I was very close to my sister Sally. However, she married a props master from the film industry and he killed her. Not murder, of course, rather than circumstances, but that is another story. I was 5 years older than Sally so about 20 when she finished school at age 15 years. I was pretty dumb at that age and yet I realise now that Sally’s post school actions really troubled me. She was a great netball player at school and played at county level. However, having left school she stopped playing. I was pretty upset at her stopping sport. I tried to convince her to keep playing but in vain. It was that social pressure that females should avoid sweaty exercise and look demure and pretty. If she had played sport I doubt she would have died. Women and exercise can be so good for each other.

Knock knees

As a kid living with Sally, in relative poverty, exercise was a remote middle-class pursuit. People on the council estate did not exercise. If I wore my shorts, quite a challenge in those days, my mother drew attention to my legs. People in council houses did not wear shorts. I ignored all this but my sisters were under greater pressure. Social norms are pernicious in restricting our lives. The child’s pram and dolls were universal on the estate and women were baby machines. As long as they were married, of course. The unmarried mother’s home still existed in Shrewsbury at that time. What a taint that was.

Women and exercise

Sally stayed slim and walked a lot. However, that is not the same as exercise being a part of your daily routine. Socialisation does that, the exercising mother and father have exercising children. Fortunately, I mixed with climbers and cavers and soon understood than many people lived an active life. Sally also moved up in life but through marriage. However, having been abandoned by our father, her choice of man was about subservience and that was a mistake. Had our father stayed, he could have taught us so much about an active life. Is it an active life, philandering and deceit? He was rather good at adult games.