robert1952:
Mick, I got my copy of your book The Vodka-Cola Cowboy this morning in the post. I’m well into it now and thoroughly enjoying it. Deffo a recommended read, chaps! Robert
Thanks Robert. I am still waiting for mine. I have got the proof copy but not the real deal yet. Glad that you are enjoying it. Will have to meet up with you and Jazz Andy sometime soon.
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
robert1952:
Mick, I got my copy of your book The Vodka-Cola Cowboy this morning in the post. I’m well into it now and thoroughly enjoying it. Deffo a recommended read, chaps! RobertThanks Robert. I am still waiting for mine. I have got the proof copy but not the real deal yet. Glad that you are enjoying it. Will have to meet up with you and Jazz Andy sometime soon.
Yes! Perhaps we can get one in before Xmas. Cheers, Robert
Our seven day wait for the Tartous ferry in Volos became a real drag in the end. We all wanted to be on our way. We did any small repairs the lorries needed. We had walked around the town. We were fed up with pizzas and beer and we had looked at all the small boats moored nearby. We just wanted some action. Of course when we did board we still had almost two more days to hang around before we disembarked and could be on our way.
Anyone recognise the driver standing on the right in the first picture? His name may have been Barry. Thats his lorry just in the picture behind him on the right. The second photo is for Micky T seeing that he knows the inside of tanks intimately.
Hello Sandway, your photo is certainly not Barry Longden but a name that jumped straight into my head was a guy who worked for Taffy Davis or was it Duncan Macrea from Darlington whose name was also Barry. The trouble is that now I can’t remember exactly what he looked like or what his surname was but I am sure that M.& C. Jamie will remember him.
I know that I said that David Duxbury was from the Chorley area but I am trying to read the address on the door of that side locker although Charnock Richard has now come to mind. Somebody from that area (maybe Guesty 44) must know where their farm was.
Regards Steve.
Edit. The name that I was thinking of was Barry Bradshaw and now that I have thought about it it’s not him either. 
Wasnt a Macrea lorry. I have a photo of one of theirs in Baghdad which I will post later. However, I have a feeling he was from up that way somewhere. Mind you anyone from north of Watford Gap was a northerner to me.
robert1952:
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
robert1952:
Mick, I got my copy of your book The Vodka-Cola Cowboy this morning in the post. I’m well into it now and thoroughly enjoying it. Deffo a recommended read, chaps! RobertThanks Robert. I am still waiting for mine. I have got the proof copy but not the real deal yet. Glad that you are enjoying it. Will have to meet up with you and Jazz Andy sometime soon.
Yes! Perhaps we can get one in before Xmas. Cheers, Robert
Your book is a terrific read Mick and deserves to do well. We must get together as mentioned.
Anyone have recent news about Brian Holmes? The last I heard of him he was in Dorchester area.
Here are the last of my Volos photos. I have another little anecdote concerning Jeff which I will post later. I found out he came from Nottingham and was an old hand M/E driver in the 70’s. As mushroomman said recently if only those guys from way back had recorded their experiences what superb reading we would have today. This is one reason I want to jot down my own distant recollections before the little grey cells stop working completely. I take my hat off to those drivers who have real stories to tell and have recorded and published them in book form.
Just found a few more general photos of Volos taken in March 1979. No lorries or drivers, so apologies for that, but please picture us at that time wandering aimlessly around the town. No doubt the traders where pleased we were there although I don’t remember spending much.
sandway:
Our seven day wait for the Tartous ferry in Volos became a real drag in the end. We all wanted to be on our way. We did any small repairs the lorries needed. We had walked around the town. We were fed up with pizzas and beer and we had looked at all the small boats moored nearby. We just wanted some action. Of course when we did board we still had almost two more days to hang around before we disembarked and could be on our way.Anyone recognise the driver standing on the right in the first picture? His name may have been Barry. Thats his lorry just in the picture behind him on the right. The second photo is for Micky T seeing that he knows the inside of tanks intimately.
Thanks for that Sandway. Not a Centurion or Chieftain, which are what I drove, but same sort of thing. At a guess I would say that it is American 
Jazzandy:
robert1952:
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
robert1952:
Mick, I got my copy of your book The Vodka-Cola Cowboy this morning in the post. I’m well into it now and thoroughly enjoying it. Deffo a recommended read, chaps! RobertThanks Robert. I am still waiting for mine. I have got the proof copy but not the real deal yet. Glad that you are enjoying it. Will have to meet up with you and Jazz Andy sometime soon.
