

Then mum told us to put our ‘knickers’ on, before coming to her room.

“They’re in your top drawer,” she said.

Of course, we protested,

but the threat of going to school in gingham dresses swiftly assured our compliance.

Between our beds was a chest of drawers, and on opening the top drawer we found a host of frilly knickers.

To add insult to injury,

those on my side of the drawer had my name embroidered on them,

and Peter’s all had ‘Peter’ embroidered on the front.