Our travels through life!
Watch this postJust a place to drop in and have a chat about what is happening to you today, so if you are fed up of treading in " Cowpats ", from the field of life(!), wipe your feet here ( I will be out when you do mind) Anyway I will kick off ( my shoes) and say, Good morning anyone - a rather cool one here 5°c and with rain forecast for later, although I think its much worse up country. How is it where you are ? In the news I have just heard that Jimmy Young has just died, aged 95 RIP. Shame I remember him on radio 1 and 2..., on a lighter note - News from Imperial College - A new theory about what happens when a body is immersed in warm water. The phone rings!! Yup I can vouch for that one ok folks. over to you !
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We don't tolerate swearing, and reserve the right to remove any posts which we feel may offend others... let's keep it friendly!
Tom is a very likeable addition to the site, and such a character....don't get big headed Tom ha ha. How's that 2 women discussing your virtues !! bet you never thought the site would offer such an ego boost
https://www.silversurfers.com/travel/adventure-holidays/climbing-kilimanjaro-at-50/
Those were the days as Mary Hopkin would say.........
Oh keep meaning to ask did you change your profile pic the other day ?
Oh such a shame we are all scattered about the country. I bet we could share many an afternoon/evening pleasantly exchanging stories in the flesh so to speak.
Littleminx it's time for the waterproof hun !
Jeanymay, yes i have two Uke,s and a Banjolele ( George Formby ) although i haven't much picked them up this summer since going to Mexico and Tenerife i guess. and yes i did change my profile pic that was a selfie from Tenerife earlier this year
Jeanmark and Littleminx i can relate to that no concession in the times you had to be back !one minute late and it was a cell for the night and extra duties ( Number 9 s ) in the R.N. but it sure taught us not to get caught out the next time eh !
Ok well i better start some tea, and make a couple of sandwiches for work tomorrow, will try and pop back a little later folks
Tomtwodogs, at least I didn't have a cell, well only once and that was a police cell.
LittleMinx, the giant zip came much later and were Matron and Wards Sisters always single ladies in your day? I had a good relationship with my Matron, so much so that I had my own chair outside of her office because I saw her on a regular basis, at least once a week!! I learnt the meaning of insubordination early on in my career.
anyways remember folks since 99% of all accidents happen in the home, the Governments advice is for everyone to move,! ,..which reminds me . while walking through Barnstaple recently, I came across ( excuse that expression ) a sign underneath the window of the Citizens Advice Bureau which said... " Emigrate " ! lol. sound advice indeed ! ok time to shake a leg,.. get up and go home !,, aaw that reminds me of the 60s, with all those naughty parties, which frankly made me feel quite embarrassed,. as you never knew if you were thanking the right person on the way out..did you ? (winks)
I'm sure your misspent (or perhaps well spent) youth would make quite a story, or perhaps a book ! , but perhaps too long and a tad risqué for this site lol
Jeanymay, I wait on Tom's memoirs. I am short of a good read !!!
Well, where do i start,? ..at the beginning would be the best place i guess,. so here goes,.
Chapter One,...
.I was born on April 19th, 1946, to a widowed Mother, my father had died 3 months before i was born, having suffered head injuries in the Coventry Blitz,. he was a fireman at the time, anyway we were obviously poor, i had one elder Brother and a Mother that had to work full time,.but i had a happy childhood, we were always playing out as long as we did our chores after coming home from school, like lighting the coal fire, or putting saucepans on to boil, etc, so that we could get tea ready for when our Mother came in from work,.I left school at 15, and my first job was on the Co-op Bakery ( there was a lot of dough in it )..,but soon became bored, and wanted to fulfil my yearning for travel, so i joined the Royal Navy, aged 16, which i loved, but soon was to find out that of the nine years i had signed up for, i would only be at sea, for aprrox 18 months, as i was assigned to Aircraft Carriers, as a naval airman, the rest of the time i would be on Naval Air Stations like H.M.S. Seahawk, Cauldrose etc,..at that time, the Royal Navy were phasing out Aircraft Carriers and wanted to retrain Naval Airman for other jobs or trades within the service,. which meant going back to square one, or..you could take a form of redundancy,,..which i accepted, as i desperately wanted to get back to sea,..Well, thats how i first arrived in Torquay , but that will be the start of the next...chapter
By Tom Foster 19th Nov 2013
Chapter Two !
