hiya,
Well Norm made a point of asking at my hotel if a Mister Norman Ingram had left me and my old lady a drink behind the bar, they said no but he had transferred a bar bill from his hotel to their hotel saying that i would pay it, rest well my friend I’ve payed it for you, and i did it with a smile.
thanks harry long retired.
Norman Ingram:
Pubs & clubs, I think old HARRY IS STUCK IN ONE DOWN IN lONDON , Review, too much of that . Sandman Norman
DIRTY ■■■■ 
.
Or was it DIRTY ■■■■’S 
. It was the name of a pub somewhere in London near The Ramp, Tooley Street I think or it was somewhere near Bishops Gate 
Lots of drivers used to go there due to the fact that it was used as a local for a lot of the nurses from a nearby hospital.
I only went there twice and it looked a bit of a hole to me. There were dead cats in display cases and a couple of cat skeletons dotted around the place. I seem to remember one dead cat being on a rope and a pulley so that when you opened the toilet door it used to move. It also made me wonder where they got the beer from as it taste like cat’s pee.
Did anybody else ever go there who are not afraid of admitting it 
.
hiya,
mushroomman did most of my London digging and boozing in the Caledonian Rd/Holloway Rd area’s up as far as Kings Cross and got to the ■■■■ at Highbury and sometimes to a rough pub in the Balls Pond Rd can’t remember it’s name now but was in there one night when a guy burst through the door and let rip with a 12 bore shotgun, actually found a fragment of lead in my leg when the police let us go back to the digs after loads of questioning,oh the pub in the Balls Pond Rd was called the Mildmay Tavern just had a flashback there, a bit too chicken to use that one again, used to have the odd pint with a guy off the tele, Arthur Mullard i think he just about lived in the ■■■■ at Highbury and a real nice guy to have a pint with he actually used to call me by my first name and he was always surrounded by gorgeous young ladies which made the beer taste a lot nicer.
thanks harry long retired.
Hiya Harry, I should of thought that you would of done the same thing as most of the Northern drivers in the early seventies and that was to try and get out of The Smoke on a Friday afternoon . I always did my best to try and get up to Luton before six p.m. as I knew there would be a few lads there who had been tipping at the Vauxhall Plant. The lorry park was only walking distance to the town centre where there were cafe’s, chippies and pubs.
It was always a six o’clock start on the Saturday morning to run up to The Blue Boar Services at Watford Gap for breakfast but strangly enough I can only ever recall seeing less than 100 lorries making there way southbound on the M1 at that time of the morning. Now have I got this figure wrong or can any other roamers or trampers confirm this ? Hopefully another T.O.G. ( Trucknet Old Git ) may remember that the companies that you saw at weekends were the ones that you would see on a regular basis. Saturday morning was time and a quarter up until midday, then it was time and a half after that and always double bubble on a Sunday, I always had my name down on the Sunday list 
.
Regards Steve.
hiya,
Steve, never stayed in Luton, delivered paint, steel and paper but never had digs there and never loaded out of there it was usually tip Luton into London or out East for a load to anywhere usually Scotland but have loaded South West, Wales even Ireland North and South via Stranraer, only ever overnighted where i knew there was good digs, and a bit of nightlife was always a bonus,and back to Luton don’t they bury their dead by standing them in bus shelters.
thanks harry long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
Steve, never stayed in Luton, delivered paint, steel and paper but never had digs there and never loaded out of there it was usually tip Luton into London or out East for a load to anywhere usually Scotland but have loaded South West, Wales even Ireland North and South via Stranraer, only ever overnighted where i knew there was good digs, and a bit of nightlife was always a bonus,and back to Luton don’t they bury their dead by standing them in bus shelters.
thanks harry long retired.
Harry, according to mine host of The Wheel Tappers and Shunters club (Colin Crompton) he of the flat cap and sardonic face, that was Morecambe
hiya,
yes Al, Morcambe, Brighton, Eastbourne,Poole as well as Luton and loads more i call them places to escape from and to avoid going to in the first place.
thanks harry long retired.
Well now Harry, eastbourne should be on your list now, for they always said that was the place for old folks, ha ha ha, but I know what you mean, after a certain time, the place was dead. Luton I never remember stopping at, because I was always at Dunstable at the Circus Tavern night club, had some good times there. Sandman Norman
hiya,
had to overnight at Malvern once great digs in a pub but all the people looked about 90 and only had one plate on for Morgan Cars got a guided tour of the works in the morning very interesting.
thanks harry long retired.
