Big ray

[Big ray]

Psycholgical......... 100 times, psychological !!!!!!!!!!! its my age, I would say that it was aultzimers...... if I was sure how to spell it.:yay::yay:

[marmon]

Brilliant story's Big ray and well written, you ever thought of writing a book? Don't worry about the spelling I went to a comprehensive so I can't spell either, I just hit the spell check and it changes all the misspelled words into the wong words...

[Big ray]

Brilliant story's Big ray and well written, you ever thought of writing a book? Don't worry about the spelling I went to a comprehensive so I can't spell either, I just hit the spell check and it changes all the misspelled words into the wong words...

 

Thank you for your kind words, I hope that you enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing down my memories.

Ray.

[Big ray]

I recently attended a forties themed day at our local museum, I went along with a few of my friends with our military vehicles, Jeeps,Dodges and my Harley Davidson WLC. The museum is relatively new, built along with such new buildings as the central police station, library etc. We were exhibiting our vehicles on the paved frontage of the museum, the museums main exhibit being a Spitfire fighter plane, the designer of the Spitfire (Reginald Mitchell) was born locally. The museum staff kept us supplied with refreshments, whilst partaking of a cup of coffee I glanced accross the street and realised that the flight of steps on the other side actually went up to the very room that I had visited for my medical in October 1955 for my induction into the army in January 1956, I remember bounding up those steps in 1955...... I dont think that I could bound down them now. :-(

[Old Bill]

Thank you for your kind words, I hope that you enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing down my memories.

Ray.

 

I enjoy them all Ray. Thanks for sharing them!

 

Steve

[Big ray]

Wishing everyone a very merry xmas and a happy new year.:kissoncheek:

[Tony B]

Same to you Ray, enjoy yourself.

[Richard Farrant]

Wishing everyone a very merry xmas and a happy new year.:kissoncheek:

 

 

Best wishes to you as well, Ray.

 

Looking forward to reading more of your stories in the New Year, thank you for those that you have related to us up to now.

 

regards, Richard

[marmon]

Merry Christmas Ray,

 

You should tell us your best and worst Christmas, I'm sure you've had more interesting ones than most...

 

All the best,

Quentin

[Big ray]

Merry Christmas Ray,

 

You should tell us your best and worst Christmas, I'm sure you've had more interesting ones than most...

 

All the best,

Quentin

 

My worst xmas would have to be during the latter part of ww2, thats when my grandparents (they were raising my sister and myself) bought for me a kids push along scooter.... no rubber to be had in them days, so the scooter was fitted with steel (or something similar) wheels, the noise made when I rode it along the footpath was terrible, all the neighbours went nuts, all the noise that I was making early on xmas morning.... they all shouted through the windows, telling me to banner-off home.

My best xmas was xmas day 1963 when our first born arrived at 1.50pm. She is still the light of my life, she now lives 80 miles away, so we dont see her or her family enough..... but they will all be here for xmas day....... she knocks my eye out every time that we see her.

[Tony B]

What else is early Christmas for? Neighbour's never used my name when they told me to shut up. :-D

[Degsy]

What else is early Christmas for? Neighbour's never used my name when they told me to shut up. :-D

 

 

Things haven't changed then:D

[Tony B]

Boxing day was, and still is my day! Out with horse and hounds or shooting.:-D

[Big ray]

The camp showers were housed in block 3. We were separated from this block by about 80mtrs, so taking a shower involved grabbing your washing gear and walking over to the adjacent block. I went over for my shower one summer evening, got myself under the shower and found myself to be alone, pretty unusual with so many guys in the workshop. So I did what most guys seem to do when on your own in the shower.... I started to sing, I must have been really enjoying the sound of my own voice. Suddenly the door to the communal shower burst open and a gang of block 3 residents ran in with buckets of cold water, they gave me a good cooling off.... I was trying to climb the walls at this point. Whilst they gave me a good cooling, the rest of the gang stole my towel and clothes, the only thing that I had left was the soap. So I had to run the guantlet from block 3 to my own block in the nude...... and the boundary fence ran alongside the path, exposing me to any german civilians on the outside.... but hey..... I was 20 years old, a fine figure of a man..... if they did it to me now, I would just have to stay there and die first...... great memories.:kissoncheek:

