My Teenage years

For some reason, when I went to secondary school, I chose to go somewhere else and away from my friends. It meant going to school by bus. It wasn't a good named school and the first days were full of dodges from getting beaten or tortured by existing boys. It was a school split into Boys and Girls sections.
Anyway I did ok and enjoyed my time there reasonably well.
I was good at sport, so I was left alone because of this. We had the usual groups of morons who thought they were tough and caused trouble.
I had a few fights at school and could handle myself pretty well.
I wasn't brilliant in the academic area, mainly because if I asked questions in class, I was called a disruptive person and was punished with standing in front of the class, standing outside the class, having to hold or wear things on my head etc.
We had one teacher Mr Jarvis who i think liked me and at the same time kept punishing me. It got to a point where he upset the pupils that we got together as he drove out one day and we crowded around his car and then turned it on its side.
Triptons school for boys was known as a lower level school and full of louts!
Things I remember:
1. Cross country runs. when the sports teacher wanted tea or a rest we had to go on a 3 mile run along the pavements, around an industrial area and then back to school. I hated it.
2. Drama was run by a young guy and the bullies tortured him for our class. However, he was the first person who gave up teaching us drama and started to teach us computer language. This was my first encounter and stoked my interest in computer technology.
3. We had a craft teacher who taught us modelling clay. When he disappeared into the storage room we would throw clay balls which put holes in the storage partition. One day he was locked in his storage cupboard and we all walked out.
4. I always played for the school football team, which I enjoyed. I always thought I had a chance to make a professional.
5. Because fashion wasn't my thing, I did get ribbed a few times for my clothes.
6. The bullies pressurised a plump boy to fight me. I suggested he didn't as I would hurt him. His name was Stephen Poynton. We used to get along ok. Anyway he tried the fight, I hit him twice and he didn't get up again for another punch. poor guy.
7. I had a couple of friends who for some reason turned against me. Top this day i don't know why. We were friends for years. Anyway one night after school I was set upon by 4 boys. There was a crowd. Anyway, I gave what I could against 4 and it ended when one boy had me in a headlock and was strangling me. At this point the bullies took over and pulverised the 4 boys. However, I did see one boy that I got stuck into with a face full of blood. The bullies didn't bother me and were nice to me anyway after this as I stuck to my guns.
We did meet up with girls from school and I had a few girlfriends from there. all very innocent then of course.

Football and work was a big thing for me.
I played for several teams like Dagenham Docks, Loughton Town, trained with Chelsea, Dagenham and Rainham Town. I was injured from a Dagenham docks match at 17. The balls weren't as light as they are now and I was a winger for the dockers. After some rain the ball was heavy, but I took a shot from the halfway line and scored, but I had torn my thigh muscle and I never recuperated from this, so was often an injury for me.

At 16 I started work at the British bank of the Middle East as an archiver. I was biding time before I was 18 to move into the docks that my dad wanted me to do.
This was my first real introduction of fashion helped by my colleague Andy. I played for the football team as well which meant I spend a fair amount of Saturdays in the South of London and North of London at Bank sports grounds.
At this age I started drinking and got absolutely ill on Bicardi and coke and since this day i have never really drunk very much.
After a couple of years and I took my banking exams, I couldn't get a promotion or move departments to learn more, so I started to move banks and get promotions that way.


To be continued.....

Upbringing and family

I have happy memories of growing up. An east end family from London. Dad was a docker and Mum was a seemstress. We had structure and discipline drummed into us.
Dad in those days was fairly often on strike as with the dockers and unions in those days. When times were hard, Dad would try and get other work like decorating and Mum would work longer hours to make ends meet, working from home.
Although never poor, as such, I do remember that fashion was never promoted, besides I was onlt interested in wearing a football kit.
I remember my first was from my cousin Tony. It was a Norwich short sleeved shirt, Green shorts and my first football boots were made of leather and had hard toes and leather studs!
Anyway, Mum and Dad kept us wanting for nothing.
Dad was quite strict but fair and Mum was always caring.
In my younger years Dad would come home some nights drunk, when he went out with his friends in the East end. This included people linked with the Krays, but Dad kept away from them as far as I know.
Mum would keep the home and the family ticking over.
On Saturdays, Dad would take us visiting the families in Wapping and Stepney. Our Nans would always send us home with something. Nanny Jones it would be sweets, paper, pens, Bagels and some jewish food from Blooms in Aldgate. Nanny Smith was a widow and would send us home with Bread pudding. Some evenings we would go and see Uncles and Aunts.
On Sundays we would get visitors showing up without warning. For supper we would have salad, Prawns in vinegar and pepper, cold meats. In those days we just dished up what we had.

