Poems about the Army Apprentices School, Harrogate
(Attributed to Terry Corbett, intake 54B, with some subsequent editing)

Leave

Loads of money, two weeks leave, outside the buses wait
To take us to the station and away from Harrogate.
Ten bob, pound notes, silver, and big white ‘fivers’ too.
This is the life, you’re going on leave, no-one to pick on you.

We pay a little extra fare to catch the train much later,
A slap-up meal in a Pullman coach, and service with a waiter,
It’s Christmastime, we’re going home, good food and comely bed,
And waking-up is when we like, not half-past-six instead.

Do as you please on two weeks leave, come and go at leisure,
You don’t book out, you don’t book in, the door key, nights of pleasure,
Coffee bars, the juke box too, dance halls and the ‘flicks’,
Pubs and pints, and sometimes fights with civvies over ‘chicks’.

Two weeks are up, we’ve drained the cup of luxury and life,
It’s back to Uniacke we come, to lot’s of work and strife.
“Wakey wakey!” the sergeant shouts, “Feet upon the floor.”
Sweet memories fade, it’s drill and trade and Stan for three months more.

If someone made a time machine and asked who wants to go
Way back in time to Uniacke, so many years ago,
Would you accept the challenge and travel back in time?
I know I would, as long as I could press the ‘Fast rewind’!

With thanks to  Trevor "Bill" Powell for this contribution.