I came out of the Royal Navy and boarded the train home, i thought i would have been glad, but i had mixed emotions, i remember sitting in the carriage thinking, what have i thrown away,? i really did like the comradeship of being in the forces, and now i felt quite ..empty !,.anyways, I arrived home, and soon renewed my friendship with some of my mates, and spent the winter at home, but early in April of the following year i became restless again as did my friends, so we packed our jobs in and I remember standing on the platform of New St Station one Saturday morning, and asking, "when is the next train to the coast due to leave " ?.The ticket attendant asked ,.where do you want to go,? and we replied ..anywhere ! so he informed us that a train will be leaving for Weymouth in 15 mins, so we bought tickets and decided that was where we would spend the summer working the "season ".
We arrived in Weymouth in the evening, and of course had no where to stay, so we walked along the beach, and it was getting dark by now, and as I remember we walked up a pitch black country lane till we could see the outline of a farm in the fading light, and decided to see if there was a barn we could sneak into to have a sleep, .well we tiptoed through the courtyard, went into the barn and climbed a ladder, then crashed out amongst some hay,.and slept reasonably well till the next morning. .We were awake quite early, so that we could get out of the place before anyone else was up, so we climbed down the ladder, opened the door and as silently as we could,.crept out,....boy what a shock we had,, we were in a rural..Police Stations Court Yard lol
We managed to get away, without detection and did the round of the sea front pubs at lunch time, a fatal mistake, one of my friends was holding all our money, ( he was the only one with a wallet ) as i remember, and he bloody lost it ?. Well we didnt know what we would do from then on, so we spent another night sleeping rough on the beach this time, and one of us produced a newspaper, that had an advert for Butlins Minehead, who were recruiting,. well with the small change we had in our pockets we rang them, and they said they would take us on for the season, if we could get there by the next day, so we split into two,s and hitched our way over there, which took most of the day, some arriving a lot earlier than others..We were eventually re united and given two chalets, and three meals a day, and were given jobs working on the fairground, our lives changed forever after that lol,.but that is in..chapter three
Chapter three !,.the learning years !
Butlins Minehead, what a place to be in th 60s, the music was great, it felt good to be alive and British, we were overthrowing the U.S.A. in the pop music stakes, we all felt liberated , and on the verge of something new,.it was .buzzing,..anyway, having arrived at Butlins, we were given a day to settle in, issued with a staff pass with photo, which enabled us to walk in and out of camp, and to get our 3 meals a day,..we then started work on the fairground, which was great fun, it meant we could have our evenings free,. two of us were given the job of operating the dodgems lol, myself and my best mate ,Keith, and were soon to be nicknamed,.."The Likely Lads " ,( i knew i shouldnt have said this ) , but this was to stick with us all the time we were there...
Minehead had just built a Cable Car, which ran over pylons from one end of the camp, to the other, and we transfered,( as did the other two lads,).. to operating this, it was quite easy to work, two of us at either end, one opening the cage of the chair lift, letting the people out, and pushing the car on its track round to the next guy, who would load the next people in, then pushing it out, ready to go onto the cable, and up.up, and away, .we used to wait till a couple of girls got on, lock em in, then say to each other,,You aint letting this car out are ya ? .of course the occupants would ask,," Wots wrong with it ?", and we would reply ,aaw it should be ok, as long as it doesn,t rumble when it gets to the first pylon ! if it does just shout !..well, of course,.. they all rumbled going past the pylon, there were rollers fitted on it.. lol,...you just shudda heard the screams !
Night time at Butlins, was like a modern day equivelant, of Soddom lol, you could get absolutely anything from a camp,. which was often reflected in the queues outside the doctors surgery in the staff quarters, each morning at 9am. We who were yet,. unaflicted . would walk past the line of people waiting,.and start taking the erm..mickey ,and giving off obscene jestures ,, it must have been sheer misery for any girls stood in the line ., most of them displaying the dreaded " Chalet Rash " on their necks from the night before,..another favourite pastime i remember, was to go in the indoor pool absolutely legless, and dive down, to the plate glass walls in the side of the pool, where people sitting in the Cafeteria, could watch you under water,. edited !,..then there were the staff parties, where .erm.guests would throw their staff passes into a hat, and someone else would pull it out,.and thats how some were paired off., my the parties,..to be,.continued !
