Big ray

[Big ray]

Ted (my new brother-in-law) soon settled in and began to work in the family business. In the early days we worked together, but we tended to laugh so much that they began to seperate us when possible, we were obviously enjoying our working days far too much. Eventually I left the family business and started my own business some two years after I got married. As the years passed and I was no longer in daily physical contact with my family, we decided, Jack, Cyril, Ted and myself decided that it would be a good idea if we met occasionally during the summer months on a Sunday to drive into the country (me driving, I did not drink much). We would go to several country pubs where we would sit and catch-up on all family matters, I would now be around forty years old at that time. By now Ted was working in my business and if he had been a blood relative he could not have been more of a family member, he was very popular with everyone. Now I need to put some kind of perspective on what I am about to say, Ted only had one vice, for which everyone forgave him, we realised that he was the only one among`st us on a fixed income, he had short arms and deep pockets. Whilst out on one of our Sunday meetings Jack jokingly asked me if Ted had ever bought me a pint, I replied, on reflection I dont recall that he ever did. Jack said, in a very light hearted manner, Let Ted go into the next pub first, then he will have to buy the drinks. When we arrived at the next pub, a very nice country pub with a thatched roof, Jack held myself and Cyril back a little to allow Ted into the pub first. The ploy seemed to be working fine, Ted reached the pub door and went in first, then he promtly held the door for us to pass............ Jack just looked at me and smiled, and said, shall we concede defeat, I just smiled back, and ordered the drinks...... we all loved him and felt it to be good value, just to have him around. :kissoncheek:

[Big ray]

During the early days of my business work was hard to find, and finance was even more precarious, Ted sometimes worked hard long hours to help establish regular work, something for which I was always grateful, and I did show my gratitude. He was one of natures early risers, I know that he awoke regularly at 4.30am, I would turn in some days to find that he had accomplished some task that had been schedualled for that day, all taking a lot of the pressure off me, we did not, and never did have a boss v worker relationship, we were and always remained buddies. As conditions concerning work began to improve, I decided to invest what then was a considerable sum of money for a machine that could only be obtained from the States. I took delivery of this machine, it was only a small piece of equipment, not much bigger than a couple of wheel barrows. One day, whilst this machine was outside in the elements, it began to rain, I called Ted, who was standing close to one of our trucks, and asked him to bring my coat from the truck........ I promptly placed the coat over the machine to keep it dry, Ted could not stop laughing, and never, but never let me forget that incident. Another of my silly tricks was to fill static machines with fuel from gallon cans, if I should be talking to Ted whilst performing that task, I would for some unexplained reason be tryng to screw the cap from the fuel tank of the machine onto the gallon can, I would be turning the thing with no success, only realising my mistake when Ted broke into a very broad grin before bursting into laughter, another one of the many things that he never let me forget, I miss his humour, it was wonderful medicine. :kissoncheek:

[Big ray]

I cannot convey how good Ted was at gaining the upper-hand. One day many years ago I told Ted that we had two items in the yard that were surplus to requirements, and should some one wish to buy these two surplus items, then he should discount them, he could have the money from one, whilst I had the money from the other. I had explained to Ted that if these two items remained in the yard for any length of time they would inevitabely get damaged and be worthless. Some time later when I entered the yard Ted said, those two items, I have sold mine......... mine never did get sold, and was eventually damaged and unsaleable. That was Ted in a nutshell, the old saying is obviously very true......... you have got to get up very early to beat me, and of course Ted was a very early riser. I had to walk around the corner and have a good smile to myself..... he was a bright boy. :kissoncheek:

[Big ray]

In the 1950s one of the many vehicles that I used to drive was a Morris Commercial Van, now when I say van, it was the size of a modern 7.5 tonne truck. It was a real sit-up and beg steering motor, it was fitted with an Hodgkiss engine with a magneto. The starting handle was a permanent fixture on the front, and it was great fun to drive, BUT, it was fitted with brakes on the rear axle only. It had been manufactured in 1929, and if the roads were wet, snow or ice covered, it was probably just better left parked. I remember that almost all of the trucks had to be driven using the gearbox as a braking aid, the rule of thumb was descend the hill in the same gear that it would take to climb it. Of course the roads were very much quieter in those days, you had lots of time to look around and enjoy the scenery, traffic was a lot slower..... I remember that many of my friends acquired motorcycles, usually ex-military, and we could not civilianize them fast enough, how times have changed on that score. Between the age of 16 and eighteen a gang of us spent our weekends out on the motorcycles riding to such places as Blackpool or the North Wales coast. I also remember that many of the motorcycles had no working front brake (seized or broken cable) no M.o.T.s in those days. Great times, never to be repeated, unfortunately.:kissoncheek:

[Big ray]

In 1955 one of our motorcycle group was a guy called Joe L. he had purchased a Douglas Firefly, 350cc twin cylinder, a copy of the BMW latteral pots with the obligatory crash bars to protect the engine. This machine was fitted with twin carbs, it was a great looking bike of its day. He asked me if I would like to ride pillion with him to the North Wales coastal area, I of course agreed, and off we set on a beutiful summers day. We spent a very pleasant time either on the beach or just riding up and down the coastal road. We set off back on our return journey, the journey took us through the old Roman town of Chester and out onto the Manchester road. Once that we had passed through Chester Joe asked me if I would like to try riding the motorcycle with him on the pillion, I was of course very keen to see how this bike handled, I had by now decided that I would like to purchase one of these machines. We continued the journey with myself now in control of this machine. Its a very straight piece of highway for about a couple of miles after leaving Chester, all that I had to do was stay upright and change gear, untill I reached the right turn off the Manchester road. This right turn was a major junction on this route, so all traffic turning right had a central lane (Box) in what was otherwise a single lane road. No indicators on motorcycles in those days, so I was extra careful to make sure that no one was attempting to overtake us as I approached the turn. I stuck out my hand to indicate my intention to turn right, I positioned myself in the centre of the road, there was already several cars stationary in the centre of the road awaiting a gap in the oncoming traffic. The last car in the line (in front of me) was a Standard Flying 9 convertable, with the top down. I positioned my left foot onto the footbrake and began to apply pressure, I was not slowing any..... I looked down and was horrified to see that I had actually got my foot on top of the carbureter. It was a design feature of that motorcycle that the footbreak was located immediately UNDER the bowl of the carb, I should have just slid my foot under the carb. Too late when I looked up, we were almost up to the Flying 9...... by the time that I applied the footbrake we had hit the rear of the car. The impact was relatively minor, but enough to make Joe push me from my position, over the handlebars and halfway into the rear seat of the car. Joe finished up sitting in what had been my position, and able to support the bike, preventing it from falling over. I climbed back off the rear of this car, a young couple were seated in the front. He, the driver climbed out of the car, slammed the door in disgust and walked to the rear to view the anticipated damage to the rear of his pride and joy. Cars manufactured pre 1940 were fitted with real cromium spring steel bumpers....... all that I had done was left an impression of the tyre tread in dust on the bumper, he was obviously very relieved and asked if we were O.K. on confirmation that we were, he climbed into his car and continued with his journey. Naturally Joe resumed his position on the bike, I climbed again onto the pillion seat, stinking of petrol, the fuel cap had flown open on impact and soaked me with fuel........ the only real damage was to my pride. I did however go on to purchase two of those motorcycles.:kissoncheek:

[Big ray]

I am always most annoyed to see the silly spelling mistakes that I have made whilst typing my post, I dont have time to read my post before submitting it, for some unknown reason my computer will turn itself off without warning, and I lose everything that I have typed........and I type pretty slowly, so make allowances for the silly things that I do, thank you. :kissoncheek:

[Big ray]

Whilst Jack was serving in North Africa during the war ,with the RAF, Cyril (his younger brother) had been timber snigging in the woods with a local timber Co. Cyril reached the age of conscrition in November 1944, he was called in the army early in 1945. He did his training first in England, and then Northern Ireland. From there he and his draft were posted to southern France, in the Toulon area, he was with the R.A.S.C. (Royal Army Service Corps.) truck driving.

Both he and Jack had honed their driving skill as kids, along with some of their friends, driving old cars around the yard, one sitting on the front mudwing, pouring petrol into the carb, they could not afford to put fuel into the tank. That was immediately prior to the start of WW11.