[Tony B]

When's the audition for X Factor then? :-D

[Big ray]

During 1955, before I was inducted into the army I worked for my family scrapping / stripping war surplus vehicles. We worked on several acres of land, some areas had been neglected and had become overgrown, whilst mucking about in some shrubbery I came accross a Bren Gun Carrier. It seemed to be complete so we decided to put fuel in, and a battery on, the weather was very warm and dry so with fingers crossed we hit the starter, the V8 spun over but no attempt to fire. We checked for fuel delivery at the carb, there was none, it transpired that the lift pump diaphram had perished. So we just fitted a superstructure at the rear and gravity-fed the fuel, cleaned the points and bingo, she fired up and ran very well. We now used the carrier for all sorts of dragging jobs around the yard, in the end it just went the way of most of the gear that came through the yard.... cut-up for scrap. I have never owned one of these machines, but I do remember that it was like riding on the ocean waves, rocking up and down every time that you accelerated or braked, lots of memories.:kissoncheek:

[Big ray]

During the war there was always lots of aircraft flying about, sometimes fighters, other times a single bomber or even a group. It was at night time that the Germans flew over, you could always tell the different sound made by German bombers, whilst ours had a constant pitch the german bombers the sound seemed to go up and down... a very different sound. My family spent a few nights in the air raid shelter at the bottom of the garden, it was all just a load of excitement for all of us young boys, we could never appreciate the danger. We also had a large brick built air raid shelter situated almost opposite to our home, I suppose that it would hold about 50 or 60 people, it had a thick concrete roof, but I dont think that the people wanted to use it, they felt that a direct hit would just kill everyone in there.... so I dont recall it being used, but we kids used to climb onto the roof and jump off. I think that we all wanted to be parachutists, it was not demolished untill several years after the war. I remember standing with my grandfather at the rear of the house watching the German bombers bomb Manchester... my grandfather used to say to me Manchester are getting it again lad. Everyone just seemed to accept the nightly bombing, several homes were bombed near to us, we would go and look at the damage the next day, all that we were looking for was bits of German bombs... thats kids for you.:kissoncheek:

[Big ray]

We had quite a lot of refugees come up to our area from London, one of the boys, who became one of my friends was taken in by a family who lived six houses away from ours. His parents were killed in the bombings in London, he must not have had any near relatives, or at least any that wanted or could take him on. The family that had taken him in finally adopted him. He is an old man like myself now, but I regularly see him exercising his dog. As kids we would go along to the local rifle range, the range has long gone now, but it must have been there from as far back as the first world war. We would spend many hours on the range digging out spent bullets, we used to be amazed at the ammount of damage that those bullets suffered on impact with what we thought was soft earth, we were after the undamaged bullet, you would occasionally find one.:kissoncheek:

[Big ray]

We had quite a lot of refugees come up to our area from London, one of the boys, who became one of my friends was taken in by a family who lived six houses away from ours. His parents were killed in the bombings in London, he must not have had any near relatives, or at least any that wanted or could take him on. The family that had taken him in finally adopted him. He is an old man like myself now, but I regularly see him exercising his dog. As kids we would go along to the local rifle range, the range has long gone now, but it must have been there from as far back as the first world war. We would spend many hours on the range digging out spent bullets, we used to be amazed at the ammount of damage that those bullets suffered on impact with what we thought was soft earth, we were after the undamaged bullet, you would occasionally find one.:kissoncheek:

My friend was an evacuee........ not a refugee, if he reads this he will set his dog onto me the next time that we meet. :kissoncheek:

[marmon]

Hi Ray,

That brings back memories.

I grew up in Colledge Town which bordered Sandhurst Academy, back in those days it had three gates and only one had a guard, most people especially us kids use to walk through as a shortcut to Camberley, right past Princess Anne's house, I remember one of us little b***gers had a pint of Gold top away from her door step one morning, not me guv, honestly. Absolutely no security, I bet you can't get near the place these days.