Yes! Perhaps we can get one in before Xmas. Cheers, Robert
Your book is a terrific read Mick and deserves to do well. We must get together as mentioned.
Anyone have recent news about Brian Holmes? The last I heard of him he was in Dorchester area.
Hi Andy. Yes, if you and Robert arrange it, let me know the details and we will go for it. Thanks for the remarks about the book.
Brian used to live just outside Dorchester, when I knew him. In fact his house was a mile from where I used to go to school, when I lived down there. Sorry, I don’t know if he still lives there anymore.
Another one from the glorious past. We certainly had more than our fair share of characters then. But of course the type of work attracted them. However, there were always a few like myself that just merged into the background and were forgotten about but were the backbone of the industry.
I only met Black Jack once in I think 1980. We ran together for a couple of days but never bumped into him again.
Hick’s had some great drivers, Dai Blunt, the three Hobb’s brothers, Denis Macarther and talking about characters how about Peter The Plater. 
I.I.R.C. the girl was from Holland and I often wonder if she was travelling with Hutpic. 
Talking of Welsh drivers. There were two owner drivers on one of the Koper/Tartous ferry crossings I did. They were twins and I think there surname was Morgan. They weren’t very tall and maybe that had something to do with what happened one morning. I was walking along the corridor on my way to breakfast when I heard a bit of commotion in a cabin. There were a few drivers there and one of the twins was sitting in a chair looking a bit shaken up. His brother was strapping his ribs up with loads of bandages. It seems he had fallen or slipped as he got out of the top bunk and landed on the edge of the chair. Cracked ribs where diagnosed by all present. The last I saw of them was in Tartous docks as the one with the good ribs was pushing the other one up into his lorry. I heard later they got the job done. Tipped their loads and returned home safely.
I think they may have gone into the tipper business when they gave up M/E work.
That rings an old bell. 
I vaguely remember that there were two twins from South Wales, one of them whom I think was called Hughie. They started to run a couple of motors, so one of them I heard worked in the office which happened to be a payphone in a working men’s club. I can’t remember who told me this but he did say that the company must of been expanding as he had put an old armchair next to the payphone.
Another classic photo taken from another thread but well worth another look.
Spot-on mushroomman. I remember Hughie but can’t remember if he was the one with the broken ribs tho.
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
Thanks for that Sandway. Not a Centurion or Chieftain, which are what I drove, but same sort of thing. At a guess I would say that it is American
As a former Chieftain driving instructor, my tank recognition tells me that the tank shown looks like an M48A1 Patton. (USA).
mushroomman:
Hello Sandway, your photo is certainly not Barry Longden but a name that jumped straight into my head was a guy who worked for Taffy Davis or was it Duncan Macrea from Darlington whose name was also Barry. The trouble is that now I can’t remember exactly what he looked like or what his surname was but I am sure that M.& C. Jamie will remember him.
I know that I said that David Duxbury was from the Chorley area but I am trying to read the address on the door of that side locker although Charnock Richard has now come to mind. Somebody from that area (maybe Guesty 44) must know where their farm was.Regards Steve.
Edit. The name that I was thinking of was Barry Bradshaw and now that I have thought about it it’s not him either.
Wasn’t Barry Bradshaw on Thor ?
bestbooties:
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
Thanks for that Sandway. Not a Centurion or Chieftain, which are what I drove, but same sort of thing. At a guess I would say that it is AmericanAs a former Chieftain driving instructor, my tank recognition tells me that the tank shown looks like an M48A1 Patton. (USA).
You are probably right bestbooties. The tracks are Yank style.
Black Jack of Hicks overtaking a log lorry whilst a bus overtakes both of them. In front of the log lorry is a car having just undercut them all up the hard shoulder. If only I had my camera to hand to record all four of them.
I don’t know about Black Jack, on Hick’s, but in 1975, I was down in Yugo and met a guy called Black Jack Vass. His point of view was that if you never washed from leaving Dover until returning from the Middle East, then you would not be bitten by mosquitoes. He was not known as Black because of the colour of his skin.
There was also another geezer, who was bloody enormous. He travelled with his daughter. She was built like a brick ■■■■■■■■■■ She could throw a wheel ant tyre up into the back of a trailer, after having changed it. More than I could do.
He was so bloody enormous that he used to get behind the wheel in the morning and stay there all day, because he could not get out of it. She would do all of the work. Running to customs, agents etc. Anybody remember them ? If not, then probably you had your eyes closed. ha ha ha
