decided , I couldn’t let that happen. It was around Christmas, Marie had a young brother called Bernie aged 3, I had made a fort for him but the paint was wet on Christmas Eve. We made it up over that Christmas and were talking about getting married later on. John was still keeping his distance and wasn’t at all friendly towards me.
Tyson’s were building “The Peerless Oil Refining Co” on Dunning’s Bridge Road, Netherton, and I was put on it, it was all shuttering, starting on top floor 80ft up.
Marie’s brother John worked for M.D.H.B on light ships but got finished and was out of work. In the meanwhile Lily had a baby called Irene. At the Christening Marie’s Uncle John began playing piano and someone asked me to sing. I sang a couple of my favourites, singing was something I enjoyed doing and had given a song or two at our local pub. John seemed to change after that although he couldn’t sing himself, he appreciated the music.
Anyway back to Tyson’s, I told John to call past the job at Netherton and see if he could land a job, he’d been a rigger on the light ships, so there was a chance with scaffolding. He came down and spoke to the foreman, George Casson but George couldn’t fit him in. John came over to talk to me and after he had gone, George asked me who he was, I told him and he said “Tell him he can start with the joiners tomorrow”. John worked with us for a month or so, but had a yearning for scaffolding. Tommy Cregg was the scaffolder and eventually, john got to work with him and fitted in perfectly .
We bought a couple of bikes and we used them to get to and from work. We had a holiday due, so we decided to ride to North Wales on them, we made for Chester, Wrexham, Oswestry then Llangollen, and we enjoyed it although it was hard work. I remember on the way home, we stopped at a small tea room, for tea and scones we were worried in case we didn’t have enough money. Another time on the journey we stopped on the road side to make jam butties, we’d bought a small loaf and some jam and there we were eating jam butties on the grass. When we got to Liverpool, we went up Chapel St. and counted our pennies and just about had enough for half a beer each.
I was moved to a job in Leeds St. at O’Brien’s Bottling Stores, Tommy Meadows was foreman on the job and we seemed to get on alright. Most of the work was shuttering and I was working with a couple of mates, one of them was George Bell who if you remember I almost went in the army with. The work dried up a bit on the job and after 10yrs with Tyson’s, I was put on 2 hours’ notice. The lad I was working with alongside George Bell said “Try J.D. Insulation in Hawthorne Road” they were open on Saturday mornings.
I got up next morning and got the bus down to Hawthorne Road near Linacre Lane. I found the foreman and he asked me if I’d worked on the bench before, I told him I had, so he told me to start Monday. I started work on the bench making inspection plugs which were made of teak, at first they were complicated but I was put right by old Billy Williams and then I was away. J.D.’s had two departments, one was the shipping shop, and the other was a fridge building department. I was working in the shipping and at last my money was double figures.
Marie and I were getting things together for our wedding, and the date was close. I took a few days off to get married, we couldn’t afford too much for anything, let alone a honeymoon. I had invited Taffy Hixson and Joe Carson to the wedding, Joe could only stay for my stag night, but Taffy stayed the distance and enjoyed himself. He had a nice voice and serenaded a few girls on the stairs, we couldn’t afford a hall, we had the reception at Mrs Duggan’s in Clare Road, and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. The morning after the wedding I went with Taffy down to Lime St. Station and I’ve never seen him since, he was a good friend to me during the time I was with him.
When I got back to work, quite a few had been finished, the boss made it clear, if I hadn’t been off I would have gone as well, never the less I had a few more months work. Eventually due to work shortage they had no option but to put us on our notice. I walked up the yard and asked the foreman in the fridge building department for a job, and got one.
I started on Monday morning and was building fridges and sometimes installing them. We went out of town to various places, one was Cheltenham were we built a large fridge room for “Walls Ice Cream. it had 12” of cork all around the room for insulation. I must have had about 9 months doing this kind of work, it was very interesting
I met up with Steve Milla who was a wrestler and was interested in body building, he was going to a gym in Kensington and he asked me if I wanted to work-out there, we were going about twice a week. I had managed to get a set of weights from a blacksmith who actually made them himself.
