Alun was the only boy in a family of 6, and us girls idolised him and spoiled him rotten. He always paid the twins and I thrupence for drying his hair, sixpence if we also scratched his back, and that went up to a shilling if we cleaned his shoes too.  He had the life of Riley, but that didn't stop him teasing us mercilessly. 

Our sister Irene was called Tini - shortened to Tin (teen) for most of her childhood and teenage years.

Alun never tired of calling "Ay, Tin!" when she was on her way out of a room and when Irene stopped in her tracks and said 'What?' he would carry on with '.....nineteen, twenty, twenty-one....' , or if it was someone else, he would just shout 'Ay!' and when we stopped and said 'Yes' or 'What' he would carry on with '......B C D E.....'. I'm sure there was a lot of eye rolling and quick slaps aimed at him from his latest victim with some chuckling form Al because he'd caught us out again.

Another of his favourite tricks, when he came home to find one of us already comfy on the settee, was to go to the front door and ring the bell then shout to say one of our friends was calling for us.  Of course when we got up no one was there, but when we came back Alun had taken our place and was stretched out on the settee, grinning.

You would have thought we'd eventually get wise to Alun's tricks, but amazingly he caught us time and time again. It's a good job we all have a sense of humour. 

Al,  was also always quick with a witty comment and one that has always stuck in my mind is from a Christmas in the early '70s. He had been given a bottle of a well known aftershave and he obviously followed the advice of Henry Cooper to 'splash it all over'. He was going out with his mates and when he came into the living room our Mum said, 'Your Brut smells nice Al.' and without pausing, he replied, 'Thanks Mam, I've just washed it!'  I can still remember us all laughing at that. Happy days!