大象传媒

One night during the same week a crowd of us were on the Racecourse with some girls when I had a more fortunate encounter with a girl, someone that I knew slightly by sight passed nearby while walking her dog. I didn鈥檛 have a chat-up line but just fell in along with her making some sort of conversation until we had reached the road where she lived in Kingsthorpe Hollow, leaving her there but not before we had arranged to meet again. Not many of the girls that I had been out with wished to make a second date, whether the fault was theirs or mine I don鈥檛 know. But that meeting was the beginning of a regular relationship.
I had seen her often when I biked past her house where she lived as a schoolgirl, which was in the town but was demolished many years ago. The girl鈥檚 name was Jane. I met her parents and we went out with them usually on Sunday evenings to the WMC in Semilong. Dad, Bill, was a very heavy drinker, and on the occasions when I went out with him alone I鈥檓 afraid that I tried to keep up with him pint for pint, and thought to myself 鈥渉ere I go again鈥� trying to drink above my capacity until one night having drunk far too much I was not able to hold it and disgraced myself. He then warned me not to attempt to keep up with him, not to match him, I was pleased to take his good advice. We became good mates, going to the Cobblers, or to boxing matches together, even lending him money when he was short. I had most of my meals with them at the weekends.
Toward the year鈥檚 end our work foreman called me into the office to inform me that there was a vacancy for a vanman at Bedford, to be available in the New Year. Charlie Woods who worked that area wanted assistance as his rounds were steadily expanding. It had been decided that the Northampton department be asked to supply the applicant and so it fell to foreman Horace to consider who of his staff he should recommend as suitable and he offered it to me.
There were those some senior to me who for various reasons when offered it declined and were unable to take advantage of the opportunity, my mate Gilbert for instance supported a widowed mother, two were recently married and buying their own homes, consequently it came down to me, and I readily accepted.
The decision gave me no difficulty whatsoever in fact I would have been disappointed if I hadn鈥檛 been given it, so I jumped at the chance to leave home where I was far from happy, a good deal of the reason for that I realised as I grew older was much my fault. It was easy to blame others but it was as much my own attitude as anything, my life at the time had not been very creditable, although since meeting Jane my habits had improved.
It was with some anticipation that I awaited the New Year, I was to be a van driver with an increase in pay, about to begin a new life. Bedford I thought was no great distance from home, and I would be able to bike there on Monday mornings return on Wednesday afternoons and again at the weekend.
The distance from home (before motorways) was about twenty miles, Charlie had found lodgings for me in the Queen鈥檚 Park area and introduced me to my landlady, Mrs Cattrell, a widowed lady, who had a daughter and two sons all within a year or so of my age. I moved in on a morning in early January having biked there in icy wintry weather typical for that time of year.
Dad had got me up at six-thirty and I well remember the breakfast which I ate before setting out, not that it was unusual at the time in our house, but bread sop was hardly the meal to sustain me for a twenty-mile bike ride, especially in winter. It consisted of bread soaked in a basin of tea, I was expected to be at the garage by eight-thirty but called in the digs on the way to let them know that I had arrived, and would be in for the evening meal.
That was to be the pattern of my working life for the next ten months often arriving soaked from a rainy journey, sometimes very cold when the roads were icy and when snow lay upon them. The worst of those rides were perhaps when trying to force along against a strong wind, there were though those beautiful mornings when there could have been nothing more pleasurable than to be bowling along that road, the road on which I must have travelled about three thousand miles to and fro, able to almost recognise each and every pothole every rut, each hill, and dale. There were occasions when a lorry driver would pull up put my bike on the back and give me a lift, failing that it was possible sometimes to hang on to a tailboard to be pulled along for a few miles.
It was far from the best of mornings to begin a new venture, for a start the promised van hadn鈥檛 arrived, I had therefore to do the round on a trike in the meantime. It was snowing heavily and I was not sure of the district or the addresses of the customers which were mostly in the centre (that area is now much changed).
I still had a lot of calls to make as it grew dark and I became more dejected, cold and miserable with not making much headway, I wondered then if I hadn鈥檛 made a wrong move in going to Bedford, I was very much cheered however when Charlie pulled up in his van. He had been to my digs to see how I had progressed during the day and found that I was still out so came on to help me finish the remainder of the round of collections, he saved the day for me, Charlie was that sort of man he loved his work he and his van could be seen at all hours. It seemed that he had very little home life, and chose to be working. It was about eight o鈥檆lock when I finally reached the garage, thankfully returning to the warmth of Mrs Cattrell鈥檚 home and an enjoyable late dinner.
I very soon settled in with my new family for she treated me as one of her sons, and those of her family as a friend. Mrs Cattrell was so considerate and caring that by the time I left I regarded her as a second mother. The daughter was the eldest of her children and I learned that she worked at Woolworth鈥檚 and engaged to an airman at nearby Cardington. The oldest son Charlie was about my age and the other a little younger, he was Bob and worked as a baker and was a territorial soldier. We all got along fine and it was most pleasant to sit and talk with them in front of the fire on those cold winter evenings when they were at home.