Marie was pregnant by now and we were looking forward to the birth. Grandad Bob had died suddenly in his sleep in 1949, my dad was absolutely devastated by his death, I’ve never seen him so cut up. Nin was at the wedding but wasn’t well, and was in hospital when Marie was in the nursing home to have the baby.
Earlier in the year I had started to take singing lessons, with a lady called Miss Lockett from Carisbrooke Road, she was very good and learnt a lot from her. Later she introduced me to Tommy Tole a window cleaner with a big voice and asked him to help me get bookings. He was reluctant, because he sang the same kind of songs as me, he said there was a charity show in a little church close to Notre Dame School in Everton Valley. John Duggan came with me and I sang 2 songs, I couldn’t stay because Marie was due to give birth.
When I rang the nursing home up that night Marie still hadn’t’ had the baby, but the next morning when I rang she had given birth at 11.50pm to a son, we called him Tommy. When I asked Marie what colour his hair was, I was amazed when she said “Red”. I still get stick to this day for not being there when the baby was born. Just about the time Marie came out my Nin died without seeing the baby.
My next job was false ceilings I found out afterward that this firm was a subsidiary to Tyson’s. We did a lot of studding to create offices on the sixth floor of Boots on the corner of Hanover Street in town. But mostly it was suspended ceilings we did, we did schools and factories, it wasn’t much but it was a job.
Everton had been relegated in the 49/50 season, it was a terrible shock for every Evertonian. Apart from 2 or 3 Irishmen the team had come through the junior teams and had started to gel. Dave Hickson, John Willie Parker, Peter Farrell, Tommy Eglington were the hub of the team. T.E. Jones had taken over from T.G. Jones and Brian Labone was coming through, I always say the era was the most exciting and entertaining I’d ever seen. You may remember I mentioned Bobby Campbell the footballer I roomed with at MHOW, Chelsea came up to play Everton and Bobby was playing on the right wing, unfortunately I didn’t get to speak to him.
In 1948 to 1949 my dad asked me did I want a day’s work on a Sunday, he had a gang of men working on salvage goods called Sisell which had been damaged in a fire on-board a ship at sea. I went up to Burscough air strip where the sisal was laid out to dry, it was quite funny that day some of the gang were hiding behind the bales of sisal and one them said “You’ll know when Tommy is around, he’s always whistling. They didn’t know who I was but later on when they found out they weren’t sure what to say, they never saw me again, it was just a one off job.
Our Paul was born on 21/10/52, he was a beautiful blue eyed baby, by this time our luck was in, we were going to be given a new house in Ford, we had been married for three years and we now had a key to a new house. We were about 150 yds from the canal and the main road Gorsey Lane was a no speed limit zone. Unfortunately we never liked the house, it was badly built and had lots of draughts. Approximately one child a month was drowning in the canal. Our Bobby was born on 22/10/53 actually in 110 Gorsey Lane. Around this time we were getting visits from my army mate Geordie, he was a driver for a sweet firm. We had a visit before we left Clare Road, we were always glad to see him, he brought his wife one time just after Bobby was born. He used to leave a box of sweets for the kids every time he came. That was the last time I saw Geordie, I r
emember him saying, he was getting promotion soon to Manager.
About 1951 I went to work for Cammell Lairds in Birkenhead for the first time, I did some nice work there. The first job was 16 doors had to be hung in crew’s quarters on the dredger “Leviathan”. The foreman told me to take my time, the doors were highly polished and he said “Remember, you’re not on a building site, remember the rake of the deck. It’s different from hanging doors on a site and it was a case of being very careful.
A story I keep telling people over the years is when I worked in Cammell Lairds, I used to cycle from Clare Road to the Pier Head to catch the ferry. Now if the ferry had gone, or I thought I wouldn’t catch it, I used to go through the Mersey Tunnel, those days you were allowed to cycle in the tunnel. This particular day I was very late, because Cammell Lairds closed their gates spot on 7.30am, I really had to move, so I got in the slow lane to start with, but a huge lumbering lorry was in front of me. I knew if I didn’t go past I would miss work, so I overtook him then got back into my lane. About half way through I was behind another big wagon going too slow, so I