My Elder sister:
Is 7 years older , so we weren't really close, being a gap plus being male and female!
What can I remember:
Playing Beatles LP's and singing and playing air guitar in the front room
I think my sister's first Love breaking up. I think his name was Vince who I think had Red hair.
Bringing home her current husband when I was 11 and he converted me to a Spurs fan.
I had her hand down red bike.
Her marriage and I was one of the Ushers.

My Younger sister:
Only 2 years younger, obviously, we were a little more closer.
I remember that we were page boy and flower girl at my uncle and aunts wedding.
She was very moody and would spend hours in her room and stomp around.
I guess we played together, but this is a bit patchy.
We shared a bedroom in our younger years until my brother and myself shared a room together.

Younger brother:
My brother is 7 years younger, but we did play together, where I looked after him.
We would play football and generally up to no good.
I remember that he was a sick person for a while getting the Croop alot. This meant he had to use a steam bowl and inhale to help open his airways. Today it's helped with an inhaler.
There were a couple of panics with him.
The Croop meant he went to hospital a couple of times. The panic was caused by us losing a brother beforehand, so Mum spoiled him a little.
The second panic was him tripping over the fire hearth and hitting his lip on the coal bucket and slitting his lip. Of course it was bad, but he got over it.
The third was at Secondary School. My Mum came home one day to find him at home in agony. He had injured himself at football at school and the teacher brought him home and left him.
The result was that he had pulled his ball joint out of the socket and ripped his muscle.
This meant months of therapy and weeks off school. He was helped as he saw the West Ham physio, as it was the schools fault.
I guess when I left home at 23, we kind of lost touch. I have tried to stay in touch, but he went eventually to New York and then San Francisco, which is my fault. I convinced him to go into banking from Fords.

Anyway, my sisters and brother do stay in touch and try to see each other as best we can. This gives testament to our happy upbringing and family values that Mum and Dad gave us.

I miss my Mum and Dad terribly. Dad was always there to listen to me and offer advice, something like when I was going to live with a girl at Heathrow. Dad hovered in the lounge door or in the kitchen. He would say ' Don't be an idiot, I have had more girls than hot dinners, and you are making a mistake' I didn't go!!

Will Trump make it?

My take is the following:
I have never seen so much animosity to a President elect with riots and protests.

I think Trump will either be assassinated or will be impeached and will not stay in office if he gets that far.

The Vice President seems to be unstable and I can't see him taking over.

Which then leave Clinton to take over and the country goes back to some normality, whatever that is.

Not ideal, but USA chose this.

The college vote will need to be changed!

Going into teenager years and girls

My first girlfriend was someone in our street. We used to walk our dogs and meet every morning.
Nice girl, whose Father went to work in Germany for a while and ended up with another woman from Germany. The family moved away after some years.

Living in Dagenham was a case of school during the week and football at the weekends. We would meet up with girlfriends on a Saturday and Sunday, but the girls were also supposed to come and watch me play football.
Some did and some didn't.

Through the teenage years, I wasn't that bothered with girls and I certainly wasn't, as successful as my mates.
Paul was my best mate and we went around together all the time, going to night clubs after our 18th birthday. In the meantime whenever we went out, girls would look at him.
He would tell me, while in a club or bar, that a couple of girls were looking, but for some reason always delayed going to talk to them. He always gave an excuse to wait and make sure!
Eventually, I would get fed up and go to the dance floor and do my dances or go and talk to them. All my dancing was choreographed, not like the stupid bopping of today. This gave me an advantage as girls would come up and say 'we like your dancing can we dance with you.' Then Paul would come and join.
He was a smooth guy, unlike me, as I didn't care whether I got girls or not, I just wanted to enjoy myself. Sounds like Big Bang theory team!
In my early teen years I spent down at the Romford YMCA. It had football training and gym training which I loved to go to. Then Paul and his friends from school started to come and there was a youngsters club at the YMCA. We sat and chatted, played table tennis, which I got quite good at and played Essex county players. Of course I lost, but I gave them a run for their money.
Then we had the disco's. Music like Silver machine, Marc Bolan, James Taylor, Carole King etc etc
As we were all a good group, I had few girlfriends from there.
There was Sue, whose Father was a policeman and they lived in Hornchurch. There was my good friend Val who lived in Elm Park. A few others from Romford and the surrounding area.

