1976,was one to remember, not just the summer being hottest.Oh no it was the year met and married my wife Karen.
we had become engaged and were not planning getting married at that time, but an incident with my mother and Karen, upset me so much i left home there and then and that's how much i loved Karen.And still do I'll add.We went to the registry office the next day and booked the first date we could.December the 4th. the very day my grandmother had died,unknown by me at the time. it never struck my mind on the date of things all I remembered was that i slept over with my granddad,
to keep him company, he let me have the bed while he slept on the settee,grandmother was laid out in her coffin in the bedroom,
looking peace full but there was a thread in the corner of her mouth from sewing her mouth shut I guess (she had false teeth) granddad would come in and try to cuddle her, I felt so helpless as i was only 16,he had been my hero from being small.his home remedies, linctus,black bullets,in a glass of water
A friend of mine offered me two rooms in his flat for £1 a week, so i took it, on condition that I redecorated the hall stairs and landing.
it took a full roll of paper to do just one strip at the highest part, but my brother in law to be is a decorator he said he would pay for it and do the job too.
so with a workmate of his we set off decorating they doing the gloss work.There was a cupboard under the stairs i thought would make a good place to keep the pram as Karen had a small baby son when we met.
It had a broken window and a hole hacked into the floorboards but i made good by blocking them up and went about other things, like organising my concessionary fuel allowance from the pit,but in the mean time i carried 10 bags of coal from my sisters house the next street but one,there was three coal houses in the yard all empty so i chose one and the ten bags carried one at a time, it was nearly 10 years till i could afford a car.
there was no running water in the flat or gas, the toilet was down the yard shared with my friend Billy, his wife Jean and a chap who had the whole ground floor, I later found out was a man suffering TB called Geordie Holiday one of the town drunks.
A day or two later i was passing the cupboard and noticed the broken window on show again, looking in the hole in the floor was exposed also.
then the downstairs door was yanked open and a furious Mr Holiday appeared. "HO YOU" he yelled stop nailing my cat flap up. Cat flap I said, taken aback "and stop putting coal in my coal house." Your coal house said I they were all empty i said, well that one is mine so i sold it
He opened his front door to show me an identical hole in the floorboards in his sitting room. That's how my cat gets in when I'm not here.Looking in the place was an absolute dump with broken up furniture, a few rotten cookers dotted about in the most filthy conditions I've ever seen.
he invited me in for a cup of tea while he told me his tail about taking in his brother, who then ran off with his wife leaving him with just his cat, and all the waifs and strays you find in gutters outside public house after closing time. he ha let the place go to ruin. I settled into a huge armchair his cat took guard over me on a table opposite.
While he chatted he took an axe to a wardrobe smashing bits off for his fire,parts too long he pushed up the chimney to burn down their self his blackened hands wiped on his trousers ( that were so shiny you could see your face in them)
will you watch the place till go to the shop next door to our house ? sure thing i said intending to scarper as soon as he went.
he went outside and I made to stand up, his cat immediately arched its back hissing and spitting not unlike a tiger right in my face. Oh shit i thought and sat meekly till he returned with a paper packet that contained bacon it turned out to be, Fancy a cuppa he asked. I need to go really i said I'm night shift this week so i cant stay.
he then preceded to pick up an old blackened frying pan and with his sooty black hands from his stoking activity, pick up a slice of bacon slapped it into the pan,repeated the process until the pan was full, then push the pan into the flames.
we chatted about this and that,
i found out he had TB, his brother had run off with his wife,after taking him in. Looking round the room i found not a single ornament or personal Nick knacks people tend to have, but the utter filthy state of it, with pieces of furniture in various stages of demolition, old cookers strewn about[ beats me what's going on there] no appliances, no TV, smoke blackened ceiling general chaos,he put water in an old black kettle and placed that next to the frying pan,took two mugs that were just as bad as his place probably nicked from the pit canteen, i worked at the pit so knew them well,only his had chips round the rim and hadn't seen soap and water for months.
he made a cup of tea while tending the pan, took a plate from the table where the cat was still giving me the evil eye,wiped it with his sleeve then picking the bacon out with his bare hand placed them on the plate, he then broke some eggs into the frying pan
i was trying not to be rude by drinking the tea, but wanted more that winning the lottery to escape my torment.The next thing i knew a bacon and egg sandwich was thrust my way, my god i thought i'm going to die.
i forced myself to eat that sandwich, even though it was like being at work where there was no running water,toilets,tables to eat packed lunch from [imagine somewhere where over 140 years thousands of men doing toiletry duty's] the pit had a certain odour you kind of got used to.
i finished the sandwich and tea, made my escape, then ran to the nearby bus station and vomited my insides out.
needless to say i declined anyfurther invites from George, to come in for coffee
