I can still imagine myself back to that field with the stream running through it, and the woods alongside .We must have awakened some primitive sprite that bedevilled everyone, for much mischief was made in that place. It was the annual summer holiday for the Children's Home, and this year it was a camping trip to the West Country. My Dad had been on a recce down to Devon, to find a suitable spot, and an agreeable farmer, who would be prepared to entrust his field to a tribe of marauding kids for a couple of weeks. My brother, and a couple of the other lads had gone with my Dad on the recce, but I wasn't allowed. Probably because I was a girl.

I never even wanted to be a girl. I just wanted to be one of the boys, and play football with my shirt off, and use my jumper as a goalpost. Sometimes I did that stuff anyway. I guess if you were going to be a woman, you'd want to be something like Raquel. Not a lady in an apron and a nylon panty - girdle, who dabbed you roughly with a spit dampened hanky. Anyway, the suitable spot was duly found, and our crazy convoy hit the road, and drove down to Devon one magical Summer's day. We found the field with the wood, and the little stream. This was real camping, not the tame wussy glamping of today. We had  canvas ex-army tents, and a huge marquee which served as the kitchen, the mess hall, and the quarter - master's stores.

There were no chemical toilets either. A trench had to be dug, and a latrine was erected around it, and you had to sing if you didn't want anyone to walk in on you. We also had ex - army camp - beds, which were slatted, wooden affairs, with collapsible legs, and a length of canvas stretched across them. We didn't have sleeping bags either, but grey army - issue blankets, and blanket pins to hold them together.

Every morning, before we did anything else, the tents would have to pass muster, with all the beds made up, and everything in it's right place. My Dad carried out the inspection. It must have been the Scout-Master in him. Then there would be cooked breakfast of porridge, or bacon, eggs and baked beans to set us up for the day. We had to take turns to do the chores, but after that, we were free to play in the field, roam the woods, or swim in the stream. The stream, which was freezing. That year, the boys had found a new place to hang their swimming towels, and they liked to show it off.

I don't know if it was the hot weather, or the hormones, but despite the utilitarian and slightly military undertone that pervaded, there was a heady, sultry mood infiltrating the camp. It may have had something to do with the three young female students who had come to do work experience. There was a Swedish goddess, with a sheet of silver - blonde hair that surpassed her arse. She wore grecian sandals that criss - crossed  her endlessly slender legs, and a silver ankle chain with a Cornish  Piskie on it for luck.

The other two were French. Beautiful brunettes with dark eyes, and knowing smiles.I liked to go in one of the boys tents, and hang out with them. There were five or six of them, all about fourteen or fifteen, and I was eight or nine. The boys were funny, and a bit naughty. One of them was training me to kiss him. I think I was doing quite well, but I didn't really know about that sort of thing.

Later, in the woods together, he tried to train me to do something else, but as he undid his belt, the purple suede one he had promised me for services rendered, something didn't feel right, so I just got up quickly and walked away. Shortly after this, I came across Jane and Roger, and unwittingly became witness to a demonstration of what might have happened had I fulfilled my part of the bargain.

They made me watch their experiment to see what happens when you apply friction to a certain piece of apparatus. A strange and mysterious phenomenon, that I didn't know quite how to process. I wasn't very impressed with his prestidigitations, or his magic wand. In the evenings, we would have a big campfire, and sit around it singing campfire songs. We knew all the Ging gang goolies, and the Wicky wacky woos. My folks knew them all. I wonder if they knew what salaciousness was going on under their noses. One day, I found myself with Graham, who looked like a coconut because of the way his hair stuck up at the crown. Apart from that, he was O. K. I think we were making our way  towards the village, and on the edge of the field, there was a broken down old car. As we neared the car, which was grey, with dark red leather upholstery, Graham said, " I'll give you ten bob if you give me a feel of your minge." " What's that? " I said. So he explained, and I considered for a while.

Now ten bob was A LOT of money, and I wasn't particularly precious about my  minge. No-one had ever been interested in it before, and I never gave it much thought. It seemed like quite a good deal to me, so we got in the car. We sat in the back, and he wriggled his hand into my knickers, and held it there for a while, that was all. It was very quick. I think he just wanted to get his bearings. Then we continued on into the village. At the Newsagents, we bought some sweets and I took a copy of Parade magasine off the shelf, and took it to the counter and paid. I think the Newsagent must have thought I was a young lad, but he didn't bat an eyelid, and nor did I. I was pretty chuffed with myself, and I think the boys were quite impressed. I let them look at it too.

Later, a few weeks later, when the holiday was over, and we were back at home, Graham offered me the promised ten bob. I think my Mum was in the room, and I suddenly wondered how I was going to explain away my newfound wealth. I decided I would only accept seven and six, but I still felt jittery. Our pocket money went up in increments of  threepence, ( that's 3d not 3p ) every birthday, so I was on about one shilling and sixpence. Later still, I was sitting next to my Mum on the bus on the way home from school one day, when I was overcome with guilt, and felt compelled to confess. My Mum said, " So you sold your body ?"

It seemed I had done a really bad thing, and I strongly believed that I might burn in Hell for ever.