My Tuesday round was much easier and smaller, but some distance away over in the London Road area. On Wednesdays we cashed in at the laundry office at Irthlingborough, after which was our half-day and from Bedford I would bike home. On one such day when cashing-in I enquired who the dark-eyed girl who handled my work was, and learnt that her name was Hilda Freeman, later, on those days we began to talk and somehow always managed to meet in the loading bay. I found that she was engaged to a local boy and I too had then recently become to engaged to Jane.
It was usual for four of us Jane, myself, Sam and his girl to go to the dance at the Fancier鈥檚 Club on Saturday nights. While the girls danced in the ballroom upstairs Sam and I played snooker and generally propped up the bar, making a point of going up to attempt the last waltz; neither of us could ever dance but did make the effort at the end of the evening.
Jane had told me that she had begun going to dances in the week while I was away in Bedford to which I saw no reason to object, that is until I saw who her dancing partner was: I knew him, he was at school with me not my type at all, I thought him too flashy. And my dislike of him had something to do with the fact that he was an exceptional dancer which made that dislike more intense, and was the cause of my jealousy.
I told Jane that I objected to her so close association with him, especially after learning that he was her regular partner in the week, my attitude regarding it caused us to fall out and I regretted that it appeared as though I did not trust her. I decided to let the matter drop and put aside my jealous thoughts, because on reflection I realised that I was being unjust in view of the fact that I continued to meet Hilda for a few minutes on Wednesdays; in addition we wrote to one another.
It was a strange sort of situation when considering that we were both engaged to others, it often happened that I would post a letter to Hilda on my way to meet Jane. What tangled webs are woven by the young, maybe we were just young and foolish, or could we use the excuse that it was due to the uncertainty of the times through which we were passing?
Wednesday, our cashing-in day caused me no problems when working in Bedford but previously at the time that I was drinking it was always a worry as to whether my cash would meet the receipts; whatever the total I always seemed to be short, caused by dipping into my cashbag during the week to feed my habits of drinking, and betting on the horses. The only way in which the shortfall could be overcome was either to borrow from my workmates or to use cash from one of the next week鈥檚 deliveries. It got so bad that I stopped betting altogether, cut down on my drinking and have never gambled since.
I still went out on Wednesdays with the Northampton roundsman, to the pictures or skating. In the summer Frosty who was a little older than us would call round and pick up about four of us in a little soft-topped Austin Seven, of which he was a part-owner along with his friends; he would drive us out somewhere, usually to go swimming, Midsummer Baths were our favourite, we had some very happy times in that motor.
The mention of Midsummer Meadow Baths brings back memories of some wonderful times spent there especially during the month-long August holiday. Also on summer Sunday mornings early after breakfast a group of us boys and girls would cross the fields from Ransome Road and go to the baths that way; in those days the girls would leave us once inside, because the sexes were segregated and we couldn鈥檛 see them again until we met them at the entrance to go home. But we could peep through the slits in the timber, or the knots in the wood.
The baths were open from Springtime to October and although open-air were heated by the cooling towers of the electricity works on the river bank, the baths themselves were closed many years ago and the towers demolished soon after. Often on my way home from work when I was employed in the bakehouse I would have a swim, as they didn鈥檛 close until nine o鈥檆lock.
But back to those Sunday schoolboy mornings, having had our swim and met together outside, we boys would have to make a dash for home in order to collect our stiff starched collars and surpluses, so that we could be in the vestry no later than ten minutes before the start of the eleven o鈥檆lock service, where us pink-faced and newly-cleansed choirboys would appear to the congregation to be the angels which we were certainly not.
The brewers, Phipps & Co. owned some swimming baths and as schoolboys we used to march once a week to those baths for our lessons from Rothersthorpe Road, it was where I learned to swim. I learnt very quickly because almost before I could get undressed I was pushed in and swam from that moment and on my first visit. How lucky we were in those days of the Depression in the 1930s that these concessions were made available to us.
After I had confronted Jane regarding her dancing partner although not unduly worried or concerned over the matter, I did a few weeks later receive something which gave me food for thought about it. Jane鈥檚 mum waited until she and I were alone and asked me if, having said goodnight to Jane on the doorstep on the previous Sunday night, did I return on foot? My answer was a simple 鈥渘o鈥�. It was my habit to jump on my bike set off round the corner and bike home. There was no reason which I could think of where I would need to come back on foot, she then explained that a neighbour just happened to be looking out (as they sometimes do,) and was certain that she saw someone come from around the corner and over the road after I had left. Jane鈥檚 mum was concerned enough about it to mention it to me, I gave it some thought but decided that the neighbour was mistaken. I ought to have treated it more seriously, I didn鈥檛 realise the consequences then of what had taken place. I was quite naive.
As we entered into the New Year (1939) there persisted a nervous tension throughout the country which was further strengthened by the obvious preparations being made for our defence, in what was presumed the coming war. Trenches were being dug in the parks, air-raid wardens were appointed, and important buildings were being sandbagged, all of which increased the fear of war being imminent.
In April a Bill was passed in Parliament which allowed for the call-up to the services for six months training applying to men aged twenty. And as I had then turned twenty it included me; it was sometime during the Spring that while on my rounds in Bedford I read a notice in a Post Office window instructing all males of that age to register in what was known as the 鈥楳ilitia鈥�. There was to be an initial call-up of ten thousand. My registration date was in the coming June and my place of enrolment was the old cinema and skating rink, (the Roxy?) over West Bridge, Northampton, just beyond Castle Station.

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