大象传媒

My name is Fred Gibson. I was born at South Bank near Middlesbrough, in 1936. My parents were Charles William Gibson and Florence May Gibson(nee Allport), both of North Ormsby, Middlesbrough. I was the middle one of nine children. Three boys and six girls. The oldest,Lillian, died shortly after she was born.
In those days, South Bank was wedged between two steel foundries, Dorman long and Cargo Fleet. The iron masters owned most of the land on the south bank of the Tees and could spew their waste slag with impunity. From the Eston hills a reddish tinged pall of steam, smoke, soot and iron ore hung over the area. That degree of pollution would not have been tolerated today.
In 1941 I had a severe head injury on a slag heap that was to change the direction of my life.
After the war, I and two of my sisters were sent to a TB sanatorium near Leyburn. It was all walks in the fresh air and eating fresh fruit. Some refugee children from the war were admitted to the sanatorium. These were sick kids! They had crossed Europe, living on bark, roots and what they could scrounge. They had TB, digestive and mental problems, and it was an education to watch them eat, everything, even semolina, was 'nice!' Two of them died. We were told they had been transferred to another hospital, but we knew the score.
My older sister, Pat, had a shadow on her lung. she left school while we were there and the Matron offered her a job at the sanatorium. Later, she met and married a farmer and still lives in the fresh air. For me I could not wait to get back to the dawn chorus of coughing. Some years futher on, I had the final two operations to my right eye and forehead, and I was declared fit for work. So I started my first job for Stillite, slag wool, at the age of 29. Later, I married and had a daughter, Caroline. In 1985 I retired from a steel stockholders.
When I joined the Internet I soon realised that there was a lot of Fred Gibsons out there and if I was going to use my real name there would be times when I would have to tack a number to my name. I'm not Jewish, but having lived through the war, this didn't sit right, so I scrached around came up with Gibbie. It was the nickname I had at school. It is short and original. Not as clumsy as freddotgibson9.
Gibbie.