At nearly 16 years old, I worked at the local Tescos. It was here that I met my first sexual experience.
Can't remember her name (no surprise) but it was down a dark alleyway on a cold night. Not too successful, but at least I got on the 'step' as they say. Anyway, I can remember an occasion where we went to the golf course. A bunker is apt, but not good for sex!

I think that I was too polite at this age (not that I should have been anything else), so my conquests were few and far between, but I didn't care, 'cos I was focused on football.

In my secondary school, I went out with a few girls.  Again, I wasn't bothered that much, because of football.

In todays age, all things have changed to my day. Many times I was turned down by girls, because I wasn't good looking, but maybe in todays age I would strike it much better. It seems geeky is in!
I tried to make girls laugh, but this didn't help much, so if a pretty girl says she wants a man to make her laugh, don't you believe it! They want someone to show off in one way or another. If the partner is geeky, it means he could start a company and earn a fortune- That's what it's really all about!!

I am sure I am missing some, but I guess the main theme above is, that yes I like girls, but I like football more!! Shame I didn't make a professional player, maybe in todays world I might have!

Next: Family and upbringing

I had a teacher who picked on me when I was 7 and in the infants still. Her name was Miss Jones and she was from Wales. She picked on me just because I wasn't from Wales or had any Welsh relatives.
She was tall and slim and i guess about 25-28. She moved to Rugby to get married.

Our class was fairly close knit. I was with the footballers and out main aim at that age was to get to the Junior section and get into the school football team.

At this point I would like to mention the school caretaker Mr Catchpole. He was a nice man and always seemed in a good mood. His daughter was at the school as well.

So we all move up to the junior section. The Headmaster was My Ling. A tyrant as far as we were concerned and ruled the school with fear, but he did like his choirs and music which our school had.
Unfortunately, he was later convicted and imprisoned for being a paedophile. I have no idea if this was true as he was always nice to me.
The Junior section was happy for me. The teachers were nice.
I wasn't outstanding and lacked concentration at lessons.

Eventually, I moved to the 5th form. I became a good recorder player for the music and choir. I also was a regular player for the school football team and the cricket team.

Sport was run by Mr Ramsammy who is now an executive member of the International Olympic committee. I liked him a great deal. That year we won the Essex Schools cup and won every match I think, or we drew just one game, but never lost.
We played Ripple road school in the final at Barking arena and was given our medal by a young Trevor Brooking.

At the age of about 9 or 10 I started on my football and I played every where I could. Local Fields , Saturday and Sunday teams, going on my bike everywhere.
I played for Blades United in all positions and we played in a few finals.

In these days there was no social media, phones etc, so the class members got on mainly together with little bullying or arguing.

I remember that Dad would try and help me with any homework.
I had a happy upbringing and my parents were good and kind. Dad was a docker and on strike alot, so we didn't have alot of money, but we always had a chance to get away each year in a caravan by the see. Family member were close and we visited alot. In the beginning by train and when Dad got his Anglia in 1965 we went everywhere in the car.
Saturdays, we went to see Nan and Grandad Jones at about lunchtime. Nan would give us bagels, doughnuts, paper and pencils, sweets etc. Also, we would get jewish bread and gherkins in brine. Saturday evenings we may go and visit other Uncles and Aunts from both sides. Sundays we would get visited by the Smith family. Mum would make a Sunday roast for us and then in the evening with guests we would get a Sunday salad and shell fish dinner.
This was in between going out and playing football of course.

I was quite boisterous and chased around alot.
1. I was playing kiss chase at a young age and dived onto broken glass. I still have the scar on my leg.
2. I broke my arm, falling from my bike going to football, because I was wearing football boots and my foot slipped.
3. Me and my mate Andrew Boyle broke a girls toy pram racing around in it. Dad had to get it welded.
4. I was always getting injured from sport
5. I did have some health issues. I used to getting dizzy and went to hospital, but was told i just had a vivid imagination. On the basis that I had a low heart rate it could have been anything. In those days they didn't know.
6. climbing out of the bathroom window and slipping down the rope, only to burn my hands.
7. Stepping on a hot poker in front of the fire
8. We had a gas boiler for clothes that my Mother used. I did something to this. I think I disconnected the gas pipe, leaving the gas on.
9. I used to dream alot and they were a little weird. It now seems that i had a 6th sense. Things that I dreamed about would be in a some kind of city or location. In later years I found myself in these situations and knew where I was and where I had to go or things that were there, eventhough I had never been before. I have been told by clairvoyants since that I do/did have something along these lines.

