hi norman…new member here. i used to park up the red lion off j16. jean was the landlady and i think bill was the old lad that took your money in the hut. he passed a few years ago. belinda worked there as well. then stuart and fiona had it. they left and she was killed a short time later in a car crash. very sad…loved your M/E stuff…jim
Thank you Jimmy, welcome to our threads, we like to enjoy ourselves, and have a laugh, quite a few photo’s on the pages if you see my name, I used the red lion myself when on Carlsberg, they used to say leave the brewery and we can say you are on the way, and I would park up, and hitch a ride home, and set out early in the morning.
hiya,
Norm when a youngster i used to push the motors i had very hard, so hard in fact you’d have thought i had wings, and if i’d ever come unstuck i would have had wings.
thanks harry long retired.
Well Harry, as It goes, " You may not be a angel, but until one comes along, I’ll string along with you!
hiya,
Don’t think i’ll ever qualify for angel status Norm, but i’d sooner help someone and sooner give someone something rather than leave them struggling and could’nt see them stuck, i was that way when on the road and if able still the same today old habits die hard.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi Harry,
You were one of the old brigade,stop and help another driver or someone in trouble. One of the other drivers that drove out of the quarries when I was driving,came along,just after the pin on the tailbord of the tipper I was driving broke and dropped about 6 ton of my 10 ton load onto the road,as I took off from a crossroads,I had just started to shovel it back onto the lorry after fixing a new pin,when he came along,jumped out of his Guy Warrior and helped me shovel the lot back on.You won’t find many like you or him about now Harry.
Cheers Dave.
Dave, we are a dying breed, but I hope me & harry do not go to soonnnnnn
Norm,
As it say’s on my signature " keep on breathing it helps " also it would be a bit quiet on here without your’s and Harry’s banter.
Cheers Dave
hiya,
Dave was very lucky during my stint as a driver never had many problems all the time i was at the wheel but there was always some nice fella to give me a fold up with the sheets or help lift them on the trailer, i’ve helped lads with jobs needing the tools was always a pretty decent mechanic, the old man was a garage owner for a while and i picked up quite a bit from his place, one haulage contractor sent me fifty quid at one time for getting one of his drivers wagons home when loaded with urgent stuff both his firm and mine was in the same town and i followed him home to make sure he made it , that was hard work for me he had an elderly slug and i had a flying machine, but it made me feel better knowing i’d helped, i must have saved his boss some money because that amount of money was more than my wage at that time i thought that was a nice gesture and i suppose having to get somebody to come out and get him mobile would have cost him a packet, the money was nice but it would’nt have bothered me if i’d got nowt, his gaffer told his driver to ask me if i wanted a job, what’s all this CV thingy about, it was always word of mouth in my time, and i reckon it was a better time. never took him up on the job offer though i’d seen his motors.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi Harry,
Thats howw it was in those days,you are older than I am,but I remember being with my Dad on lorries as a kid,everyone helped one another,it was an unwritten rule. If someone broke down,you gave them a tow home,as you did.The old hands always tried to help the younger lads,and the young lads such as myself years ago would give an older bloke a hand to fold his sheet or change a wheel,I have done that a few times,being fairly big and strong when I was younger it was quite easy to lift the heavy stuff and save someone older,nowadays its all handling and lifting,even the tyre fitters have a small crane on their trucks for lorry wheels,different age.
Cheers Dave.
It wil never go back to the old days Dave, because everyone is in too much of a hurry, to stop and give help, I have done it many times in my life, and always got great satistfaction of what I had done. One time I had finished my shift on the buses, and I saw this car broke down in front of the depot, full of kids and a wife who was giving her husband a earful. Lets get your car out of this dangerous position I said and push it into the entrance and round the corner near my car, look under his bonnet, and soon found out it was his petrol pump, he went across to a auto shop, to see if he could get one, no joy, I popped up the road to our house, pick up my tools, stripped down the pump, told him to get the spare gaskets etc, replace then put the pump back, and bingo, it was working. They was from Wigan, on their way to the seaside to a caravan near Great Yarmouth, what do you want they said, only one thing, what is that they replied, that you will stop and give aide to another family if they are in trouble, the wife said you have saved our holiday, and gave me a kiss, and they was on their way, I washed my hands in the depot, and went home for my dinner, cooked by my mum, your late son, yes I helped a family who had broken down going on holiday, that was nice of you son, for that, you can have a big piece of apple & blackberry pie, aint life great!
Hi Norm,
You are absolutely right about that,there’s always been change,in years to come,the young drivers of today will be reminiscing about there days on the road. I can remember some of the older blokes saying much the same when I was young.The apple and blackberry pie is very nice,quite enjoy that myself,now and then.
Cheers Dave.
Dave, by now you lads know I like to have a bit of fun, and when I’m with some of my bowling mates, I play them up, then I sing " If I can help some body" as I travel along, then my living has not been in vain!
Hi Norm,
I don’t know if you watch it,or not,on bargain hunt which I had a look at today,there was a set of carpet bowls,I thought of you when I saw it,they didn’t make a lot at auction,I think £50.
Cheers Dave.
Dave how could you, the next thing you will say I play marbles, No real bowls, for the big boys.
Hi Norm,
With all that money Harry reckons you have,I thought you played your bowls in the drawing room of your stately home.
Cheers Dave.
No don’t listen to Harry, I live in a small Bungalow, he has got the big mansion, even got a snow plough, that is the reason he takes his wife on her home visits, because she cannot get to them in her car, but Harry in his ex-council vehicle, with gritting facilities, get her through, I have only heard this on the grape vine, that the beach near him is getting smaller and smaller.
Hi Norm,
Could be a grain of truth in what Harry says,golf,bowls and a liking for foreign clime’s,makes me think,you may have a yacht tucked away in one of those north sea ports.
Cheers Dave.
hiya,
Can’t drive the gritter anymore Norm HGV expired and long may it remain that way, just get through using the old girl’s jam jar and pure skill, don’t know about the stately home though it’s more like tumbledown semi at the moment, it needs more work than the Mary Rose.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi Harry,
Sound’s as if you will need that pure skill,for a while longer yet,thats if the forecasters have got it right,unless they are painting a grim picture to cover their backs.I know the weather is not good,but they are saying its the worst for 100 years in some places,they never had all these camera’s and reporters around in 1963,and a few months before I was born in 1947.
Cheers Dave.