Whilst driving in covoy in France, one of the trucks in the convoy, ahead of Cyril, attempted to overtake a tram on the inside, a standard manouvre when passing a tram. However, one had to be aware when the tram was reaching a stop, the tram lines would of course turn in to the footpath. The truck driver attempting to overtake this tram had not seen the change of direction in the lines, the tram had lots of passengers hanging onto the outsides of the thing. The army driver skittled several of these french passengers from the side of the tram and killed some of them. He was dragged from his cab by a very mad crowd and beaten to death (Vichy French) they were pro-german, and did not like the british. I asked Cyril why that they had not tried to help the unfortunate driver, he explained that only the vehicle immediately behind the crashed truck was aware of what had happened, the driver of that truck could not see what was taking place through the crowd, and his view was further obstructed by the offending truck. By the time that troops had moved forward to investigate, it was too late for the poor driver. Cyril moved soon after that incident to the Hamburg area of Germany, with the occupation forces. He was promoted to corporal and became the C.O.s driver. He also related an incident that happened in Hamburg, apparently, there is or was, a large lake in the centre of the city. Cyril was watching the lake being dragged for bodies, during the bombing it had been so bad that lots of people jumped into the lake, in preference to being burned alive. Cyril observed that the bodies were all black (presumabley burned) all except one, that was quite normal in colour. Cyril said to me, he thoght that that was someone who had recently been murdered and thrown into the lake, I dont suppose that in late 1945 anyone would be very bothered after all of the recent killing.:kissoncheek:

[Big ray]

During the 1950s we used all sorts of trucks, our particular favourite being the Bedford. During his army service whilst serving in Germany, Cyril had been given the task, along with other drivers, to drain the water and oil from lots of trucks that were surplus to requirements and drive them around the parade ground untill the engines seized, rendering them useless. It just happened that most of these vehicles failed pretty quickly, particularly with the lack of oil. However, he did climb into a Commer truck, and he claims that he just kept going around that parade ground for so long that he began to think that this truck would never fail, of course it did eventually, but he never forgot that incident, you could not shake his faith in the build quality of Commer trucks. I do have to agree I always found that particular truck of that era to be very good, in fact I have always felt that the quality of the post war Commer Q4 is grossly underated, its a well built and good looking truck. I have often wondered why they had to drive them vehicles around? why did`nt they just start them where they were in line and let them fail there? It certainly seems like a senseless exercise to me, unless the ensuing recovery would help with training, and of course it does keep the troops busy?????? I will never know the answer to that question now because Cyril died several years ago......... unless of course someone out there was involved? :kissoncheek:

[Big ray]

Weekends in Germany, unless your were on guard duty, were pretty good. We had from Saturday lunch time untill Monday morning when we could do pretty much as we liked. One Saturday evening the only two peaple on our floor (3rd) was myself and Ray W. another corporal, and a room mate of mine. We were probably the only two in the whole block. At 11pm the duty sergeant, who on this occassion happened to be the Pay Sergeant, he was known affectionately by all of us as Penelopy, he tended to walk with his wrists turned out slightly, and had a generally girly manner. He was standing at the base of the entrance shouting up at us, telling us to turn out our lights. Ray W. jumping off his bed said, follow me, we went up the stairs onto the 4th floor and he looked down from the window to the base of the stairway entrance, he then said in areather soft voice, pass me the fire bucket. I passed him the fire bucket full of sand, he said , no you idiot, the water bucket... so I passed that. He then poured the bucket of water from the window, grabbing me by the arm he said, lets go. We ran back down to our floor and into our room, as we did so I turned off the light, he cried, no you idiot, and immediately switched the lights back on, then we both jumped into bed. I pulled the bed clothes over my head, I could hear the sergeant walking along the passage towards our room, he stood in the doorway, obviously soaking wet. He demanded to know who was in the building, he was of course talking to my friend, who had the capacity to contain himself in what to me would have been a very comical situation, I would have found it impossible to contain my laughter if I had been able to see the sergeant standing there soaking wet. I could hear Ray talking in a very sleepy manner to the sergeant, suggesting that he had just been aroused from his slumber. After a few moments he demanded to know who was in my bed, Ray replied, thats corporal W. dont wake him, we both retired early because we were tired. Fortunately for me, he accepted his remarks and left me alone, I would most certainly have given the game away if I had been made to come from under the bed clothes and look at this soaking wet man. My friend was a Yorkshire man, from Halifax, he was a real cool cookie and he got up to many such antics during our army service together.:kissoncheek:

[Degsy]

If 'Penelope' is still with us he might just get tipped off to your admission and your mis demeanours could yet come back to haunt you.:laugh:

[Big ray]

If 'Penelope' is still with us he might just get tipped off to your admission and your mis demeanours could yet come back to haunt you.:laugh:

 

We would both get nothing less than we deserved.......... stupid juvenile pranks, all played out by what could only be described as two juveniles............ but it was funny at the time, we would`nt dream of doing such a thing now, we are far too mature........ I hope, I will just have to check with Ray W. (Halifax):kissoncheek:

[Degsy]

We would both get nothing less than we deserved.......... stupid juvenile pranks, all played out by what could only be described as two juveniles............ but it was funny at the time, we would`nt dream of doing such a thing now, we are far too mature........ I hope, I will just have to check with Ray W. (Halifax):kissoncheek:

 

Judging by your description of him he was quite a character and he could well still be..........