By Tom Foster 19th Nov 2013
Exciting times eh ! I remember my brother (about your age) taking off with friends doing much the same. He went all over with friends doing casual work where ever they were. Torquay was a favourite place for him
Chapter four ! Torquay.
It was just before Easter in 1966, that two of us arrived in Torquay, i had bought an A35 van, and we travelled down in that it was handy as it could be used to sleep in,.anyway, we parked on the sea front, and had a walk round the town,and into the harbour area,.as we were passing under the Harbour Masters office, there was a sign on the quay, saying,,"Two deckhands wanted, for life on board ship ",.so we enquired about it, and went for an interview,. the job was looking after,.., and living on,. the replica of the Golden Hind, which was moored way out in the outer harbour, near the sea entrance, and they wanted someone to take tourists out to it in a motor launch,. and the other person to answer questions on the history of Drakes adventures, and sell the odd souvenir on board,. anyway, my Royal Navy discharge papers, seemed to swing it,.. and we got the job,.which involved living on board, and maintaining the vessel.
Duties onboard involved climbing up the rigging, in a squall, and walking along the spars, with our feet in the ratlines ( rope ), to furl up a sail, that had come lose, it was a bit hairy, when you looked down, and underneath was the sea on the port side, then when you looked down again it was the starboard side ! ( rocking motion ) lol.., but happy days eh !
both of us then had to take a boatman,s licence , in order to carry up to 35 passengers out to the ship, now the adventure, begins.
We soon settled in, it took two weeks of operating the launch, before we had to go out with the Harbour Master on our test,.we both passed, and were granted a licence,. in the intervening time, we had acclimatised ourselves with the vessel, ie, learning some of the history, and erecting our hammocks, .etc and were given the use of a rowing boat,.for our personal use, in order to come ashore in the evenings, my that boat had some adventures,!,. but that will be in the next episode, as there isn,t room in this one ! .for anyone who is interested, The Golden Hind still lies in Brixham Harbour to this day, but is along side the harbour wall now,...google it !
to be..continued..
By Tom Foster 19th Nov 2013
Edited 2013
Oh to be young and fearless !, but as the Oscar Wilde said "Youth is wasted on the young"
Some as they get older are still fearless of course, but I suppose it depends on the life you have had.
Thanks for sharing
We soon settled in to the "Rhythm " of Torquay, it was buzzing,, and to my mind it is still one of , if not the best English sea resorts,. but first we had to help get the season started, which involved using the launch to tow lines of paddle boats, to various beaches, Ansteys Cove, Watcombe, and Maidencombe included, which involved trips along some fine coastal waterways,.. we soon made friends around the harbour area, and used to get brekky at George,s Cafe on the quayside, at night we used to drink in the Castle, or various harbour side pubs and clubs, the 400 ? or was it the 600,.? it was on the harbour anyway, and there was always Mods &Rockers using the place, which quite often ended in fights with a lot ending up in the water opposite,.. also the Walnut Grove Club and the Casa Marina Club springs to mind,. .later on, we were to use the Casino in Paignton, because of all the nurses that used it we had an infallible chat up line,.which was,.. do you want to come to a party on our yacht in Torquay Harbour, ? lol,..it seldom failed, when we told them which one it was !, a I remember we used to arrive with our guests, at the harbour and our boat was moored on the concrete slipway, and we used to load the girls into it, then push it down into the water, and jump in ourselves, ready to row out to the Hind,, unfortunately, owing to the volume of alcohol intake, we often failed to notice, that at low tide, the water was some 4 feet below the bottom of the slipway,, with the result that the loaded boat, would get to the end, pivot,for a second, before hitting the water vertically, emptying everyone into the drink ,..,.that ruined many an ambitious night . but not all !! .lol
Chapter 6 Torquay .cont-
We soon settled into life on board the "Hind ",and it was mostly great fun, ( the record Sloop John B,.by the Beachboys, will forever remind me of her ) although we had to maintain her, by swabbing the decks, cleaning salt spray from the stern windows, etc, ...,about mid season, we were asked to help crew a trawler, going out at night, from Torquay harbour, sailing to the lights of Berry Head, ( Brixham ) then shooting the trawl, ( dropping the nets ) ,and sailing towards Teignmouth, across the bay, we would haul in the nets, and sort the fish into different boxes, always throwing the small ones back into the sea, as quickly as possible,, then sail inshore, back towards Torquay, and catch plaice,near the sewerage outlets at Hope Cove near Mead foot beach, the smell of the oily sea, always reminds me of .the taste of "Plaice ", and i never ate them for years afterwards , but it was a great job though, and we used to get paid on what the boat caught, a percentage scheme,.