Mushroomman, steve, it was funny you mentioned “Dirty ■■■■’s”, I was in a old pensioners club on wednesday, and a chap named Barry, mentioned that pub, and about how dirty it was, and cobwebs, and something about a dead cat, I said I knew it, and had popped my head into it, and soon got it out, but for the love of it, could not be sure of where it was, I just guessed it was in aldgate eastend area. Stopped in Liverpool street, then the place burned down, the digs were a bit iffy, but went in several pubs in the seven sisters road, one Irish one, you had to get up on the stage and sing, I cannot sing, but got away with it , and sung Nat King Coles " When I fall in love" and they clapped me, they must have been as p***ed as a newt. Sandman Norman
Hi Norman as regards Dirty ■■■■’s, well like I mentioned before I only went there twice after parking up on the lorry park in Tooley Street. After talking to a couple of Draka Foam drivers from Glossop and another couple of drivers who stopped there regularly I just went with the flow as they say. Surprisingly there woz a lot of Posh Crumpet in there along with a group of Oriental Tourists. Typical night out for me really, no score, back to the cab on my own with fish and chips 
same old story different town .
I thought Dave Penn might be able to shed some light on this as he parked at The Ramp on a few occasions, or maybe he was a fish and chip man like myself 
.
hiya,
Norm, the cafe/digs in Liverpool st was Brays, i stayed in private digs just nearby and was at my digs when Brays went up in flames, it was well patronised by Suttons day and night men, bit of a dump i believe but never stayed there so can’t judge.
thanks harry long retired.
When you think of some of the places we used to sleep in years ago, hugh, Brays was the place, only stayed there twice, and it was not good, the same at london road Carlise, the cafe and food ok, but the sleeping arrangements was poor, that is why I made folding boxes and bed base to fit across my seats,and curtains on stretch curtain wire. If I found good b&b I would use them, we had afew at Blackpool and Morecombe. When I used to go to N. Ireland, I always used a b&b in Castle douglas on the way to Stranraer, the landlady was a bonny well proportioned lady with a sixteen year daughter, me and my mate Charlie, always rang up to book in, going and comming back, use to park up in the old station yard, or in the road which was quite wide, Food was very good, the bedrooms excelent, after a year, I found out the lady of the house was into rubber, one time we came back from a dance, and we had coffee, and she said can I trust you, I nodded, and she went to her room, then came back in this dress which was black and made out of rubber, it fitted to her skin, nothing else was on her body, where is charlie, he was held up in Belfast, he will probley book in tomorrow, why? well when I put this dress on, I get quite randy!. I thought to myself I have never before had a rubber on the women, only on myself. Another time a couple of years later, we phoned up, and Charlie said they are full up, but to call in , we did, and was told that we could have mother and daughters bedroom, as they was going to a dinner & dance at a big hotel, and was stopping the night. We got washed & dressed and went to a few pubs, came back and went to bed, I was fast asleep, and I was having a wonderful dream, when I woke up, and went to the toilet, and back in to bed, and I felt a girls body pressed against me, I put the light on, and it was the daughter, they had planed it all the time. At breakfast, Charlie said I do not mind the surprise, but she has got her divoice , and wants to marry me, I do not think my wife would like that, we never stopped there again. Sandman Norman
hiya,
Norm,the only time i got propositioned when in digs was by a willie wufter in Nottingham, if i had’nt walked out and got digs a couple of doors along i would have been up for murder, luckily it was an area where digs was plentiful and the first one was actually in BRS Nottingham traffic office until i called next day and did a few alterations to the digs list, thats what you might call a “rearguard” action.
thanks harry long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
Norm,the only time i got propositioned when in digs was by a willie wufter in Nottingham, if i had’nt walked out and got digs a couple of doors along i would have been up for murder, luckily it was an area where digs was plentiful and the first one was actually in BRS Nottingham traffic office until i called next day and did a few alterations to the digs list, thats what you might call a “rearguard” action.
thanks harry long retired.
I reckon if you two had one of these apiece it would keep you both apart,you are a liability together I reckon
Mais,parlez-vous Francais?
Harry, tell me, with your hand on your heart, would you have moved digs if you had been in my situation?, and on you encounter, I had a similar experience when 14, sitting in a cinema, with my mac over my knees, and a bloke sat next to me, and touched me up, I said nothing, went to the toilet, and sat at another place, and he moved and done it again, so I got my penknife out, and when he done it again, I gave him a prod in the hand, he wipped his hand away and put a handkerchief around it and went off. SAndman Norman
hiya,
Your’e right Norm if i’d have had your bit of luck at those digs the gaffer would have had to collect the motor and i’d still be there to this day.
thanks harry long retired.
Harry those are past memories, that will stick with us untill we are no longer around, but the older we get, we can sit and daydream and smile to ourselves, and someone will say whats that silly sod doing smiling to his self, and they will never know what wonderful times we had or what interesring lives we lived.
hiya,
Norm i think the old memory is on the blink as well, just been upstairs forgot what i’d gone up for came down then realized i went up for a pea in the first place.
thanks harry long retired.
Harry that happens to all of us old pensioners, sometimes I only take a few steps into another room, then go back until I remember what I wanted!