In our school and in our street we had alot of nice neighbours. Of course we had the 'bad' family. Mr & Mrs Ford. He was a labourer and they had 8 girls! Weekends were entertaining, as Mr Ford would get drunk and have arguments with Mrs Ford. Then it was the boyfriends. I think all but the eldest Pat, the girls became problems, getting pregnant and changing their boyfriends/Husbands regularly.

Mr and Mrs keys that lived next door, were lovely people so what they had to put up with I don't know.

What I can remember the seasons of the year were always lovely for me. As I said earlier, the winters were cold. when snow fell Dad would put coal fire ash on the ground so people didn't slip, but it ruined our fun of sliding. Spring was fresh and the colours always vivid. Summer  was great. That long holiday from school always seemed an age. More important was all the football I could do and racing on my bike. Autumn and especially September I can still smell the hazy smoke from bonfires and of course the mist and fog that was around then.

In those days we didn't have supermarkets etc. So our local shops were small and varied. I can remember the old style ironmongers. The old shop desk and the jars and wooden boxed shelving behind the people working in the shop- A bit like the programme 'Open all Hours' .
The old style Woolworths in our high street, was a major store.

Every week (when I was old enough) I would take our laundry in a pram and walk about a mile to the launderette for my Mum. Mum was a dressmaker and worked from home, so this helped alot.

Next: Starting to go out with girls and my teenage years

At Primary school, we had kids coming and going, but the vast majority stayed all the way through.
We had 2 classes of about 30 kids. I was in the 'A' class and I have no idea why.
Anyway, in the 'B' class there were all kinds of kids. One day this boy Stovey or Stoves arrived and we all thought he was a bit weird.
Anyway, within a short time we found out that he swore suddenly, made some strange movements and in numerous occasions was stripping off in the playground. Of course he had Tourettes, but we didn't know these things. He didn't last long at our school.

I arranged a reunion  after 50 years and most that I found showed. I think about 45 showed and some are still in contact with each other.

After a little time we also had 2 new neighbours with children:
Mr and Mrs Evans next door. Mr Evans had a club foot and worked at Ford. They had 2 children. John their son had severe disabilities and was in a wheel chair. They had a daughter who was fine.

Over the road was Mr and Mrs Murphy and they had a son (Michael) who was a Thalidomide. He had no legs and one arm where his fingers were not normal and his sister Jean was fine.
Anyway, our Mum offered to help them whenever she could, which meant that we took care of them when their parents needed to go out shopping or go out together.

John was confined to a wheel chair, so most of the time he stayed in our lounge and we entertained him and fed him. He was always jolly, but he couldn't talk well.

Michael Murphy was something different. He got around on his backside and was very active. We played football and other games, in fact I am sure he was hyperactive. In later years I saw him at the social welfare office where he worked. Michael was always cheerful as well and liked to come and play with us.

Red bike and First school

My sister had a 3 wheel red bike and this was to become mine at a fairly young age. Of course there were not many people around so we could ride on the pavement. I used to race all around the block, which seemed huge to me. So I loved to race around and go round the corner on 2 wheels.
I guess I had the bike when I was about 4 years old.

I started school when I was 4.3/4. I can remember not liking it at all. On the first day Mum took me and I clung to her in the playground. When the whistle went we all went into the reception classroom. Mum stayed a little while and then said she had to go and come back. I started to cry. She came back a couple or so hours later and I told her not to leave me in future and stay. Th next day the same thing happened. I guess after the 3rd day I got used to it as I started to play with others and listen to stories etc.
Everyday at about 10.30 we would be given a 1/3 pint of milk and we could have a biscuit. it was lovely.
My  first teacher was Mrs Lake I think. I can remember that she was a lovely lady.
The school was Richard Alibon School. It's still there today and has children that speak 17 different first languages.

Next: Stovey and neighbours children