Life was good that summer of 66, but all things come to an end, and we wished to stay on there,. so i got myself a job, as a carpet fitter with William & Cox, on the strand, and seeing as i had met a lovely girl,( a school teacher from Kingskerswell,).. i wanted to remain in Torquay, but my best mate Keith, who i had been with at Butlins, and on the Golden Hind, had to return home,,.i was devastated,. and was in two minds what to do,.,i chose to stay in Torquay, and was not to see him again for some 40 years..he now lives in Gt Yarmouth, and made a good living working on the North Sea oil rigs , and is married with two children,.,.i remained in Torquay, for the winter, into the new year, 1967,.the summer of love but that's in the next Chapter
The site is I feel proving to be a great addition to my sometime boring life especially now the weather is turning colder. Gosh can you imagine what it would be like if we all lived close enough to meet at a local country pub and sit in front of a roaring fire with maybe a tipple or three exchanging stories. My imagination sometimes runs away with me ......
Summoning up his last remaining strength, he pointed the bow upwards and let go of his final arrow before collapsing back and dying,!
Next morning true to his wishes,.. they laid him to rest, in the... ceiling ! lol
aaw I am choking up here !
ok night all - will clock in tomorrow !
Chapter 7,.1967.
The year started off well, i had my job as a carpet fitter,.but i split with my schoolteacher friend, as she wanted to settle down, and i didnt want to commit that early in life, but we remained friends,.and my job as a carpet fitter, led me to some quite .amorous adventures ....one day i had to fit a hall, stair, & landing carpet, in a house in Torquay, well, i started on the landing, and was then fitting the stair carpet,.and the lady of the house was moving about in the bedroom,well, i took no notice, till she called me from the top of the stairs,. i looked up, and she was stood there, dressed in a beautiful red basque, with stockings and suspenders, ( i hit my thumb with the hammer lol), she asked me to adjust something at the back,.which i duly obliged,..and also started to adjust something at the front ..,and those last final moments, when you just know, something ..IS going to happen...,stays with you for life..doesnt it ? well it did for me...her name was Mrs Marshall, as i remember, a divorcee, in her late 40s ,.but she was quite a woman, ( she reminded of the song..Mrs Robinson ) and tought me things, i,d only dreamt about, as a 21 year old,.,and we remained in a relationship, for most of that summer,..eventually though, i was made redundant at my job, as it was last in, first out conditions, i then got a job at the Grand Hotel, as a K.P..( Washer up ) ok it was starting at the bottom, but it was a reasonable job, and meant i had a wage coming in,..but i later transferred to the Templestowe Hotel as a waiter,..( more adventures lol ).and remained there over xmas , and the new year, , when i eventually got made redundant again, as it was, " out of season " and this time, I had no option, but to leave Torquay !
https://youtu.be/z4ZipKdI1sY?list=LL0qZGe0gP-faClNOWFSNoNQ
I guess this is how I felt at the time ... and even now !
Thank you for sharing with us a glimpse into your past. I find your tales like yourself...to the point, down to earth and with a touch of humour. Just enough not to bore your audience Tom, and very enjoyable.
The youtube link brought back memories of my late father, who was always a sucker for a pretty face and a voice to match. In fact my father was the one who used to call me Jeanymay (hated it at the time but like it now) when in fact my first name is Jean and my middle name May...there a little about myself
That u tube clip was from my favourites list , anyways its a bit brighter here now so I will pop into town soon as I need some food stuff.
I hope all that snow has gone where you are now, yuk ! I don't like the stuff either !
see you later...... Alligator !
