The alarm clacks its two bells at six am and I can hear Chuck Berry’s, ‘My Ding a Ling’ playing somewhere in the house. Normally I go back to sleep – I am only fifteen and a full day in the engineering factory awaited me. But my curiosity is aroused. I slumber my way into the kitchen. It’s true my fifty-seven-year-old dad is listening to the aforementioned tune!
This may not seem strange to you but rest assured this man listened to Radio 4, or read his paper or watched the news. “I like it,” he said, frowning at my gob gaping form. “Best get ready for work.”
I disliked getting up at 6am, I disliked being an apprentice engineer, I disliked Bradford, the fog, the cold, the two buses I had to catch and the people who lived in their little houses. From my view on the bus, the back to back houses reminded me of a rat run.
That was 1972 but I look back now with fondness. Isn’t it strange how we reminisce and what once appeared unbearable now seems romantic in a way? Well, it was better than sitting in my room all day playing Call of Duty 😉
Oh! I’ve done an About page by the way, it’s only taken me ten years to get around to it 😂😂
My sister had that record. My da said it was filth and told her to get rid of it or he would snap it in two 😱
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Haha, there’s no accounting for taste 😉
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Obviously couldn’t bear to think of his daughter playing with some fellas ding a ling 🙈🙈🙈🤣🤣🤣
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Haha, what father could 🥴😂
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That is an ‘About’ page that other ‘About’ pages could learn from. Tells you all you need to know, while remaining coolly understated. It’s the ‘About’ page of someone that everyone would want to have a beer with.
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Aww, thank you 😀🤪
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Such a strange song! Congratulations on the about page. Lots of princesses in my house too but the plastic kind.
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Haha, Plastic never did it for me 😉I guess they’ll be the last to be packed 😂
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Oh yes. They are still all over the house. I swear they are breeding!
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It’s when you find a Barbie head in the bottom of your trainer, you have to worry 😉
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Another delicious snippet. Thanks.
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Thank you, Pete short and sweet seems to work. Maybe one day I’ll do a longer one sometime and call it the Fourth Paragraph, stealing from the Quo 😂
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When I was young we used to have a dog. It wouldn’t be unusual to find Barbie on the floor with an oblong head complete with teeth marks. The horror!
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How traumatic for a little girl 😂 My friend’s puppy used to do things to his daughters’ teddy that you wouldn’t discuss over dinner 😂
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Oooh lovely! 😬
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I understand. Growing up on a farm was horrible….the isolation, the hard work, social distancing (yeah, even back then). Today, my memories are much sweeter.
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I loved growing up on a farm but there again I only played as we left when I was 10. Having to work on one as a child wasn’t a bed of roses for you as I recall
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Great post and thanks for sharing your past memories! Thanks for this post. Well done for getting round to doing an ‘about me’ page 👍 xx
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Thank you and I kinda thought ten years was enough time to keep people waiting. Coppola got away with 16 years for a sequel to the Godfather 2 but I’m no Coppola haha
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😂😂 so funny! Xx take care
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It is funny how we can look back fondly. I wonder if some of it is rose tinted glasses and romanticising the good parts, or comparing genuinely to times now that are worse in some way(s). Out of curiosity, how long did you have that job for? And well done on the About page, though I can’t seem to find it… (and yes, I do be wearing my glasses and I do have my peepers open). xx
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Haha, Caz, I think there is a thing about Yorkshire folk like it’s a competition, who has the shittiest life 😂I did it for a year then I got a job as an apprentice motor mechanic (which is what I wanted to do but school career officer said I had no chance) To be fair that year stood me in good stead. I think the about page is near or beneath the Menu on my home page xxx
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I have been to Bradford and it is a dark place. Can understand why you disliked working there. I have worked all over the place, Scotland, England, Wales and the now the States.
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How wonderful, who were your favourite people – the English- the Scottish – the Welsh? It’s okay you can answer, the Welsh and Scottish can’t read 😂 (that’s probably lost me a few followers😉) Yes Bradford was quite dark, which is where I set my book. Gillian has requested I set the next one somewhere a little ‘warmer’ 😂
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I was brought up in Scotland so I have to go with that, even though we can’t read… 🙃 There are nice people everywhere but so far, Turks and Mexicans are the friendliest.
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Haha, it’s okay for us English to take the micky over Scottish education because we know deep down inside it’s far superior to ours 😉 can’t say I’ve met many Turks but loved the Mexicans 😉
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😁🇲🇽💃
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How come I can’t comment on your About page? You’ve had 4 wives? That’s impressive lol
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I didn’t realise I had to tick allow comments, thank you for raising it I’ve now ticked aforementioned box lol. Yes, 4 I’ve been very lucky 😉
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You’re welcome!
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Hi! Nice to find ur site!
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Thank you, welcome back 😀
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You have written so beautifully. Great time reading it 😊😊
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Thank you 😀
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Glad I am a 90’s kid :D, at-least some of this feels familiar. Had I been a millennial, only COD would have been relatable.
Very interesting read!!
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I have my clock story….
https://chapter18.wordpress.com/2020/06/10/gandhijis-talisman/
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“I want to play with my ding a ling…” Would a Brit call that “cheeky?” Great song. LOL!
Four wives, huh? I’ve been thru three husbands.
I hated getting up at 6:30am, too. I’m pretty sure that I was born in the wrong time zone. I’ve spent my entire working life yawning, sleepy-eyed and staggering.
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That’s 7 between us maybe we should have had a relay team 😂
My problem is I’m a night owl and an early riser, I do wonder how I’ve managed to live this long 😂
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Heh. Pass the baton instead of rings. I like it.