 

Anyway we use to play on the ranges and we would collect all kinds of old bullets and bits of shrapnel, one day we came across a small bomb like thing in a stream, roughly 10" to 12" long with a 4 fin tail and a hefty dent or gouge on one side, my Bro and I thought it would be a good idea to take it home, anyway it sat on the dinner table all afternoon until our dad got up for night shift, anyway he knew about such things, ex RHA and RM, he gave us a good rollicking and promptly set off down to the main gate where he handed it in to the guard, who apparently was very young and not at all calm about it, he put it down in his hut and scarped, our dad offered to take it over to a grass area next to the entrance but he would not let anyone near it until the reinforcements showed up...

[Big ray]

In the latter part of the war and immediate post war years my grandfather would regularly take me along the footpath that ran along the railway line, we would go when the farmers were harvesting the corn. The workers would start harvesting the corn from the outside edge of the field, working their way to the middle of the corn. Farm workers with dogs would be stationed at each corner of the field. As the standing corn was being reduced in area the many rabbits would be forced into an ever decreasing area, what started as a few rabbits dashing for the safety of the adjacent fields, soon became a torrent. Very few rabbits actually made it to the safety area, the dogs of course became ever more excited.... poor old rabbits. Add to this scene cottages with swirling wisps of smoke from the chimneys, I seem to remember that the sun was always shining, then the trains running from London to Scotland.... express trains, thundering by with smoke belching from the engine. That scene will always remind me of England at its best........ a scene that has gone forever, alas.:kissoncheek:

[Big ray]

Hi Ray,

That brings back memories.

I grew up in Colledge Town which bordered Sandhurst Academy, back in those days it had three gates and only one had a guard, most people especially us kids use to walk through as a shortcut to Camberley, right past Princess Anne's house, I remember one of us little b***gers had a pint of Gold top away from her door step one morning, not me guv, honestly. Absolutely no security, I bet you can't get near the place these days.

 

Anyway we use to play on the ranges and we would collect all kinds of old bullets and bits of shrapnel, one day we came across a small bomb like thing in a stream, roughly 10" to 12" long with a 4 fin tail and a hefty dent or gouge on one side, my Bro and I thought it would be a good idea to take it home, anyway it sat on the dinner table all afternoon until our dad got up for night shift, anyway he knew about such things, ex RHA and RM, he gave us a good rollicking and promptly set off down to the main gate where he handed it in to the guard, who apparently was very young and not at all calm about it, he put it down in his hut and scarped, our dad offered to take it over to a grass area next to the entrance but he would not let anyone near it until the reinforcements showed up...

 

We would regularly find ordnance on damaged aircraft that were being transported (I think to Burtonwood Airbase) they would often overnight on the large cattle market carpark. On moonlit nights we could climb into these aircraft, absolutely no security..... my grandfather would go nuts, saying have you been down to that carpark again. On one occassion, I did mention this in an earlier post, I found a fully loaded Colt 45, complete with the shoulder holster, I gave that one to one of my friends. (The Colt was found in a stream, not the aircraft) but it had only just been discarded, it was all in perfect condition. I suppose such things must have been happening all over the country where troops were located.:kissoncheek:

[Big ray]

Hi, my name is Ray, I am ex-REME, I served in West Germany 1956 /58 5.Armoured Workshops. Hamm.

I still meet with my army buddies each year ( Just had our 50th re-union.) I have been a member of the MVT for approximately 20 years. I own the following vehicles. 1944 GMC 353 CCKW (Rag Top) 1944 White M3 Halftrack, M201 Jeep, 1943 Harley Davidson WLC, 1943 Royal Enfield WD. CO. 350cc, I have never lost my love of all things green............. I am now 72 years old......... wish that I could do it all again!!!!!:cool2:

 

Hi, would just like to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year.

Regards to all.

Ray.:kissoncheek:

[marmon]

Happy New Year Ray,

 

Q

[Richard Farrant]

Hi, would just like to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year.

 

 

 

Happy New Year, Ray.

 

Looking foward to more of your stories, during 2011. :-)