Don't you dare let them change the way you are or your fun posts !!!! xx
Jeanymay, thanks once again .. you are the wind beneath my wings ! truly an inspiration to all of us on here x
Ok lets crack on, - am back from town now, got my food shopping done, then work rang and asked if I can go to Ross on Wye and Cardiff tomorrow, ? so i said sure, which means I will have to use the Severn Bridge Toll crossing again ( about £20 for a truck ) I used to use it regularly to deliver to Chepstow every Friday, which is just on the other side of the Bridge, and every time you pull up to pay, the kiosk attendant has to ask us if we are carrying anything Hazardous ( Elf & Safety ) so the last time I was crossing I answered,. "Yes ! 20 tons of Sheep,s lipstick for the forth coming festivities " lol well the lady was just sipping from a cup of coffee as I said that, and the next thing I knew it all came out of her mouth and down her nose and she had a fit of the giggles, lol I drove off pretty damn quick after that !
ok better get some food inside me , see you later folks.!
and talking of kids, I am playing tracks from my u tube playlist like you did the other day look at the kids on here aaw !https://youtu.be/bnI8QV3L7Rs?list=LL0qZGe0gP-faClNOWFSNoNQ sshh I,m the one on the railway track grins !
Daisy welcome on here and thanks for reading the blog lol do come on here and chat with us more,. and thanks for the u tube channel too !
Littleminx yes its driving me bonkers too, and I am half way there already ! I wonder if we could just get an open page on here with everyones posts under the others ?
ok thanks to the others that have posted , but i cant find them yet, i will go and have a search
The summer months also meant that my cousins and I could be found swimming in the River Avon and we even made a raft one year and would sail around until danger prone cousin Jane managed to sink the darned thing!
Mels that's sounds good too swimming in the Hampshire Avon, memories eh, it always seemed warmer back in those days didn't it
ok I better start some tea, a Homity pie .methinks ! just warmed up and maybe with some veg and a baked potato,, my cooking is that bad,. even my dustbin has an Ulcer lol
I buy mine from Launceston rare breeds farm, and just warm them up.
ok I am drooling already, b.f.n
It's funny you mention the river pole vault, one summer we set up a swinging rope which most of us managed to swing from one side of the riverbank to the other quite successfully except, of course, for the aforementioned cousin Jane who fell in.
And I was born at Odstock hospital!
You are indeed correct, it is now Salisbury District Hospital - I actually didn't know that - bless you Google ...
I also remember the general hospital which, I seem to recall, was in Fisherton Street but long, long ago became luxury apartments.
As you say, we should perhaps have a memories post - sometimes it's nice to dwell on a gentler and more innocent (well, not cousin Jane, obvs.) age.
I'm just about to make lentil and carrot soup with bacon bits. The heating's on, so nice and cosy. A bit of a crisp day here but nice and bright.
PS Not sure if you are still having problems with receiving my messages, as I didn't get a response to my last one re the same subject...can you let me know please
Thank you for putting this post on it will stir up a bit of interest for us to have a natter today I'm sure. Some days are very slow on here, and it's great when someone takes the time just start things off...that's why I am apt to put nonsense on !
Absolutely freezing here, and the scare mongers are forecasting snow !
Saw that about Jimmy Young, but I don't think I personally want to live to that age, although a few of my neighbours are in their 90s, and still go out every day.
Ha ha you are so right about the blooming (polite version) phone. I was woken at 7.30 am yesterday by a bogus call "Good morning madam I am calling from your internet provider Talktalk, how are you today ? I gave her specific "Directions" and full "Instructions", which apparently she used as for the 1st time in months the phone has stopped ringing countless times a day.
Keep smiling !
I can't remember my parents being bogged down by such things. They paid their bills at the local Council office, Gas & Electric showrooms, and just got on with life.
Sign of the times eh !
I've Environmental Health visiting ,about a noise issue from a local establishment, which basically has been converted from a quiet pub and turned into a money pit by a large company who are running the business more or less in the beer garden, which is equipped with heated huts, pagola's, huge umbrellas, garden heaters etc
I live close to the river Aire, and bought my house because of the lovely environment (although it is also close to town), but this has been ruined.
Must go get my soup on !
Ok you and Lionel have just set my taste buds off with that soup, so I am also going to have something now !