I’m a night critter, too. I never developed the early rising thing. My dad told me many years ago that my mom would bitch because getting me up for school was a battle…every day. 😊😁
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Heh, too, except you’ve got the baton now 😂
Yeah from childhood, I remember as a kid they would say it was bedtime, so I used to go behind the couch and play quietly with my cars. About an hour later I usually heard my dad say. “Has that lad gone to bed yet?” 😂
Of course from our previous conservations I guess your dad was right! 🥴
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No baton, here (or ring). I live with my SO but, there’s no legal connection.
I played with cars, too but…not behind a couch. LOL! I’d like to have a garage full of some of those cars, too. *wink wink*
My mom is/was an odd bird. Not much on conversation. She is very (what I call) “asked and answered.” You ask her a pointed question, she will give you a pointed answer. Have a conversation (a natural give & take), nope. Most of what I know about her behavior when I was young, I got from my dad’s memories. She certainly wouldn’t share any memories of my childhood with me. I suspect she is on the autism spectrum (I may have already expressed that and, if so…apologies for the unintended repetition).
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SO? Well Parole Officer begins with a P. Sobriety Orphan? But that’s a long relationship to have. Sexual Operative but I don’t think that exists.😂 I’ll have to give in 😉
Oh! I wish I’d bought some old cars 40 years ago and garaged them 😉
No, not mentioned that before we discussed the difference between Gen Boomer and Gen X 😉
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“Significant Other.” LOL! We are way past “boyfriend/girlfriend” status.
Funny you should mention Parole Officer. My dad was a Probation/Parole Officer in the 70s.
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Haha, told you Yorkshiremen aren’t bright.
70’s? That must have been very interesting, having grown up with the Sweeny lol
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What is a Sweeny?
Are Yorkshiremen known for being Parole Officers?
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Not really, The Sweeney was a crime series in the 70s it was quite violent for its time, so that kind of skewed our view of your typical criminal. Sweeney Todd – Vice Squad it’s London rhyming slang lol.
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I had to look all of that up. I’m not that well versed in London lore or law enforcement. A Flying Squad, huh? Geez…
He actually started out as a Probation Officer, only, in 1970. Two years later, our state blended the jobs…which suddenly gave him a bunch of convicts and more paperwork. That’s when he started having buddies in our PD ride by our house…a lot.
And, all he ever REALLY wanted to do was be a Firefighter.
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Oh wow, that must have stung a bit! Have to take my hat off to your dad, it must have been shitty job in the 70s but you know that 😏
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I am a kid of the 70s, so I don’t remember much. I spent a great deal of time with grandmothers. I remember my dad’s state car (that he accidentally shot a hole in the floor of) and his brass knuckles. My uncle was a city cop so, I remember the scanner at my grandmother’s house. I never saw any of my dad’s guns until I was a teen.
My grandfather had been a FF before I was born. He was retired by the time I came along. My dad was headed that way when his grandmother & mother intervened…”NO. You are going to COLLEGE!” So, they shoved him off to college in 1963 only to have him join the ROTC. I showed up at the beginning of his senior year and I was nearly an Army brat. He quit ROTC (resigning his impending commission to 2Lt.) due to what he was learning about the REAL war. His degree was in Parks & Recreation (a degree you get when you really didn’t want a degree or a college visit and the Freshman year of Dendrology was a real yawner) so…he went into Parks & Recreation for a couple of years. His mother still didn’t want the FF topic to come back up so, he went after a state job. He tried to leave it when the Parole thing started but, by that time, little brother was a city cop and they wouldn’t take family members back then. He wasn’t interested in being a county deputy nor a trooper (chasing cars and doing it on the paper…LOL!).
Why on Earth my great-grandmother & grandmother thought so little of firefighting, I’ll never know. To this day, my dad can tell you what kind of fire truck is going down the road by the sound of the engine.
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Of course, you must have been born in 1966 or Jan 77 lol. Quite a journey he had, love your description of a Parks and Recreation degree 😂 A cop with knuckle dusters? Never thought of it but then they had guns so… I wonder if your great-grandmother and grandmother we’re concerned of the dangers, I guess every time the bell sounds there’s a chance somebody isn’t coming home?☹️
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August 30 ’66…full moon baby!
I mentioned Dendrology because his Freshman year was all about a Forestry degree. So, Park Ranger morphed into Parks & Recreation…LOL! Too much Latin…LOL!
Brass knuckles, blackjacks…P/P didn’t have batons or nightsticks. He did have riot gear in the trunk, carried a nickle plated .45 in a shoulder holster (the weapon that shot the floor of the state car) and had a back-up revolver in an ankle holster.
I think…guessing…most of that was driven by the great grandmother since it was her son that had been the FF and had been blown out of the front door of a burning church (a real backdraft moment). Of course, she died in 1959, long before he entered college. By then, my great grandfather was doing the paying/sending to college stuff. He was around until late 1971 and my dad didn’t have the heart to go against him or his deceased grandmother. So…no firefighting. Instead, he chose a life of being shot at. Go figure.
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My goodness, a full arsenal, lol but it kept him safe I guess. It’s quite a story with formidable women, who were definitely in charge.
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Women who survived the Great Depression…tough, they were.
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Sorry missed that first bit, yes we’d call it cheeky, but we like a bit of cheek 😉
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🤣
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That Chuck Berry song is a crack up!
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Yeah, it’s lasted the test of time too 😀
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That was a favourite sing along in those days.. 😉
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Waoh ilike this
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