Will you tell the truth !!!
In the 1960"s I was a young mechanic, going to technical college at Crewe, 1 day a week ,there were about 10 lads from Congleton area, doing the same course , some from Fodens , ERF, some from local haulage contractors . Our mode of transport was to all pile in a car owned by a boy from a rich family, that had bought it for him , be it an old dog, it was a jolly, all lads together and a day free from the boss !!!.
Me and my friend from Congleton were working for a man who had a lovely fleet of Fodens, not far away from a hill overlooking Cheshire, The trucks were named castle this or castle that . The owner was a cantankerous man , full of himself and his off spring also had the family trait !!!
I will say his wife was a lovely woman , and when we had to work late would bring us tea and sandwiches.
Our wages were 17 .50 pounds a week , , that was for late nights , for keeping the trucks going, with full repairs and checks , we also went to breakdowns wherever needed, Shap , Carlisle, Birmingham ,you get the drift.
Jungle cafe, 2 broken springs, no problem , raining and by torch they had to be done , lorry’s cant be idle , i here you laugh but it is true .
The drivers were salt of the earth men usually family men , as we were young they would tell us stories and have us crying with laughter, one guy Lennie would always have a smile on his face , it was as though he was ready to tell a joke but already laughing as he thought of it to tell you, he would tell us about lanark Lill , the phantom gobbler a good friend of his , a lady of the highway .
He told us of a tale he and six mates would use the Big Moss cafe, 2am , sat down with mugs of tea, and sitting across the other side were some ladies of the night, Lennie said lets have a laugh , he took a sauce bottle and put it down his trousers, put out his legand pointed at it, one of the ladies clocked it, and sped over to Lennielike a runner off the blocks and proceeded to fondle it, she then realised what it was took it out from his trousers and beat him over the head with it , but of course it was all in good fun, he was a great guy .
Some of the Fodens the older ones were ex London brick . co 6lw, 8 wheelers long wheelbase,we would cut them down , shorten them and put tipper bodies on them , with mid height sides so the boss could load them back from Scotland, clay , bales tin , coils. These had oil brakes, and a few were lost on Shap, engine probs, no brakes driven off the timing gear.
But the later new ones were a great credit, all long chassis, for extra loads, 20 ton no prob. Fodens would build what you wanted one offs , 150s now big time drivers wages 10 pound night trunk scotch 30 pound 3 trips plus 1 pound extra for drops on way down I bet the young ones cant believe it !!! He had an older 50;s Foden 8 wheel tipper doing 2 loads a day to Sheffield to Brym Bo came in late drive said it is missing , put new injectors and then test it , big boss says so off we go, , scholar green to top of hilll hope I have done the job right !!! lump in my throat , he is down to 1st low, and I am holding on the door ready to jump out, my heart had never beat so fast , just remember I am a 20 year old , I even prayed !! but the driver got it up ok phew .
In winter the garage was freezing , but not enough and we could hardly use our hands they were that cold , the boss would buy coke but not enough , but he was ok in his heated office , one winter my mate says , its too cold lets burn old oil , my dad does in his greenhouse , ok I say , we get a 1 gallon can brace it on the stack , braze a pipe from the bottom to the base of the stove , drill a hole and insert we do the same on the other side one for oil , one , for water we put inside at the bottom an aluminium plate 10 " square dish this is to heat up and burn the mixture . so gear , oil , engine oil , plenty available no probs , we set it off by heating the plate till very hot drip in some oil , drip in some water and explosion bloody hell this is great no more feeling cold . Next day, he who must be obeyed , walks in grunts looks and walks on of course he is pleased he now is saving money , so it looks like he has ok;d
it . He would treat people like something on his shoe he had trod in !!!.
Saturday lunchtime the drivers would come for there wages , he would sack men on a whim if he decided , he did not want them anymore, tell them go find another job , your no good at this one, and i would stand in disbelief somewhere in the garage listening to him shouting , the driver pleading for his job , ive got a wife and children I need this job tears in his eyes , and i felt nothing for this boss only disgust , he seemed to just love to hold the power to do it and get away with it . He once finished a driver from kidsgrove who we called shyan bodie , big man 35 yrs old , he could pick up a 900x20 completely on his own and toss it on the back of a truck , we would look on , in awe, big mate of ours eh .
One saturday came for his wages , boss says look for another job , shyan not happy at all !!!followed him through the garage, big boss picked up a jack bar me and my mate ran around so we could get a good view of what was happening ! , shyan tells him if you use that you will be in hospital having it removed from your body , me and my mate glued to the scene, hearts pumping , but big boss must of thought oops picked on the wrong one here he runs and locks himself in his office , shyan just shouts all mouth, no balls see you again boys to us and heads off , I never saw him again and often think of him a big man and nice fella to have met .
Me and my friend John finished college and have our city guild certificates . we go to see the big boss he tells us to make an appointment , we do and see him the next day at 2pm to discuss a rise in our wages now we are trained , so we tell him we are out ofour time fully trained and entitled to a raise he just says no cant afford , get in that garage and dont waste my time with a look of contempt at us . off we go and are not happy but need the job , but we decide we will look around for other work then leave .
The following week as John is seeing to the stove it burns up and Johns overalls set on fire while he is trying to put it out , Frank that worked there and myself got old sack bags to extinguish the fire as John was rolling and screaming on the floor , big boss nowhere to be seen , we got John into my car and took him straight to hospital at Congleton and he was rushed straight to Manchester , back at the garage the boss hasnt a care in the world , no mention of the accident John was badly burnt and was in hospital for months then returned home to be looked after by his parents , he never went to see him or his parents , and when at 3 months he wasnt back at work he sent him his cards to finish him , John had nothing no compensation as that was how it was then no ,health and safety applied etc , not even an apple or orange , I left also as i couldnt bear to work for such a boss , if any man needed his balls to drop off it was him !!! John passed away about 5 years after this with kidney problems and I think the shock of the accident could also be blamed just to save money on a few bags of coke for a stove that the boss had let us use . the memory of it will never go away .