5thwheel:
Bewick:
5thwheel:
A very early picture of James Smith on his coal delivery round,whilst I recognize James(arms folded) I cannot seem to put a makers name to his motor.Great old shot there David ! Obviously I was never in the same league as J & A but I did have two things in common with them 1) Same name! 2) I knew exactly what it was like to start at the very bottom and all the difficulties that it entailed ! Cheers Dennis.
When you look back Dennis,it seems harder than it appeared at the time,you just got on with it,and if you came out the other side,all well and good,if not you just picked yourself up and tried again!
David
Aye David it was extremely hard to get going as an O/D but over 50 years ago you just got on and got stuck in, day and night eh! been there got a bag full of “T” shirts to prove it !! This shot was taken in early afternoon in '69 parked outside J T Leyland’s little warehouse on Shap road Kendal, 22 years old loaded with Libbys Rice and Milk for Sainsbury’s Stamford St.DC. Happy days ! I would have kicked off that night at around midnight so as to be at Sainsbury’s at 6/7 a.m. get tipped and then probably, often, would have been sent to Covent Garden by J & W Watt’s to load for A.E.Docker Ltd Barrow-in Furness which then meant by the time I was loaded and back at Watts London Colney mid/later afternoon I’d been running for 16/17 hours or so ! Then I had to be in Barrow by 4 a.m. next morning stood outside their warehouse. So it was another gruella only punctuated by a couple of cat naps on the way.
But sometimes it didn’t end there as when I had finally got to bed about midday my Mam would wake me at 2 pm to say Libbys have rung to ask if I could load this afternoon for , usually, Sainsbury’s and maybe a couple of pallets for a Cash & Carry ! I kid you not I have been loading in Libbys and been absolutely dead on my feet, falling asleep ! How I never smashed that D1000 up in the first 18 moths I’ll never know but I earned enough to aquire a second “A” licence and to put a new Mastiif 26 ton Artic on the road ! Cheeres Dennis