I hope so anyway:banana:

[Big ray]

Judging by your description of him he was quite a character and he could well still be..........

I hope so anyway:banana:

 

He was, and still is a real character, I have met with him, along with the other guys, every year at our re-unions. He has of course matured (I hope that thats the same as being a wrinkley) over the years, but even then as a young man he was a very good leader of men... the sort of guy that you wanted to be with if you found yourself in a fix. :kissoncheek:

[Degsy]

Good to know he's still around Ray.

[lssah2025]

welcome aboard..

[Big ray]

We have a grand daughter who is away studying at university in London, when I talk with her parents (our daughter and son-in-law) they tell us that she is suffering considerable termoil, although she is a brilliant student, academically she is gaining top honours. She is just 21 years of age, I tell our daughter that I have very strong recollections of my time at that age.

I would not want to go through that time again, I found it to be quite traumatic, unsure of my future, and the direction that it may take. I used to lye on my bed in Germany and wonder where the mother of my children might be, and would I make a success of my life. I suppose that like most people, it worked out fine, but of course you can`t possibly know that at the time, so I just suggest that they should be very understanding and supportive. I am quite sure that many people must suffer these anxieties. Generally we are not good at communicating our innermost feelings, even to our very close friends. For me an exception to that rule was my friendship with Ray W. my friend from Halifax, he was a good solid Yorkshireman, any advice from him was always based on good reasoning, I still value his friendship and wisdom. At the moment I am saying a few prayers for everyone involved in this conflict in Lybia, including the Lybians, I pray that things work out well. :kissoncheek:

[Big ray]

Its not very often that I bother to go down to my old place of business, our son runs the business now, but he keeps ringing and asking me to do something or other. I also keep my GMC and White M3 Halftrack down there, so thats another good reason to go down. I went down this morning to cover a couple of things that he was struggling with, whilst there he had a customer coming to collect stuff and he asked me to deal with it. I rang the guy to ascertain when he might be coming along to make this collection, when he told me the distance that he had to travel to get to us I calculated that it would probably take him some 45 minutes to reach us............ No, No, he said, it will probably take me between 30 minutes to one hour to get to you..... Er, Er, isnt that about 45 minutes. They keep telling me that standards of education are dropping, today seems to confirm that. These things do brighten up my otherwise elderly existence. You young people out there have no idea just how lucky you are, I go down to work and tell them about all the things that they can look forward to in later years, they laugh, but I am quite sure that I invoke considerable thought by the time that I leave, and if they are unlucky enough to have one of my old army buddies turning up whilst I am there (He is so biggotted that he blames all of our problems on any nationality, other than ours) I feel that the poor souls must feel suicidal by the time that we have both left. Aint life grand, I just keep taking the pills.:kissoncheek:

[abn deuce]

:rotfl:Yup pills and more pills , Getting old is not for weaklings .

[Big ray]

:rotfl:Yup pills and more pills , Getting old is not for weaklings .

Good day my friend, I trust that Nebraska, like the U.K. is beginning to enjoy an improvement in weather conditions, the sun on my face is a welcome supplement to my intake of pills. I hope that all is well with you and your familly.

Regards.

Ray. :kissoncheek:

[tonyturf]

Well, I may run THE business now but you`ll always be welcome to come and make the coffees! Anyway, The GMC will need readying soon!!!! My first post by the way!

[Tony B]

Hey Tony, you should read the other things he says about you! :cool2: Just keep the Old Goat in line! :-D

[Big ray]

I do believe that they are beginning to gang-up on me folks..... no respect for their elders. Have a nice day everyone. :kissoncheek:

[Degsy]

I do believe that they are beginning to gang-up on me folks..... no respect for their elders. Have a nice day everyone. :kissoncheek:

 

Take no notice Ray, it's only TB (thrombosis) and the definition of thrombosis.........a bloody clot that wanders indiscriminately round the system causing chaos:rofl:

[Tony B]

I like that! :-D Grow old disgracefully!

[Big ray]

I like that! :-D Grow old disgracefully!

I really dont mind how that I grow old, just so long as I do, its much better than the alternative......... ideally I would like to be shot when I reach 120 years old, by a jealous husband...... summers coming, have fun folks, and be careful. :nut: