MY LIFE SO FAR - CHAPTER 3

PAGE 111. This part of my  life l am about to enter, l am very much looking forward too, and make it work  for both of us, well we shall see. But  before the climax,l am kept out of all  the arrangements, all l have to do is
turn up at the ST Mary’s Church Ely with  my cousin as best man , he is already married ,well the night before our  marriage ,l was at my Cambridge lodgings  ,and could not rest so l took a stroll  down Newmarket road , to get rid of my jitters in my stomach those elephants are  about to stampede again, l got this fear can she coup with my tossing, and  turning at times at night when the flash backs come , old Icke Mortimer said  after all those years he sometimes wakes up in a sweat so l must expect the same  ,l am only hoping Mary can coup , too late to turn back now ,l seem to fly off  the handle at times over the least little thing at work , or with someone who  has not done things correct ,sometimes its hard to control my self ,l think of  my mates, and wonder how they are couping , all this flashes through my mind ,  life goes on ,and no time to stand and stare
. The big day arrives two thirty  Saturday 25 -3- 1950 ,the sun is shinning ,and all the flowering Almond trees  are in bloom just right for the day ,and l feel a little bit jittery, and while  l am standing waiting at the Alter l turn, and see one of Mary’s ,Arnts she  holds up a small bottle of brandy , and l could have drunk it, they all love  having a go at me . The Parson is late he is a bit under the weather with the  flue ,and a lot of marriages as well on this day to beat the tax man as well  ,the service goes well till ,l have to say my bit then
the words ,l get them  wrong ,and have to say them again so ,l quickly pull my self together, l thought  you have done worse things than this, and never failed ,get it together Holden .  Service over ,off to Star, and Rignals to have photos taken then on to the  reception at the Central Hall market street ,for the sit down ,and a dance after  wards , with the beer flowing , now my young brother in law Derrick is in charge  of this , and the pet dog ,is there as well he also enjoyed his self as he kept  on drinking the drops ,that went in the bowl on the floor under the barrel ,  poor old mike could hardly walk , he was drunk . Yes a dog drunk at our wedding  , and its the usual my family one side of the room , and her family the other ,  just waying each other up . We go around all the families , and have a chat with  everyone , the music is Derrick Dew on the
piano , and very good he was too, any  tune in that era he could play , no doubt the beer helped.. Time to pack up ,  the night is over, so to bed , well Mum , and my family catch a train back to  Norwich , me l am going to sleep with a woman in bed with me tonight ,this is  the first for both of us , l feel a bit nervous . Well in the 1950s you know all  about sex from books but it was never put in to practice for fear of an unwanted  pregnancy before marriage so a little restraint had to be practised , well the  first night of love never
happened as we were both knackered, (l know what you  are saying ,but its true no first night) but we made up for it later.

PAGE 112.  We are up  early Sunday morning to catch the train to Folkestone on Honeymoon. Now we try  to not to let on we were just married , so we picked up all the confetti out of  our clothes , but we over looked one thing our ration books we had to take them  with us , now the names are different as we hand them over ,a sly smile at the  reception of the Hotel , never mind the weather is good , now this is the first  woman in my life , and l am the first man in her life , so between us ,l can say  this, if this is married life play
on , and it was with her too, life is worth  living ,and it seems that someone has taken a ton weight off my head , four  years of hell ,now l hope peace of mind , it seems as if its started , the war  to me at the moment never happened that must be good . We take a walk along the  beach to the Leas Cliff dance hall
which is perched on the side of the cliff,  that’s the one we were band from, in my army training days, memories , then have  a look at sugar loaf hill ,it still looks a challenge to climb ,The water lifts  are working from the beach to the top of the cliff ,also, the P,L,U,T,O, station  is still there , Pipe Line Under The Ocean it was to pump fuel to the troops on  D-Day to France , another British bit of ingenious engineering . Well a weeks  honey moon , l feel ,l am getting back to being normal what ever that is , l am  a realist, and its not a
perfect world , and never will be , but what, l have  now will do for a start .We had a wonderful week , and we come home to Ely ,  with only Ten Shillings to our names , we are living with her parents, till we  get some where to live, but houses are hard to come by, and not in great supply,  we go on the housing list, until we have two children we haven’t a hope in hell  getting a council house, I am still at Marshall’s , but looking through the  paper, the local council needs carpenters, l go to see what’s it all about , l  get the job its converting a P,O,W, camp on Cambridge road, to temporary living  quarters for young families . Good pay , good hours of work, and we manage to  get one, its a tin Nissan hut, its our first place of our own, l will be able to  say what l like, and do what l like, not having to abide by other peoples rules,  not that we ,didn’t
get along with her parents ,it was the little things that  young couples liked to do together, without being over heard . My wife had a  nick name for me, this what happened, Mary’s mum said l think we will have some  supper, so l just said that’s a good ldear , she straight away said ,oh you are  always ready , well Mary ,and myself just bust out laughing , come on what’s  funny she said , well my wife called me ( eveready ) now we all have a good  laugh at my expense . When we finally moved in we find that most of the other  families are exservice men ,mostly local men married to girls from different  towns ,some were land army girls sent down to Ely on the farms ,and all around  the same age group ,its mainly getting to know your neighbour , as l am a  stranger here as most are local , Mary knows them ,ice is soon broken as  exservice men we start
swooping yarns. The banter starts to flow as most service  men we take the mikey
out of each other , l think its great .

PAGE 113. We are a  mixed lot, Army, Navvy, R,A,F. the Dog and Gun do a fare trade out of us on
  Cambridge Road ,Now talking of pubs well ,l had not been coming to Ely long when  one Sunday night we were out for a walk this was before we were married, we were  passing the Rise and Sun Prickwillow Road ,l said lets have a drink, Mary said  my dad will not like me going in a pub, well ,l am having one you can
stand out  side but she followed me in, had a drink then on our way, to finish the walk,  dad will know all about this, l said why one of our neighbours is in there, so  what, but her neighbour never told on her, you see my wife now was very  frightened of her dad, me, l couldn’t care less about anyone, no one frightens  me, what ever they say, its only words, but two years ago, if the enemy had said  some of the things then, they wouldn’t have spoken anymore, everything at the  camp was going along nicely till this Business man wrote a
peace in the local  paper calling us displaced personal, the council should move us out, that did it  ( Es sprit de corps ) of the service men we got together, and to his letter, a  lovely reply, if the paper had printed what we wrote at  first, l can say it was  not Kings English , so it was tuned down a bit, He was told we were all born in  England, and all of us fought for freedom, so he could live in peace, as he was  not in the war as a service man, he should think before he opens his mouth, it  did not stop there, some how loads of sand, and
gravel were tipped on his drive,  and could not get his car out, there was an apology in the paper from him but it  was too late. What he didn’t like was that we were at the bottom of his garden,  in the field, but he could not see us, or hear us, as there was a 20ft high Fir  tree hedge, and very densely thick ,As l have said the barons, are on the way  out, and l hope he got the message, we had a day out to the Festival of Britain,  and we got our special minted five shilling coins, and also seeing my first  steel band play this was 1951 the music was lovely, and soothing the drums were  made out of 40gallon oil drums beaten to get the correct tune. Every one made  there hut very pleasant, and as homely as possible, we had a cooking range, a  large sink, toilet, 2 bedrooms, a lounge, and a large pantry, we had saved, and  got all new furniture, but l am afraid we had a tin bath, and not long after we  had moved in we saved for a washing machine, it was a electric washer with a  little hand mangle on the top to squeeze the water out of the clothes, Mary was  proud of this, as not many
people could afford to get one, and also we started  off with all new furniture, but there were a lot of married couples starting  with second hand furniture, no shame to them, but l was lucky as l had trade  behind me , and a lot of people didn’t have that, and l could turn my hands to  anything that helped a lot, and l have a good woman at my side, she also like to  have a go at anything , winter nights l do some fretwork , and she has a go at  that and makes a cotton real box with scrolls on it , also she is very good at  embroidery , she is in the process of embroiding a table cloth .
 
PAGE 114. These tin  corrugated Nissan huts were 60ft long ,and a 9inch brick partition wall was built in the centre , so it made two dwellings of 30ft long, and 18ft wide each one was partitioned off in to two beds ,a lounge , toilet , and pantry , also a cooking range , a large sink , and toilet , but the bath we had to provide it  was a 5ft tin galva bath . Bernie ,and May Gillett were at the other end ,it was  Mary’s cousin so she had some family next door, Now in the next hut was Russell,  and Nancy Hills these were good neighbours only he was ex R,A,F, so a lot of leg  pulls between us, now one Saturday Russell, and Me were on our gardens chatting  away, when my wife started having a go at us, so l thought, right , my lady, l  picked her up, and took her in doors, and threw her on the bed, and the blasted  bed collapsed, it was a great laugh as the two ends of the bed trapped her in  the middle, so now some quick repairs, l need two pieces of angle iron, off on  my bike to Cutlacks, yes, Saturday after noon shop full of people, Butch comes  over to serve me, in those days you went to the counter, and they got what you  wanted, so l blurt this out Butch, l have just broke the
bed, l need two peace’s  of angle iron, a shop full of people, and the chuckles, l started to say its not  like that, don’t tell us, its what they all say, the more you try to explain the  bigger the hole you dig, Butch returns ,and says this will take your bouncing up  down , me l make a hasty retreat . But for weeks after that if, l had to go in  the shop ,broke the bed again (Ted), As soon as we were married we saved, and  bought our furniture, and put it in store ready for something to turn up, we  bought a complete new bedroom suite, a dinning room suite, and a settee put you  up which made in to a double bed , all this came from a shop on fore hill Blakes  was the name, the furniture in those days was called Utility furniture, we still  have the dinning room suite today 51 years on . My father in law never thought  anyone should have new furniture , lt was you can buy good second hand out of  Ely Thursday market , but that was not for me , as long as, l can save, and buy  new at least, l get the full ware ,and tear out of it , not someone’s left offs  . I have a wife, l am proud of, so she gets the best, l can buy, if perhaps l  wasn’t so strong minded, he perhaps would have talked me to do other wise, you  see the Lupson Family are a bit forceful in there ways but there hearts are as  big as bullocks, and do anything for you, so, l clash with her dad sometimes, as  l make my mind up what l am going to do, and sod other people , its a free  country, and free speech that’s what we fought for, Mary is still frightened of  her dad, she lack a bit of confidence, she has got to have a bit of push, and  shove so she can stand up for her self, she has got to remember her dad ,is not  always right far from it  We have our arguments, and a few rows, but the making  up is good, as l said May, and Bernie live at the other end of the hut to us  ,our hut is 29 and theirs is number 31 ,May and Bernie went one better than us  ,growing up behind
there sideboard in the lounge ,was a lovely big thistle it  grew to about eight feet .

PAGE 115.  The rats  used to climbing up inside the hut linings, and sliding down the other side, in  the winter we had ice and snow on the outside, and frost on the inside as well,  but we were happy to have some were to live . At this stage the huts were all  finished, and thought, l will be finished as l was only taken on to do
the  conversion work, the maintenance work to council houses, they all ready had a  maintenance staff but the Engineer , and Surveyor Mr A,E,King, and the foreman  wanted me, l did not mind the pay was good, l had to be careful what, l said  about wages, as to what l was getting, l hear that some are not getting
what l  am, l seem to be getting all the better jobs that suites me, l don’t think the  others are up to it . I get to now the store man Alf Wenham, and a ex soldier,  so we hit it off for a start, then l find out that some off the
carpenters, and  painters, skived out of call up, so l keep my distance, l might blow my top, but  there are other ex service men as well so it balance out . Now Alf introduce me  to the Rat catcher or Rodent catcher, his name Cyril Yardy what a character he  is ,loves a bit off fun, and a bit nonsense like my self,
we got up to a lot of  pranks , and lots of leg pulls . I find out that Cyril is a retained fireman he  said they were short of young men so off, l go to the station, and see what can  be done after a bout three weeks,l get a letter to report for training, it comes  easy, as l am still very fit , also at this time two other men join, l do not  now them but we soon find out, the first parade, l see they are all the same age  group as me except for about four others who were older ,there is fifteen of us  Retained Firemen, and the regular Firemen there
is five, and one Sub officer Mr  Church, and a Retained Station Commander  Kempton ,now the banter that comes out  of this lot, as most are all ex-service men, and fit, especially when we clean  the kit, and hoses, just like army days but its water that gets thrown around,  and our Churchy starts to shout like the R,S,M, we have to do a bit of school  work, to work out the flow of water , and pressures plus the size of the branch  that’s the brass thing the water comes out of . We all get bells fitted to our  houses through the G,P,O, telephones as it was then, these would go off at any  time there’s a fire, you grab your bike, and report to the station, the first  crew to arrive take the engine, or if a two pump call another crew take the  second engine . Every time we get a call we get paid so that means we live a  little better now at this time my wife is pregnant, and to quote the army saying  ,l am as chuffed as arsoles, now Mary is  as fit as a Boxer, me, l have tooth  ache, back ache you name it l get it, the old wives are saying oh you are  helping to carry the baby, it will go after the birth, and sure enough they did,  then one evening Mary said my stomach feels like heart burn, so l make her a  glass of Andrews liver salts, but later l was taking her to the Grange at nine  o’clock . Off l go home after l had seen her settled ,there was no husbands  aloud at the birth in those days, l don’t think
l slept much that night ,she was  in the Grange Nutholt Lane , you see no one had telephones in the house , so you  had to phone from a phone box to find out how things were .

PAGE 116.  Next day a  baby girl, lm a dad , both OK, as we would say in the army lm as chuffed  as  areoles, in these days it is a week before they let them come home, now, l take  second place, who cares . Now at the council depot we get paid on Friday afternoons just before knocking off time as they say, everyone opens their pay packet except me, so they say you not opened yours yet ,me no ,l dare not do  that, my wife will kill me, she knows what you ern, yes, and take the lot, now from then on they think, l am hen pecked, and frightened of my wife, if only they new, but l keep this up for a long time , you see how we started in married  life, that everything was ours, not yours ,and mine. In the mean time a friend  of Mary’s gets Married, well l can tell you they had a rough night that night,  we filled the bed with bottle tops, and holly, rotten lot arnt we, that was Mary  and Ken Halls on there wedding day, and we are still good friends . I sometimes  get flash backs to my army days, l snap if anyone says something out of place  so, l go for a quiet walk, after about an hour it usual goes away as old Ike  said it get better as time goes on, my three months to return to the army is  long gone, and Mary is not the type for a soldiers wife, but l am still on Z  reserve that means, l can be called at any time, l have never wrote to any of my  old mates in the army since we got out, and they haven’t tried to contact me as  they do have my address . Oh we did have a little excitement in Ely a while ago  a small plane on a training flight in fog nearly hit the Cathedral but banked,  and crashed in the street, it killed the pilot, and badly injured the trainee  pilot it also killed a lorry driver as well , it took the roof off a building  which l had to make emergency repairs a bit off a sad day . My wife
gave up work  soon after we got the hut, she said, l think we can live on your wages, so l  said OK, and from that day my wife has been a kept woman, but you see before we  were married, l bought her a cookery book, you now just a hint, but it paid off  there are never any left over’s, One day, l said l would like some good old  Norfolk dumplings like my Gran used to make, so Mary has a go at these dumplings  the first lot we had to cut them out of the saucepan, the next lot went in like  marbles, and came out like marbles, l think to this day they
are still on my  chest, but in the end she did get it right. Now as we have a new baby, we can  not get out to pictures together now, so one goes one day, and the other goes  the next, at this time there are three cinemas to chose from . It was my turn to  go to the cinema ,l walk across a field with cows in it then in to our camp,  well this night starlight, hands in pocket looking at a plane flying over, cow  in path laying down ,me arse over peacock l go ,cow grunts doesn’t move, me  wonder where the hell l am going, now l didn’t think it funny, but everyone else  did, all l got was, you need more water with it, with friends like them ,you  need no enemies . It seems that all the young family’s are having new babies ,  well the future dose look good at the moment ,plenty of work ,and food is more  plentiful ,and all the foreign fruit is coming in

PAGE 117. Now we already had a pram for the birth, we got it from Curry’s, High St, Ely, a Princess it was called very modern at the time, but as you now her dad comes along, l could have got a good second hand one out of the market, its our first born we both wanted the best, she was born on the 12-5-1953, we named her Rosemary. Now on Thursdays with our little Jack Russell, and Baby in the pram off they go shopping, and to meet her mates who also have babies, then the gossip starts, Ely High Street comes to a halt with prams, and mothers getting in to little groups nattering, it stops the traffic at times till a bobby comes along and break them up, At times, l pick Rosemary up she looks so fragile, l am  frightened, l might drop her. I have started with Buckingham, and Sparrow Builders now, l have said to them what l want in pay, but they do not now me, l still stick out as, l now carpenters are short around here, and there’s plenty of work around, everything goes well for a while, till one day, l get told to ease up by some of the workers, as l am doing too much in a day, l said OK but carried on as before perhaps they are not getting paid like me, anyway who cares. We build a lot of houses on this site, and the first house we built used as a store house we were lucky to get, it was my wife who really got it as her old boss was a councillor, and she happened to meet him one day, and ask her
how  she was, well she said l would like a council house, you would, yes, well leave  it with me, and as soon as the store house was completed we got it number 37 St  Ovins Green a new house, boy this was it, and some of our old mates from the  camp are around us, and l am nearer to the fire station, as we move in to
the  house l leave the firm to go to another this again, l barter for the money l  want ,which l think l am worth, l get it, this firm is named Richardson and Son  of Witch ford, get on great guns with the fellow workers as most are exservice  men, and the who’s done what, and where well its a lot of fun, as for me l am  the target as l am the only Para around here as l thought till later on in Ely l  find another one ,Before l go any further, l better tell you about our  Cynthia  and Roy Gowler who lived the other side of us, at the hut camp, you see
Cynthia  was pregnant with twins at the camp, and she thought she was late with them so a  fivebard gate was near to us in the field, and she jumped off the gate she said  if that don’t shift them l don’t now what will, yes she got her twins two boys  all OK. Then there’s me in trouble again, well this was when we were still at  the camp, it went like this, Coronation of Queen Elizabeth ll, and l have been  asked to do fire duty that night, as a procession through Ely at night with  torches so in case some one gets burnt, we will be on hand, we
are to follow the  parade with the Fire Engine, there’s going to be a lot of beer drunk tonight all  the Pubs have got an extension for the night, it looks a dry night for us, but  no it wasn’t we loaded grates of beer on the Engine to take with us, it turned  out to be a great night, at the end we all had, had enough beer to put any fire  out. If there was a call to a fire, we could have pee,ed on the fire, and put it  out.
 
PAGE 118. But before  we went home we had one or two for the road, well l can not ride my bike so l  start to walk, its a fare walk to the camp down Cambridge road, time about 2am  in the morning, now my wife is in bed with our new baby, now this road is not  wide enough for me as, l am going from side to side, l have walked three times  the distance to our hut, now singing or trying to Sing, wife sitting up in bed  feeding the baby, have you ever heard of tongue pie, well l get it ,and a few  days after, not a happy wife, well it was a coronation . On the fire engine this  day was Stan Angel, Gerry Paice, Buffy Read (driver) Sub Officer
Church, and  there was two more, l think they were Peter Tyrol and Doug Colleridge, and me.  As we settle in to our new home, and some of our mates around us there’s a lot  of camaraderie over the garden fences as we all join each other, me l am not a  good gardener, as a lot of the time, l go out doing odd jobs for a few shillings  extra, it wasn’t long before we had the bells on again so l am giving them full  cover again, l do not think the people of Ely know what we do in the fire  service, at times l have been called out at 2,3, 4 am in the mornings to fires,  some fires there are no risks but there are a lot  of fires with a lot of risk to  them, as l go through the book you will see the risks, and at some fires you get  a big laugh, l will also tell of them . Ely
fire station is a bit unique as the  fire, and police share the club room, known as The Ely Fire and Police Social  Club, and the ladies are aloud in so its nice all round, and the best thing is  we are all of the same age group except for the Officers of rank . Most members  are asked to do a turn on the bar a rotor system we have ladies nights, for the  men sausage suppers, there’s another storey . Sausage supper, yes a sausage  supper all the men sit down to this lovely sausage and mash, beans, and what  ever, now as l say the police, and firemen have a great repore between us, l sat  next to Bill Green the village policeman of Witch ford we all know very well  what a great character he is, about six foot six, and built like a tank, no one  argue with Bill, but his heart is as big as a bullock, he gets his plate of  sausage, and mash then me well no sooner my plate was down, and he had pinched  two of my sausages, all he said was there’s more than you can eat, and who is  going to argue with Bill, l am only five foot six, and on another a occasion, l  was helping Mary’s uncle at
the Shoulder of Mutton Witch ford, her uncle said  go, and stand this pint on the window at the back, this is about nine pm, and a  half an hour later, l fetch the empty glass in, Bill had, had his pint, and  carried on with his duty as village policeman, this is what it was like then,  there was no harm done but a hell-over alot of respect came out of it, and crime  was very low as Bill, and all village policemen stopped most crime before it  started . We were then called , The Isle Of Ely , with Wisbech the main town ,  and Head Quarters to Police and Fire Service and our radios were linked so we  could talk to each other on call outs, if a police

PAGE 119.  car was  around at the time they would nip in front an clear the traffic which was a big  help it saved seconds that’s a lot with a fire. The Officer in charge at Ely  Police Station was Superintendent Wells, this man had great respect in, Ely he  made it his duty to try, and know as many people as possible , and he was a regular at the club to play snooker he usually had a business man to play against as a lot of business men were honorary members . Well one day he came in  for a drink with his Dog Bobby, a Alsatian a big old boy he was, l was on the  bar at the time, and two people playing snooker, then he said ever thought of  joining the Police Force, not really crossed my mind, he said you would make a  good police officer, then l said you don’t now nothing about me, Oh yes l do that’s why, l am asking , Oh how’s that l have only just come to Ely to live as l married a local girl, and also l was in the Army before then, then this story unfolds, l new nothing of this story, and a lot of local people did not now either, it was kept rather hush hush at the time ,and everyone evolved was sworn  to secrecy . He started by telling me of this parachutist that landed at
Apes  Hall Littleport, now known as the Eddie Chapman Spy Story, a Film was also made  later about him called The Triple Cross, he told me all about it, and how M15  and S,O,E, got evolved with this, as he was the man to hold him till he was collected from Ely Police Station, after he told me the story, l said that’s nothing to do with me, l don’t now him never heard of him till now, arr well he said, l had to go to the war office a little while ago to verify what was on all  these papers related to Eddie Chapman, lt still didn’t make sense to me how it  was to do with me, then he said l have met a Major at the War Office ,and by chance over dinner we talked about Ely, and this Major asked if l might now a man that perhaps married, and live in Ely he named me, he said there’s a fellow in the fire service of that name, so that’s how you know so much about me Old Jungle Jim spilled the beans , well yes he did a bit, l asked Super Wells if he would keep it to him self as, l said l do not think it is the right time to tell  all , we shook hands on it, and left it at that. But he said l will have
you in  the Police Force, l will think about it Sir, after that he always stopped, and  spoke to Mary, and myself , l surpose he thought if l get Mary on my side l will  get him in the Force, but l did not join, soon after that the
Supper retired,  and he kept his word about me, now l think its time to tell all, which l am  doing as there are lots of things that happen to people in there lives, and do  not want people to know about , some people will never tell, but others like me,  after fifty odd years, time to let go, l have been out giving talks on my life  in the army, and fire service ,now my grandchildren want it down on paper as a  book . Well back to the Eddie Chapman Spy Story l have now got all what this man  did for Britain, he must have saved thousands of
lives during the war , how did  Eddie Chapman save lives ,well he worked as a double agent , but underneath he  was a true Britt , and why was the Film called triple cross .

PAGE 120: Pretending  to work for the Germans but all the time working for us, it started in the  Channel Islands the Germans over ran the Islands he was captured but he thought,  if l turn traitor, and fool the Germans l might get back to England that’s part  of the story, he did fool the Germans, and he did get back to
England, and  landed at Apes Hall, now the British wanted more information so he was shipped  to Lisbon then the Germans wanted to now what damage the V,l, and V,ll , were  doing to our cities, this time he dropped by parachute near the Newmarket area ,  most of the time they were on target, so when he went back he told them they  were over shooting the targets so they dropped the range, and they fell in  fields , that’s how he saved peoples lives, his story is called Triple Cross, it  goes like this, Eddie was on the run at the start of the War, for safe breaking,  he was a crook that blew safes , his gang was known as the gelignite gang , the  police were hot on his tail but he fled to the Channel Isles , that’s how he was  there when the Germans invaded The Channel Isles the Germans wanted Spies so  Eddie said OK l will be one for you, now that’s one cross, next dropped in  England Apes Hall littleport volunteered to work for us, if all charges against  him would be dropped after the War a deal was done, that’s cross two, now after  the War Eddie said clear my charges against him, sorry we cannot ,why , well  they were all burnt in the blitz, so he need not
have been a hero, that’s cross  three, so the Triple Cross, also his British code name for him was, Zig Zag but  l think Eddie Chapman did well out of the war, being paid by the Germans and the  Britt’s. Well must carry on with the story, working for Richardson Builders they  get a contract to build houses at Stuntney a Village just out side Ely, the  housing estate is Stewart Close , well this is were the fun starts, as a small  building firm we all have to muck in especially when its concreting, l really  lay it on thick at times, but one
day the tables turn, on jobs like this you  always had a spare pair of old boots for concreting, this day l could not ware  them, they were full of concrete ,and it had set hard . But lots of them took  home a brick in there docky boxes, l have nailed tool boxes to the floors, and  put grease on the handles of trowels, also painted the heels of peoples shoes,  when they were up steps, that’s funny to see two white heels walking away from  you . I have also done things accidentally, when what we call second fixing,  such as nailing door linings,
and the switch boxes next to them a nail sometimes  went in the cable, and then sparks is not a happy man or a nail through the  water pipe under the floor, then the plumber does not call me Eddie, its like  being back in the army or words to that effect . Rosemary was a slow starter at  walking but now, boy she’s making up for it now, turn your head she’s gone, and  then the chase starts she loves it, laughing, and loves every minute, all is  worth while the days in the Far East and Palestine seem a long time ago now, but  will it ever go away for good, on one of my trips to Norwich l find my old beret  ,and a few other things that l thought l should keep , such as 

PAGE 121. photos and some souvenirs from army days the beret will keep the dust out of my  hair, most builders exservice men on building sites ware there old berries it  kept the dust out of your hair, most were of the khaki colour, Mary makes all  the dresses for Rosemary, and all the knitted things as well, she buys the material off the market then run them up on the machine, she is always busy doing something around the house ln the winter time we get a lot of chimney fires, but things do not always go to plan, we normally put a ladder up to get to top of the roof to put the hose reel down the chimney to cool it down, but on  one or two occasion the fireman has put it down the wrong chimney hence a flood  in lounge or bedroom, well that’s firefighting for you, but we do clean up  after, and some houses have been cleaner after than we first went in, its still  a rewarding job l love it . After a while a place for a Leading Fireman was made  available to home office standards, there was three of us, were put foreword, it  was Peter Tyrol, Reg Broad, and Myself, we set for the exams, that was OK, now  the practical, to give answers to different types of fires that might cure ,and  how we would tackle them, when l was asked l saw a few eyebrows go up l thought  that’s blown it, the Officers on the board were highly experienced men in fire  fighting . When it was all over we had to wait for the results for about a half  an hour, then we were called in all three of us together, we then thought no one  got it, wrong we were all made Leading Firemen, great that mean more pay, and we  can take out our own crew to a fire, and do all the organising at a fire,  thinking back, as l was about to leave the army my Major said to me that l would  always be at the forefront, it looks as if Jungle Jim’s words are coming true .  Now l am turning the clock back to the Norwich blitz l mentioned a soldier by  the name of Alec (sandy) Mackintosh,
after helping to get the people out of the  Hospital in the blitz he went off to Italy, and landed on Anzio beaches , but l  never new he was seeing my mates sister Barbara, Sandy had a rough time at Anzio  beach a Yankee General was in charge, and would not move off the beach head he  nearly ballsed it up, and had
to be removed, and sent back to the states he cost  a lot of lives, but some quick thinking saved the day with a new General put in  Charge . Sandy and Barbara were married, and a baby girl named Gillian , sandy  got a job working for the Jewson family at Brackenash Hall as a gardener handy  man, a house on the estate went with the job, we became good friends ,and when  we visited them ,sandy, and me would go to his local the Bird in Hand, and chew  over the war, l think he went through hell out there, l think he liked to get  things off his chest, he loved his work in the gardens l think they gave him  peace of mind but he was also very proud of them, when he showed me around them,  and spoke as if they were his, that’s pride in workmanship, Sandy spoke about  life as if he had a second chance of living, he often said this is a wonderful  world , but a few
rotten eggs are trying to destroy it , l couldn’t agree more . 

PAGE 122. Now back  at Ely on one drill night at the station ,the Sub Officer said we are going to  do a practice drill at the Red Cross Home for physical handicap children, now  this is a test for me, as l do not now how l shall coup, as l am not a good  person at handling this sort of thing, l like to see everything perfect, but l  am human, and have feelings, l know l saw a lot in lndia, the families out there  purposely maimed there children so they become beggars in the street, but l am  on home ground now , the call came fire at the home, get the children out, well  l have never had so much fun in years. What we had to do was put the children on  to mattresses , and slide them down the stairs, it was like a carousel ride for  them as soon as we got them down, we had to carry them up stairs again, then on  the mattresses, and down again the kids loved it, then we got some of the nurses  as well, that really got the kids laughing, then from then on, l had a different  view of these children, after handlerling these children yes, l can coup. Over  the garden fence next door to us, was Bill and Joyce Casban, Bill an exnaivey  man loved a bit of fun, they have a son Michael
about the same age as Rosemary,  Bill would come out, and say l am going to bath Michael now, Rosemary would say  me too uncle Bill, so he would have one at each side of the sink giving them a  good wash. Now at another time in the summer Bill, and me would be out side  watering the garden with the hoses, and Mary
giving us a bit of lip, so Bill  gave me the low down, so both at once we turn our hoses on to Mary we drown her,  l will get you pair, and l think she will. At work on the Stuntney houses there  is a gang of plasterers The Gammon Bros, and a labourer named Ron Harrington a  Burma man we were the only two that had
been out there in the Far East so in our  chats together the Japs came up, and what should have been done to the Emperor,  as we said the Yanks ballsed it up again, you can not hang him there will be  civil war in Japan, so what, it might have been a good thing then the truth  would have been told to the people of
Japan, Ron loved getting on his high  horse, and l agree with him. There is a lot of shuttering to the out houses of  these houses the roofs are of poored concrete, all in one go, and they are sky  lights to be put in as well the shuttering to these are just a square with the  light on top but, l change the plans a bit, l make my boxes tapered this lets  more light in the out houses, so l put my mark on them. At Ely Fire Station they  want volunteers for Intercounty Competitions, we the young ones are willing to  have a go, we get all the
details what to do, then its practice, and we practice  for weeks to get the times right as we think, the competitions drills are,1- one  man hydrant drill .2- Dressing Drill.3- Running out Hoses from the Engine knock  down targets then add one more Hose and knock down more targets, The Intercounty  teams come from Sherringham Norfolk, Soak of Peterborough, Huntingdon  Huntingdonshire, Bury St Edmunds Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Rutland, and us  at Ely, of the, Isle of Ely. 

PAGE 123. Over the  next few years in the 1950s we at Ely won the hydrant drill, my team won the  dressing drill, and we always came second in the target drill , we could never  beat Sherringham, they were always first, but l think Ely Firemen have a proud  record seeing that we are only part time Firemen, These competitions were at  different venues each year, after the competitions it was beer, and sandwiches,  and pub stops on the way home, great days, and a lot of people got wet, as well,  funny how the hose goes up in the air, and it rains (well we are firemen ) while  we are still on us Firemen, we had a call out one night at a
Railway Bridge on  the Soham line between Ely, and Soham all the sleepers were alight, it was  impossible to drive across the fields so a Steam Train, and flat truck was made  available in the goods yard, we are talking about one in the morning ,mid winter  freezing cold, and one of our crew was a Fireman Doug Colleridge a very good  fireman, well we got everything on board the truck that was needed, mobile  pumps, hoses, ropes, and axes, off we go by train to a fire, On arrival at the  fire, Doug said l will get the suction hose in the drain, and see that its OK,  these dykes sides are steep, and dark at night , Doug looses foot hold, and in  the water he goes up to his arm pits, we pull him out with ropes, then the Train  Driver said come on the Engine take your clothes off, l will open the fire box,  and you can dry off, now dark at night fire box open, glowing red, Doug standing  in front of the fire no clothes on (starker’s) and we all had a good laugh that  was not a pretty sight but he kept his rubber boots on, and was never aloud to  forget it, l now call this ,(Doug’s Full Monty). At the Fire, and Police Club we  put on Dinner Dances, we paid women to come in and cook the meals , as all the  vegetables, and meat was given to us for services rendered over the year, this  is what happened in those days it was all donated by the local business people,  and farmers, that is how they thought of us, and they did the same at Xmas for  the children’s party’s, and our Jerry Paice was Father Xmas, he either came by  sledge, motor car, or space ship, and rocket, great days the 1950s. Back at work  one day ,l was sent to Witch ford School, which was the Officers Mess for the  R,A,F, to the air field in the war now turned into a school, some repairs needed  on the roof, there was about four of us on the roof fixing the sheets of  corrugated down ,now, l was trying to fix a sheet down when one of the men  walked over the sheet, l was fixing it trapped my fingers so l jumps up with  claurhammer in hand, and l was about to smash his head in, l thought woe you  cant do that, now that’s how up tight l was from the army days, l apologise but  l think it was never excepted, and the atmosphere you could cut it, after that  no one played games any more with me,
they all spoke to me but with careful  words, funny thing Not long after that, the man, and his family immigrated to  Canada, no doubt it was planed long before that happened . You see a lot of  exservice men were like me , trying to get back to normal ,what ever that is . 

PAGE 124. l have heard of cases where men from the War finding it hard to settle down, as the old  saying goes a War brings the best, and the worst out in people, and l am seeing  it now, but l am thank full l have the best wife a man can have, l often wonder  how she coups with me as l am a bit ruggered on the edges, she really complains  about anything so l must be doing something’s right, we often have difference of  opinions but that’s life, my two Brothers in Law have been called to do National  Service, They both go into the R, A, F, John goes into training to be a Load  master and Derrick trains to be a Fireman with the crash tender two important  jobs in the R,A,F, .I have had a bit of a worrying time, Mary has had to go into  Hospital for a operation to remove a ovarian cyst, two weeks in Hospital, and  two weeks down at Hunstanton to convalescing home on the sea front. Now l go to  work each day, and take Rosemary to her Mums in the
mornings, and collect her at  nights, well one night to give Rosemary something to do, l stood her on a stool  in front of the sink so she could play at washing up, l put a little water in  the sink, Bill and Joyce came out in to there garden, and asked how Mary was so  we stood talking for a few minutes, then went back in doors, l was greeted with  two inches of water all over the kitchen floor, what l did not know that she  could turn the taps on, she just said plenty of water now dad well what could l  do only clear it up, no harm done its summer anyway, happy days. Mary comes home  so she has to take it easy for a while, good living will soon put her Back too  normal again, it's not long before she’s chasing around again, we make a lot of  friends in Ely, and always out to tea somewhere, and them to see us. One of our  friends is going to immigrate to Australia Cliff and Thelma Hare, or as we  called them Bunny Hares, and we are still in touch to this day, when l worked  for the council, l was sent to a place in Silver Street the name was the Dug Out  the chairman of the council lived there Col Archer a W,W, l, soldier, a lot of  people were scared of him as he spoke with a demanding voice, l went, and asked  him what the trouble was he gave me a list that wanted doing, then l said which  ones he
wanted doing first, l want the lot done now, l looked at him, and said impossibility’s l do immediately, but miracles take a little longer, he looks at  me, and smiles then said what regiment were you in, l told him, right sit down a  glass of sherry, so we talked for sometime, and after that we became friends, l  think really he was a lonely man, we often laugh as, l told him that some people  were a bit frightened of him, he just said l do make them sit back occasionally,  One of the old Elytonions as l called him. Cyril Yardy came round for a cupper  one morning, so when it was time to go, l gave Cyril the downing , he held Mary  while, l put my hand up the chimney with soot all over my hand, l blacked Mary’s  face then with the lip stick l made her up, our bikes are out side on the  pavement, l open the doors then Cyril said lets go we both run

PAGE 125. like hell  to our bikes , and gone Mary chasing us, but l forgot l have to go home tonight  to face what’s coming. After the effesode on the roof there’s a lot of back  biting so l am on the look out for greener pastures, l just keep my ears to the  ground, I get offered a job as a regular Fireman its tempting but its
like being  in the army again, your freedom gone as it is now being part time, l still get  my freedom so l turn it down, l would have had to start from the bottom any way,  a fellow part time Fireman took the job, Gordon (nobby ) Holiday a bit younger  than me, and just married . I have also been offered a job at R,A,F Hospital  with Kerridge (Cambridge ) Ltd , doing maintenance work , and also at West Fen  Army Camp R,A,O,C, its a large firm so prospects could be good who knows . We  have holidays every year its either Hunstanton or Yarmouth we hire caravans,  which are quite big enough for a family of four at the moment we are only three  but my wife tells me she is pregnant again, must be the sea air, as the first  one she fell pregnant at Hunstanton now this one at Yarmouth, it will not bother  me , boy or girl so long as everything is OK . The wife
saves hard all year for  the holidays, a lot of the families around us never go on holiday, so the  children never get away for a break, but l do not now their surpanstances, so l  can not comment, and sometimes we just go for long weekends if caravans Are  empty at the time a friend of ours owns three vans down at south beach Yarmouth,  and we only pay the ground rent just to keep them aired as he used to say. Now  hears another little story you will like, one night in bed Mary in a deep sleep,  me l can not sleep as there’s a door at a jar, and keeps taping so l wake Mary,  and said you want to go to the toilet , no l do not, yes you do, no l do not,  and l kept on in the end you have to go to the toilet, then l said while you are  up shut that door its keeping me awake, then l get it, you rotter, ill kill you,  but we did have a good laugh, now she tells everyone about it, l love my bit of  fun . There are also hazards to being a fireman one afternoon we had a fire call  ,now on my bike, and pedalling like hell, to get to the station as time is  everything seconds count with fires so l am going up this narrow road, and at  the end is a main road l start to go across without stopping a lorry coming  towards me l throw the bike to the ground, me roll to the curb lorry wheels go  past my head he screech to a stop, me l jump up crabs my bike , and carry on,  catch the engine on our way to a fire which happened to be a land fire, then l  start to shake its like the first time in just before the action, l thought hell  that was close too close for comfort, but in stead of a land fire ,it could have  been a house fire you never now till you get there . There’s a cold war with  Russia boiling up we at the Fire Station get shown how to use Geiger counters,  and have to mark all water ponds, lakes, and rivers on maps in bold print at the  moment its a stand off
situation if an Atomic bomb was dropped in the area we  have a ten mile fire zone to coup with, not a nice 

PAGE 126. thought,  so we are told to keep it low key, to stop panic, and scare mongering, a thing  like this soon get stretched, and before long the Russian planes are on there  way, so mums the word, the Korea war has come, and over, l had been on Z reserve  but was never called, l feel relieved at that, perhaps the Army thought l had  done my bit, l have decided to go, and work for Kerridge Ltd, l start at Ely  R,A,F Hospital, the jobs are good, Nice clean working conditions, and everyone  very friendly, and there is a work force, that work for the Ministry, they are  engineers who look after all moving parts in the hospital. We repair windows,  doors, curtain rails, and build new extensions, after a while l am sent to West  Fen Camp Army, to do all the repairs there, this is a big complex of huts full  of stores, you name it they have got it, lots of repairs to do so
l am quite  busy, but its just up the road from were l live, so l just roll out of bed, and  l am at work, it suits me, and l can have a bit of fun with the Army lads that  are there, and being An old soldier as they say, l get to be
hounery member to  the sergeants mess so that’s nice, and go to most dues in the mess . There are  tramps, and tarts nights, buffy dancers, and sports days Army against the R,A,F,  also at this camp is a famous speedway rider doing his national service his name  is Pete Craven a Belle Vue rider . We now have
another baby girl, this one has  ginger hair, so two girls now, and all OK me over the moon, l build a big green  house to keep my Cacti in, as l collect them , and show them at the Horticulture  shows, at the moment, l have about three hundred different ones, its a nice  hobby, Mary only likes them when they
flower, and some have big beautiful  blooms, and some are highly scented, Now Mary’s has taken up cooking to enter in  the shows, as l show my cacti she puts in cakes in the cookery classes, and  she’s winning more prizes than me, so buying that cookery book was a good  investment . All around our estate at ST Ovins Green the families all have young  children so they are all growing up together, now l have to cut down on the  things, l like doing such as one or two nights having a drink at the club or  going to football matches, that’s not a hard thing to stop but, l still do odd  jobs to make a little money on the side, you must remember no child allowance in  these days, you had your children you had to keep them not the state, and when  it did come in the first child never got it . One night we get a call out to a  chimney fire in the fens l will not say where, as it would be portraying a  trust, all l will say, it was a farm house in the fens, and the chimney was well  a light, in these old places sometimes to take the weight of the chimney a big  oak beam is built in ,this
had caught light, the Officer in charge said go up in  roof, and check the chimney up there so up, l go ,now around the chimney was a  lot of tin boxes the old smiths crisp tins, about dozen, so l open one, and it  was full of white five pound notes, a lot of people did not believe in banks,  but we had a War , did he sell stuff on the black market , l told the Sub  Officer discreetly , and

PAGE 127. he  said  keep your mouth shut so, l did, but you are saying why did l open them well,  when a chimney is on fire sometimes the mortar in the roof powders through heat,  and the chimney cracks, and let the flames through in to the roof so everything  is checked, a fireman is one of the only people allowed to break into anything  without a Warrant they usually have an open order for this kind of thing. Back  to my wife l love teasing her, so sometimes, l go to bed first, and l leave her  reading a good book, so before she comes to bed, l get her night -dress, and tie  it into knots, so when she comes to bed she has to untie it, then its tongue  pie, l just laugh , then she says you think it funny, well l don’t lm freezing ,  winter or summer she never go to bed without her nighty, l must have done this  hundreds of times over the years. The cold war with Russia is hotting up, we are  at the fire station taking delivery of Green Goddesses, they are green fire  engines built for Atomic war, and also special lorries with alloy pipes on these  are about twelve feet long, and six inches diameter, these clipped together to  form bridges across the roads to repair water mains supply, they had no end of  uses, and we also got bikinis these were inflatable boats, blown up with a high  presser cylinder, then we put a pump on them this was also the motor that  propelled us along in the water, if the water was not deep enough at the side of  the lake we use one of these get to the middle, and pump water to the side of  the lake, all cleaver stuff, the people who were to man these are the A,F,S,  Auxiliary Fire Service, these are unpaid men volunteers but in a war they would  be paid, President J,F, Kennedy has told Russia to take her rocket missiles out  of Cuba, this has created a storm, l have been sent to the old R,A,F Mepal site,  to do a survey to the drains in a certain part Of the old airfield, and clear  the ditches, and rebuild out falls,
and trace water, electric mains. A firm has  come in to put up chain link fencing around the area, its nine feet high, and  razor wire to the top, next job Sutton Bridge Air Field take down two barrack  huts, and transport to Mepal, and erect for guard room, rest room, and toilets,  the other hut sleeping quarters, and kitchens, dinning rooms, l now have been  made foreman with a lot of men to control, well this is were my army training  come in ,and that old Major said l would always be at the fore front, that old  sod is right . We now
get all the gen, this site is going to be a Thor Missile  site with three Thors on it, looks as if Dan Dare Comic is coming true , these  are the brain child of Professor Braun who built Hitler’s V,II,rockets, and is  now working for the U,S,A, . These bases have to be built at breakneck speed as  the cold war is very touchy, Russians are far from happy over being told take  your rockets back, the World War Three is hotting up . We are working round the  clock by floodlights to complete the three pads , to operate these missiles , we  are
training Pilots , and Navigators that are coming to the end of their time  for combat flying

PAGE 128. flying , they were all sent to America for training, and firing of the missiles,  these missiles will reach Russia easerly. We are building three pads here, the  same around East Anglia on old R,A,F Airfields, next thing security passes, this  is a dual process with British ,and American intelligent services, most workers  get passes to go in certain areas, some are not allowed in buildings, l get a  call to Feltwell H,Q, there l am asked certain questions, then l am given a full  pass, that means l can go anywhere no questions asked, but l am not the only  one, some one has to go in restricted areas, to do maintenance, after a while  there was one Yankee Officer, who said care to tell about yourself, no the fifty  years not up yet, OK ,l thought you must know quite a lot about me, for giving  me a full pass, he was just probing, l got my pass who cares, and A Full one, so  Sodom l am not a great lover of Yankees anyway. Now the protesters have started,  laying across the main gate, and trying to pull down the fencing, these pratts  do not realise that these
missiles might save there lives, they call them selves  the C,N,D, some have never done a days work in there lives, and never will,, the  Leaches of society that are paid for doing nothing, while other people work, and  pay taxes to keep them, l can see one these protesters getting hurt one day. Its  going to be fun when the missiles arrive there with be a armed guards here, full  time that might just deter them ,its going to be the R.A.F. Regiment, now one of  the pilots that’s done his training, he was a Spitfire pilot in Burma, now he  has
gone on to Meteor jets he often goes to R,A,F,Waterbeach ,and go for fly around, and come over us at low level, the pilots name is Nobby Clarke, as you know all Clarkes are nick named nobby, we often have a chat about the old days, he reconds he’s staying in till they kick him out, the control cabins arrive, these are of duel key operated, one British Officer, and one American Officer so  no one man can fire the missiles, that’s for safety, and l get to look inside  its just like Dan Dare ,and Star Wars, dozens of dials, and red and green  lights, most of the workmen have left, leaving just a few to do maintenance  work. Then one day we called to one of the huts for a lecture, this is to give  us some nollage of liquid Oxygen, and the fuel they use, the fuel is
nothing  much to worry about but the oxygen that’s different, this fellow got a daffodil,  and put it in a glass of liquid oxygen then pulled it out, and tapped it on the  table it just broke into hundreds of pieces, then he said that could just as  easy be your hand, and also if some was on the floor do not kick it as it could  explode, and blow your foot off, then he light a cigarette, and gradually put it  near to the oxygen, and it soon burst in to flames, the big day arrives, the  missiles are on there way from R,A,F Feltwell on a big transporter made  purposely for the rockets, they are ninety feet long with steering at the back  this is so that they can get around tight corners easy , and into the gates at  Mepal , the movement of these missiles was kept hush hush

PAGE 129. and the  protesters are too late, they go straight on to the pads, and in position then  the Mobil huts on rails come straight over them, all hid away, now the wiring up  to the control cabins begin, and then under cloak, and dagger movements the war  heads arrive, they are stored in a concrete building about
twelve feet square,  and about ten feet high full of electric alarms, but the walls are only six  inches thick, l ask why so thin walls, Well, they said, if they explode ,for  twenty miles around every one will be dead, so why build thick walls, yes l  suppose he was right . The S,A,S, were given the job to break in at any time, to  keep them on there toes , l only saw them once try to break in, they all got  caught by the guards, then to get there own back the guards hand cuffed them,  and stood them near the wire, and got the fire boys to drench them, l can assure  you that language was not of Sunday school teaching, in the end they all sat  down to mugs of tea in the dinning hall, and a few laughs. Now since the  missiles have a arrived there is no smoking anywhere out side the huts, you can  smoke inside the huts at the main gate but not down on the pads, anyway all  cigs, and matches are taken off you at the gate, too much liquid oxygen about,  and being vented on the pads While all this has been going on l have had a  driving test l past the second time, l for got to go to the post office to get  my army one transferred to civil driving l let it lapse to long never mind l  have it now, its a bit more freedom, the next thing l buy is a car, but the wife  says its a box on wheels, its a 1932 Austin seven, we travelled all over in it  Norwich, Yarmouth, Hunstanton, the children loved it as it meant more time at  the seaside. One weekend l get a fire call at night, one of the huts at the army  camp is on fire so away we go, its a two pump turn out, as life is at stake so  we thought, but no life was in danger, anyway the
roof was exploding as it was  asbestos it was going off like a gun well we try to save it so l put a ladder  up, and up l go, l shout is the electric off yes, OK , as l put my hand on the  wall, and touched some wires, bang l got a full surge off power nearly knocked  me off the ladder, l yelled that bloody electric is not off l just got hit from  it, so now every- one stops what looked like the mains to this hut was not, the  supply to this hut came from the other hut next to it. After that was sorted we  got on with the job, and put the fire out, a another near miss for me . When l  got home, and told the wife, she said that she was thinking all the time l was  out as it had crossed her mind that something might happen. l get called back to  Ely Hospital, and l get offered
the job as Foreman over the Ely area as the  fellow in charge is going to Cambridge at the office to work, l said l will give  it a go, l will now have about fifty men to control l know most of these men,  and we get along OK but now l have to be a bit more firm, as there are always a  few skivers, l get to know all the all the Ministry men who control the  maintenance on these sites , and there’s one man a real (Walter Mitty ) but he  is very good at his job , but he romances about things , so l go along 

PAGE 130.  with this,  but the tales he tell are out of this world, he has played The organ at  ST,PAUL’S London, caught Sword Fish in the Red Sea, and own a Lagonda car, but he rides a Moped, all are harmless fantasies, his name was a Mr G. Robert’s. But  as a civil engineer he was on the ball, l liked him as l learnt a lot about ground works, and how to repair concrete floors, and easy ways of making falls in drains, he is my first ( Walter Mitty ) he had a Sword Fish blade in his Office, and he told people how he caught it, but he had never been out the country. l get the job to bring the operating theatres up to standard as these are built in the War, I have exactly one month to do three months work, this means working around the clock, and planning different trades at different times, and its got to work, this is my First test, well the rocket base was on  time, so why not this, l love a challenge anyway. The very last people to come are the wall tilers with 18x18 square green matt tiles, it goes like clock work,  and we are about four hours in hand. One of the R, A. F. Surgeons come to see  how we are progressing, this man a bone specialist, he made a remark, just
come  to see where l spend half my life, then he said, l don’t suppose it possible to  have a small shelf on one of the walls, l said ask this man who was a ministry  Officer, now this would cost about five pounds, the Officer said no its not on  the schedule for it He turn to him, and said ( now at this time a bomber was  flying over one of those new jet bombers) for five pounds l am saving lives,  that plane crashes today, they will replace it tomorrow, cost millions, no  justice, off he went, We do just finish on time, l get a letter from the  ministry thanking me for completing on time, and the operating theatres working  again. I was rather surprised at the men l did push them, and the materials were  always there waiting to be fixed, I still have the missile
base to look after,  and the protesters are still there, there’s a new C,O, of the base now a bit of  a lad for a game he was a war time flyer, he said to me do you think this  entrance around the main gate needs cleaning, yes Sir l said, l new what’s on  his mind, l said a good hosing down should do the trick, l  think you are right  Holden he said, so off he went . Next thing, the fire engine start up guards at  the gate C,O, gave the order hose this area down, now the protesters have not  cottoned on yet, all of a sudden its water everywhere protesters in the way ,  they get it now, at fifty pound presher it knocks you down, so we have bodies  rolling all over the place, big cheers all round, well its the first bath this  crowd has had for weeks, and they can’t complain as they are on ministry  property, and shouldn’t be on the road side, and not near
the gate , they don’t  have a leg to stand on (pun)ha ha . ln bed one night , there was a moth flying  around the electric light bulb, l put up with this for a while , as l was  reading in bed , you know the feeling if something irritates, the temper gets a  bit short , so l lean out of bed grabs me pants , and throw them at the moth ,  miss , but hit

PAGE 131. the light  break the bulb, and fuse all the lights, now l have to get up fix the fuses, new  bulb, wife laughing her head off, me l sent the moth to heaven . I do one or two  armisters parades for the Fire Service, and of laying the wreaths, l wish they  would change the month from November to June or July, boy it's cold standing  around. Work keeps coming in at the hospital a regular flow of jobs, l get them  all sorted, and put them on bull dog clips for the different tradesmen there is  no need to keep asking me for jobs all they have
to do is to take the next one .  The hospital is gearing up for Atomic War l  have orders to convert a building  into a decontamination centre, and in the main corridor we are cutting holes in  the floor through to the ducts
underneath, and steps down, then place purpose  made covers over again, this is  to put as many patients down as possible, what l  can gather is that we only get  a 15 minute warning, so there will not be many  patients got down there, a bit  of a waste of time, and money, but it looks good,  and it shows we are doing
something. All the ducts in the hospital are ten feet  wide, and six feet six high, all there is down there is all the main services to  the hospital, and its all below ground level, but if a high pressure steam pipe  was to fracture with the blast, it would kill everyone down there. Down at the  army camp l get a call to repair the parade ground square, so l put in a call to  Darby’s Tarmac Department, they send me a man to take a look at it, being an  ex-service man l now you never walk on a parade ground without permission from  God, who’s he well that’s the R,S,M, or Regimental Sergeant Major, no one goes  walking on that not even the C,O, that’s Gods sacred ground as he would say,  that’s where soldiers are made, now this little man arrives, and straight on to  the square, then a voice booms out, and where the hell do you think you are  going, now this
little man l don’t think he has ever been spoken too like that,  he stops, then the R,S,M, arrives he said come off my square now, this little  man comes back, and God Dresses him down, that’s my square, you or anyone are  not allowed on there with out my say so . l explain to the R,S,M, what we are  proposing to do, he said, over to my office, and we will talk this out, in the  mean time l find out his name, Harry Godbolt, now Harry get all the does, and  don’ts, and is told clear my square before last post each night, and not to  start before
reveille each day, yes Sir says Harry in that cockney brogue, he  turns to me, and say you weren’t on the square , no Sir l am exarmy , oh that  accounts for it , then l told him , at one time l was drilled for a big parade  guard of honour , by the one , and only R,S.M LORD , his favourite saying was ,  there are two lords one up there ,and l am the bastard one down here, and while  l am drilling you , the one up there is not going to help you , so get it right  then we will both be happy, well Harry and team arrive ,and repairs done in  record time , the R,S,M, a happy man , now this Harry 

PAGE 132. arrive,  and repairs done in record time , the R,S,M,a happy man, now this Harry Godbolt  will come up later again , its a small world . The bells go at about midnight,  out of bed down the stairs on my bike fire call, and its always midnight just  when you are just dosing off, this time we are off to the NO HURRY INN, its  between Streatham and Wickham when we arrive its well alight, and its a thatch  roof with corrugated sheets on top of it, we do have some stupid people around,  now this is going to be a burn out as no way can we get to the thatch, from  putting water on the roof as it will just run off so the  fire has to be tackled  from inside upwards if we can, the locals have got the furniture out as much as  possible, but they did save the beer so someone got it right. It is going to be  hard job to try to save it, l get a ladder put up to
the bedroom window ,too hot  to go in, so l sit straddle the window cill, and stick the hose through the  ceiling, and try, and flood the roof space, now , and then l spray the bedroom  but the heat is just turning it into steam, our  Nobby Holiday, has a fire hose  playing on the walls to cool them down he walks around to where l am, he plays  the water on the walls then he hit me full blast up the back side l am now  soaked through, out come the barracks lingo, you stupid looking bastard, l am  now wet through, he just says sorry mate didn’t
see you, we have a fire the  flames twenty feet high its like day light, and he cant see me, l shout bull  shit, he said l don’t like roast pork, then we laugh it off, we can’t run out of  water as the pumps are pumping from the river right next to us, l am wet on the  out side but before we went home we were wet inside as well, as the publican  said l have no pub now we cant let it waste, yes l am sorry to say that it was  impossible to save, l think a new pub was built on the same spot. The army pulls  out of West Fen Camp , one or two of the lads have married local girls there’s  one in pertickler soldier, every time his girl came to see him at the camp he  was always in the guardroom for doing something wrong, that lad turned out to be  a very good Ely citersan he ran a butchers shop, and made it a family bussiness,  and all the lads made good in, and around
Ely. The land now where the camp is on  is taken over by the council, and a housing estate to be built on it, changes  are taking place all over the country a new era is coming people are demanding  that they get the best living they can ,not the workers getting second best, the  barons on the way out, the unions are
fighting for a weeks notice terminate  working with your boss , instead of one hours notice , the rule of fear has gone  , and workers spoken too like human beings , and asked to carry out work in a  civilised manner , this national health service we have now , is proving to be  the greatest thing in the world , no one else has it , another British First . l  change my car to a Morris 12 its much bigger , the girls in the back can sleep  on long journeys if they want too, now the first car if you went through a  puddle of water you got your feet wet , this one if it rains you get wet ,  through 

PAGE 133. the girls in the back can sleep on long journeys if they want too, now the first car  if you went through a puddle of water you got your feet wet ,this one if it rains you get wet ,through out so you put an umbrella up ,but at least we get from A,to B easy. The Unions are fighting for a weeks notice to terminate
  working with your Boss, instead of one hours notice, the rule of fear is gone, and workers are spoken too like human beings ,and asked to carry out work in a civilised manner, this national health service we have now, is proving to be the  greatest thing in the world, no one else has it, another British first.. We go  to Norwich, Yarmouth, and to see Sandy, and Barbara at Braconash, also trips to  Thetford Forest, and wild life parks. Christmas is on us again, and its time to  get rid of the scrap metal at the works that we have saved up on site, so we pile it all into the van, and off we go see Roy Seymore scrap merchant now what ever we get in cash goes towards a Christmas party at Our work shop, get Whisky,  Gin, and Sherry, the wife makes sausage rolls, mince pies, on the afternoon of  packing up for Xmas we have our party. But in the morning, l have been all  around the wards in the hospital, and the opps theatre, they all have little  party’s going so in each one l have drink, now by dinner time l am very relaxed  other wise nearly pissed, and life feels better already back at the works they  have already got things going, and another few drinks l am in no state to drive,  so the van driver takes me home dump me on the lawn at the front of the house  manage to get to the back door, then Derrick arrives, and start talking l go to  lean On a wall that is not there nearly fall down Derrick grabs me, and lean me  against the wall. In the mean time my daughters come home from school the wife  says take your dad around the block to try, and sober him up, l don’t think it  worked, in the end l sleep it off, next morning l have a head ache, and l don’t  feel too good but l dare not say anything, as she will  only say serves you right  for drinking too much, no sympathy there. Now to get my car, l have got to walk  two miles to the R,A,F Hospital to get it with a splitting headache, and a  wobble tummy, its the same old story never no more, till the next time. We get a  call out to a fire at Wilburton just out side Ely this is about two in the  morning, all the message is house fire when we get there the roofs on fire, and  bedrooms, so up with the ladders up l go with a hose, and its freezing cold, l  am up this ladder aiming water through the window, and on the roof also some of  the others are doing the same . But what l didn’t know that l was being froze to  the ladder, my feet are froze to the rungs, my coat is froze to the ladder, l am  now stuck up this ladder, so l shout to my mates, as l thought they were, try  ,and get me loose, no not them, stay there till the summer comes there answer,  thanks pals, l love you too , with friends like them who needs enemies, my turn  will come. 

PAGE 134. Freezing  at the back , and cooking at the front , and my feet l cant feel them that’s  fire fighting for you, the thing is that people in cozy little houses, never  think what might be going on in the world around them, such as a fireman getting  up in the middle of the night going to a fire, or a tragedy that’s happened in  the freezing cold, or on a summer night, or any of our services that we depend  on. New houses are to be built at Ely Hospital, some for Officers ,and also for  other Ranks, the Officers houses we build first that’s
my job, and a young  Foreman of Trades for the Ministry, is looking after them on behalf of the  Government, a Mr. Malcolm Hart we get along together nicely, at this time a  young plumber had just started up in Bussiness in Ely, and was looking for work,  he approached me to see if l had anything going, he came at
the right time the  right place, l said for a start you can fix all the guttering ,and down pipes to  these houses. Then he got more, and more from our firm the rest is history his  name is Trevor Benton, and a friend ship has lasted, for at least forty-five  years. For the new other Ranks houses our firm brought in a new foreman, and  also a new clerk of works was sent down from London for the ministry, our chap  is Ted Carter he has been running council house building for the firm, he has  the nick name of tear arse Carter, As he likes things done yesterday, but in a  real world that does not happen. Now to  be a foreman you have got to be one step  a head of the inspectors on site, Ted and Myself are not one but two steps a  head, this Londoner thought he would be clever, l will show these country boys,  well things went well till a load of first floor joist came, up comes this  cockney looks at the timber, and then turns to Ted don’t unload that l am  condemning it, its not good enough , Ted said OK takes the driver to our office  rings his firm, the firm agrees, to send another work horse, and driver, Ted  said take the load to a lay-by uncouple wait for the other chap, and send him  back here, all this was done, now back on site the cockney looks at the load,  and OKs it, this is the same load of timber but different driver, so much for  these Londoners trying to learn us how to suck eggs. When the houses were  complete, and handed over to the ministry, Ted turned to this Londoner you now  that timber you condemned, yes he said, well Ted said you passed it when it came  back an hour later, oh but it was different driver, yes l now but the same load,  you want to get up in the mornings to catch us, you see we don’t catch sparrows  on chaff we feed them on corn, and you got caught on chaff, then Ted walks off  laughing, while all this work here is going on we are building around the  country side, Royal Observer Posts, but these are under ground, they are built  to a frame work of every six miles apart as the crow fly’s, this is in case of  Atomic War these are a one room places of about twelve feet square , and ten  feet high all 

PAGE 135. underground , with phones, beds ,and food, plus a periscope, compass ,and Geiger  counter, building them in queer places, the side of ponds, in marshy land, in  peoples gardens, and in the middle of fields, One that we built was in marsh  land at a place called Manea, we excavated the hole then we had to keep pumps  going day, and night till the concrete set, now we have built a box like they  did for mulberry harbour, and floated them across the channel . We got this post  built, and ready to concrete the roof on the next day, during the night a  watchman should go, and top up engines with diesel to the pumps, but  this night  he slept through the night, so next morning we see our concrete box  floating on  top of the water as the pumps have stopped, so its, pump out the  hole, or we  will have a mulberry harbour . We pump it out, and it sinks to the  bottom, but  this time we fill it with water till the roof is on, all good fun  in the  building trade. Now we try to keep this mum, but someone opens his  mouth, its  out of the bag, and its not long before we get phone calls wanting , to now the  price of concrete boats, friends like them you need no enemies . Well summer is  with us, and the dreaded land fire calls will be coming in, l say dreaded, as l  think these are one of the most dangerous fires to tackle, the farmer set fire  to the straw on the field to burn it off ,then on this
black farmland its peat  underneath, and you can not see it, so we spray the ground in front of us, and  if steam comes up then we pump thousands of gallons in to it, till the sides  collapse then its a pit of red hot ash, if anyone fell in one of these pits it  would be 100% burns that’s why l say they are most dangerous fires, also it can  take days to finally say that the field is completely save to walk across, me l  can not see why that all this straw, could not have a better use, like cutting  it up finely, and make compost, then return it to the land. Back at the hospital  l get a call to see one of the ward sisters , some of these ward sisters like to  pull rank, the typical Maggy Thatcher, of this time, but at this time Maggy  wasn’t heard of, well over l go ward sisters office, one wrong move, l did not  knock on the door, so l got the full treatment, she is a two ringer next one to  a squadron leader, she speaks to me as if l was a little boy, who can be talked  too how she thinks fit, after her blast on all cylinders, l just stood there,  she knows nothing of me, l look at her ,and said, what’s your problem ,got out  of bed the wrong side this morning, and she said what make you think that, just  your attitude to me just for not knocking on your door to the office l just made  a mistake, back came the answer, l never make mistakes, is that so ,you have  now, you can wait for your repairs to be done till l have done all the other  Wards, you can’t do that, l can, and l am, you see a few years ago l would have  had to stand to
attention when speaking to you, but l am a civvie now ,and l am  in charge ,oh we will see about that, l will speak to Matron, suit your self,  walks off . 

PAGE 136. Later that  day a call from Matron, what’s this between you, and one of my Ward Sisters, l  said if she had been a daughter of mine she would have been over my knee, Matron  laughs then said l think she has learnt her lesson, can you pop back, and see  her, right away Matron no problem, good she said, l then went  straight back to  the ward, she chooses her words, then after she told me what she wanted doing we  chattered in her office, l told her that Matron had phoned me, so you got some  of Matrons tongue, no we had a laugh at your expense, she thought you might have  cooled down now, you see most men that are civilians
now, who were in the  services a few years ago, and been shouted at, but now we are not going to be  spoken too like that ever again, l was lucky l had a good Officer, and in a  small group we had no time for shouting at each other we got on with the job we  had to do She then asks what l was doing in the army, it
would take too long  now, must get back to work, and away l go. This little effesode gets around the  Hospital, its now who got told off by Sister then, you should knock on doors ,  who do you think you are, just another thing to live with it will pass, I get  another call to the Office of, Wing Commander Hudson he is the, Gyno to all the  lady’s , l arrive, and then off we go to see what he wants in the opp theatre,  on our way down the corridor he puts his hand on my shoulder, now he is a tall  man six foot six, me a foot shorter, on our way we
meet some of his patients all  rather big in front, as we approach them he says out loud OK girls go, and get  your nicks off l will be there shortly, l can now feel the red coming up at the  back of my neck, he looks at me, and said oh they love it , being spoken too  like that, they would not be in that position if they didn’t like it . I parked  my car at the front of the hospital main entrance, as l was there to measure  curtain track for the Matt Ward so off l go, now when l come back to the car l  find a pair of lady’s briefs on my steering wheel, its either the Wing Commander  or two horrible little work men l know, by the name of Eric Searle, and George  Grey, they love having a go at me, they all deny it they would wouldn’t they.  But l try to get my own back, and l
mean try as you will see, l had a job to do  in the boiler house now in the tower they kept there tools in there, and other  people as well, so doing a bit of welding l thought right you pair NOW’s my  chance, no one about so in to their little work shop l go tool boxes l find,  there’s a vice on the bench so l get spanners , lever bars, and screw drivers, l  weld them in to a tree held tight in the vice it looks like a Christmas tree,  but these tools are not Eric’s or George’s l have welded another workman’s tools  but he is not a happy man, so keep mum, so does Eric, and George, that’s life,  they laugh there heads off, you thought you got us didn’t you . But l got caught  out with this pair, they came to the work shop for 

PAGE 137. me to drill holes in some tins at the top, l thought they were for putting paint   brushes in, well all drilled, the pair collect them, and take them away, but at night when it’s time to go home l get in the car, and there’s an all mighty rattle at the back of the car as l pull off, it's these bloody tins l have drilled are now trailing behind me (they got me ) the sods . The winter is coming, and l have made a sledge for my daughters they are both at school when the snow comes, the wife takes the sledge to meet the girls, and off they go to
  cherry hill with all there friends they have great fun, but l take them at weekends, and go down with them reminds me of the times, when l used to go down the hill at home sitting in an old front mud guard of a car, and can’t stop at the hedge, and going straight through, happy days . The other day l got really down, l thought the world was all against me why, l don’t know why, l think of old lcke at Norwich, and what he said it will ease as time goes, l think more about capital punishment, the Romans crucified, robbers, murderers, and people who disobeyed there laws, we Hang them for the same reasons, both are barbaric, l am not against capital punishment there must be a better way, if a dog kills a  person, we don’t hang it, we inject it, why not humans they are going to die anyway, and also three jury trials, as a lot of innocent people have gone to
the  gallows. I expect there are a lot of people saying old Ted Holden hasn’t a care  in the world, lots of times you have got to put a front on, and get on with  life, l tell you old Ted Holden does care, and think a lot about the people l  released from those camps, l never got to now any of them at the time, but l am  getting to now more of these people as a lot of them live in and around ELY area  they must be going through more hell than me, so snap out of it Holden , and Get  back too normal, put on a brave face, and enjoy life. I get a phone call to  report to Cambridge, and to help out in, what they called small contracts  department, yes l except as its a big rise up the ladder, l am now a contracts  supervisor, by the time all these small contracts are added together there’s a  million Pounds worth, well lets get stuck in, and get it sorted, no men to do  the work no nothing, so off first to meet the costumers, the Brewery Architect,  then the Total Petrol Station Architect. I meet the Brewery Architect on site at  Ely, The White Hart Public House. This place is to be guttered out at the  bottom, now this is a three story building, and the weight up there some fast  calculations to be done, we are talking of a maybe four houndred year old  building, its an old coachhouse pub, first job get the
publicans out First in to  a hotel, and a temporary bar set up in the old stables, and it's called the  stable bar. Next thing put the word around that l am looking for labour the  first lot turn up, l look at them, l think they came to me as no one else would  employ them, and neither will l, so still no men till a young carpenter come  along just out of  

PAGE 138.  apprenticeship , let him look at the plans, he said looks an interesting job, but he wanted to jump a step higher, we chat what’s he’s done, and the firm he work for, its an old established building firm of Ely l gave him the job as site  foreman, now l want brickeys, he said l know of some, but l want the best yes  these are very good right get them on site, and a good chippy, yes l know of one  right get him, then good labourers turn up we now have a good team, this young  foreman is call Gerald Pasfeild, and after one week l could see he was going  places, job going well, till all the walls on the ground floor were demolished  the building is now held up on timber pins, and wedges, only the outside walls  standing, l got a phone call to report to the white hart immediately, its going  to fall down, rubbish that’s my answer, but l did go to see now, the architect  had been to see it, and thought it would fall down, to pacify him l take him to  a out of town to a pub, and got him drunk, this mans nerves are in a right  state, he should be off the job, and then his firm found out, and sent him home  for a while . The steel R,S,J.s arrive, and bolted in position all going well  again now, the assistant architect takes over, and the  clerk of works, things go  like a house on fire as they say . This pub is a favourite drinking place on  Saturday nights for off duty police and firemen, there’s is one policeman named  Harold Grange a man that loved a bit of fun so we got on well together we all  had our wives with us good old family get to gethers, we usually get a bit  oiled, then in come the old Salvation Army collecting for funds, and selling the  War Cry, and the Soldier, but there was a lovely little old lady from Littleport  with them, now l have a lot of time for the sally army as we called it, when we  were in the army they were always there with a cup of tea, and a wad ( cake )  when we needed it, and cherrie smile, we would never give them any money till  they sung the old ruggered cross, and they did, and they got a good hand out  from us, great days . As l said we are refurbishing it now, and Harold’s son is  a student of civil engineering, and on his college holidays Harold ask if l can  fit him up with a job, we are supposed to take on students in summer breaks to  give them work experience, l said what is he studying civil engineering, yes  that’s it, l wink at Harold, l have just the right job for him, l said in this  trade you start at the bottom, and work your way up, heres a shovel, and pick  get in that hole, as we are digging A cellar it's going to be under the lounge  floor. That was his start in civil
engineering sadly his dad died we were good  friends. This young lad who, l had a hand in giving him some experience on  getting to the top, Peter Grange he went back to Loughborough College, and got a  B,S,c. In civil engineering, and three years later he got M, I, C, E as well so  now its MR Peter Grange B, S, c
M, I, C, E, who went on to construct 

PAGE 139. the Rutland Water Reservoir , cost £ 19,000,000 in 1971 , from digging Beer Cellars
  for a Pub , to constructing Reservoirs , and filling them with water , l like to  think l was part of his success, beside doing this job l have other jobs to run,  the new petrol stations all around the area, l go out, and set them out ready  for the gangs to move in as they want them, the first jobs getting the excavators in to dig the holes for the tanks, set them in, and under ground  finished . Now l can get on with the footings to the shop, and pay desk, get the  brickys in to do all work above ground, and also the carpenters or (chippys)as l  call them, pipe workers, last job concrete forecourt fix fuel pumps, then hand  it over to the petrol company . This is the procedure to all the stations,  except for one at ST IVES, CAMBs, that’s another story. After a
hard day at  work, l come home to the wife, and two smashing daughters well after dinner most  evenings rosemary likes to stand behind me on the settee, and put my hair in  curlers plus make up, and Allison wants me on the floor as if l was a horse, she  sits on my back, and a belt in my mouth for reins, she sits on
my back then l  have to go around the house as a horse with her knees nipping my ribs, its  always faster dad faster, and after all that l am knackered .(great days ). I  buy a second hand television black, and white in those days its in a cabinet  with doors on, l think l paided thirty pounds for it , off our local grocery  man, now l went up on the roof one Saturday afternoon to fix the aerial . Very  few that had one, at least l had a little peace as the children loved to watch  there programs, l think six five special, had just started then it was
rock in  roll great new songs, and different type of music, a new era has started the  children are telling the adults what they want, even in clothes its a free world  at last for everyone that’s what we fought for, children are seen, and heard not  the other way round anymore, l suppose l will be of a careful approach to this,  as old ways die hard, l want my daughters to have as much freedom as possible,  my wife is more protective than me, l have travelled half  the world, and l see  things in a different light, one day l hope they all will
travel, and see some  of the places l have been, air travel will soon be to everybody, they are  thinking of building a plane now to take a houndred people, that’s a lot, when l  flew in Daks and B24s they only took twenty-four people . I change my car to  another Morris 1000 this time a nearly new car its grey four
door very nippy one  of the new short stroke engines when we go off at weekends it will be more  comfortable no water leaks in the roof or water coming up through the floor . My  Daughters are growing up fast, Rosemary has started ballet lessons l think it,s  good for them, they learn how to stand , and walk
properly , and an insight to  the Art of Ballet , when Allison was old enough she went too, they also went to  Piano lessons they were not into that , it was a waste of time , but l think  everyone should try.

PAGE 140. Back to  the ST lVES, fuel station now this site is only a few yards from the river, and  the water table is only about two feet down this is going to prove fun, and games we are building on an old gas works site, and there’s a bloody great chimney to come down, there’s three ways of getting it down, one blast it down, two cut holes on one side, and prop it up with timber, and then burn it down or  take it down brick by brick that’s what we will go for, so a scaffold pole was put up the inside the chimney with bars every foot like a ladder the person climbs up inside to the top, and drop the bricks on the inside the chimney, and a man at the bottom carting them away, the job turned out OK, and loads of good second hand bricks for the firm, this chimney was about twohoundred feet tall . Next job excavate for the tanks that was not two bad as we had some big pumps going all the time when deep enough a concrete base was laid, and anchor eyes were fixed in the concrete, and now let it set, next job lower the tanks in and wire hawser fixed over the tanks to hold them down as we thought all this done pumps stopped home for the night, next morning what did we see tanks floating with the concrete slab attached, well the only thing to do was to fill the tanks  with water, and sink them then concrete them in before anyone finds out, so  that’s what we did, there are two lots of tanks to go in so the next ones we get  the freezer plants in, you now say how dose that work, simple really you
drive  two inch pipes in to the ground to depth you want connect them together the  connect liquid hydrogen, and pump that into the tubes that freezes the ground,  and water in the area ,concrete with ease, and pore concrete over the tanks job  done, why didn’t we do it in the first place well its the old story, you some  times have to take chances, this time we come unstuck, all ground works done now  come a few more snags, the drawings are like a comic a big laugh, if we build to  this, the bloody place will fall before we get it up , so
to get the job done A  new architect is brought in a retied man he turns out to be a great chap l can  deal with him a practical man . One day on sight with him, and sorting out  problems, some young ladies walking past, l said they look OK, he turned to me,  and said they are no good to me, all l have is the skin it come in, well from  then on l was in Stitches, he was always cracking some sort of joke, that’s how  we made a bad job a great success he always made work easy . l think this was  one of the worst jobs l ever had to tackle, first, the
Architects for Total  Petrol were useless, the drawings had very few details on how to construct the  site . But with this new Architect we soon got into business, finished on time.  He reminds me of a Q,S, l know (Quantity Surveyor) who l meet at Ely Hospital ,  one of his sayings was , l might have snow on top , but there’s plenty of fire  in the grate, or if we agreed on something 

PAGE 141. that we  were measuring for the Firm to get payment he would say, most sinsiderliss, l  don’t know what the hell it means, but by hell it sounds good don’t it, and to  this day l often use these little phrases as a memory to them, they were great  characters of wit. Now Gerald often came to see me at nights to get
things clear  in mind for orders the next day, but my daughters began to sing the song, Me,  and my Shadow, cheeky little hurbs. The opening of this petrol station is going  to be a big launching party, and l am aloud to take a person with me, so l say  to the wife l will take you, she looked forward to this, but at the last minute,  l had to say she could not go as my Boss said you will take your secretary, who  has done all the office work on this project, Now l am in it up to my neck, l  get a little bit of tongue pie off the wife, which is not my fault, but from  then on, l am not a very happy with this firm, l am on the look out for other  greener pastures, and sod em . In the back of my mind, l keep thinking of owning  my own property, so l must think of doing something constructive, either buy a  property or build my own, l now what ever l do l will have the full backing of  my wife, from a shy girl, l first met, she now is getting very sure footed, and  a mind of her own, this is great, as you are about to see, one night Mary’s  parents came to see us, just a visit, the television was on, Mary’s Dad was  watching it, now two women in the house there’s bound to be a lot of chattering,  but her Dad thought if the tele is on no talking, so he in aloud voice said, are  we watching tele or going to talk,
now Mary has always been frightened of her  Dad, but not this time, Mary flew at her Dad, and said, this is my house, and if  l want to talk while the tele is on l will do so , as she said that, her Dad  just got up and walked out, thirty years of being frightened, has now all gone  at last she is her Own self, and can stand up to any one, that’s my wife, and l  am little bit proud of her. We get a few more jobs in the area of renovation  work, that’s quite interesting, then came a new pub to be built in Ely, for  Steward and Patterson brewers, its
a new, Red White Blue public house, to be  built in the grounds of the old one, now at This point one of the worst things  happened to me, a thing that should have never happened, but that’s life. I came  home from work one evening, and as l got in the house, l felt a atmosphere, you  know if something’s wrong it hits
you, so l said what’s up, now its not our  daughter, its your daughter, oh what’s wrong, your daughter has packed her bags,  and leaving, oh is she, yes you better sort her out, so going down the hallway ,  Rosemary at the bottom of the stairs with suit case in hand , and where do you  think you are going , answer mind your own bloody business , well we always kept  a cane above the door , never ever thought of using it , till now, so l loose my  cool , and whack her across her bottom ,and top of her legs , Rosemary goes back  up stairs
to bed , she’s never going to speak to me again , now my dinner is  ready , l cant eat it my stomach is churning like those elephants l used to get

PAGE 142.  l send the wife up to see if  she’s  OK l feel terrible, l really am to blame, as l have been really soft with both  of them, l must from now on keep a more of a firmer grip on them . Well next day  Rosemary goes to school, and its GYM Lessons, and the P,T, Teacher said how did  you get those marks on your legs, she said my Dad did it, but it will be the  first, and last time, l think l deserved it, yes it was the only
time, and l  also learnt a lesson from that as well, l think l was giving too much time to  work, and letting home life slip a bit, but after a few days Rosemary was  talking to me again, and l felt a lot better then, and no more
problems, but to  this day, it hurt me to think about it, it should never have happened. We start  to look at the plans of the New Pub, this is going to be a winner, we are now  back with the same architects, and clerk of works we had at the White Hart, the  site is handed over to us, and is now under our control, we say who comes on  site, and who cannot, and l love this, if any council Surveyors or Inspectors  come to the site, they must ask permission to enter the site, not only them,  this apply to everyone, this not only protects me, but
them as well, as heavy  machines are moving around the site, l give firm orders to Gerald to see that it  works . I have been told by a friend of mine that a plot of land down at  Chettisham is up for sale, so l go to find out, well a little old lady lives on  the site in a Railway Carriage, this is what happened, after the First World War  people bought a peace of land, and had a redundant railway carriages put on the  land, and lived in it, just like our modern Mobil homes of today, I am told by  the lady who owns it to see her solicitor, the
lady who owns this land is a Mrs.  Tingy, and the first thing she said to me, do you like animals, yes l said we  have a dog ,and tortoises, she loved animals, l think if l had said l didn’t  like them, l don’t think she would have sold it to me, we now own a near acre of  land, and a railway carriage . This land is very over grown so we don’t now  really what we have bought till its cleared, when we start, we loose Rosemary,  and Alison in the long grass they have great fun . The Orchard is so over grown  that the trees are entwined with elder trees, blackberries, stinging nettles,  and wild roses, we also dig up loads of daffodils' bulbs. I replant the bulbs  around the trees in the orchard , then l rotovate all the ground area between  the trees , and sow grass seed , seed that l have scrounged off the Council work  men , its only rye grass seed but its only an orchard , we also find allot of  gin bottles , l think this old dear who lived here , liked a little tipple , and  she warned me about the neighbours as they could be funny at times , well l  don’t take any notice of gossip as l like to find out for my self , but she  proved right as we did have a few problems , a neighbour from hell as they say .  He not only had a go at me , but other neighbours as well , a silly man , he  would argue with the stones in the
street. In the end l had to build a six-foot  six high wall between us , and that was the 

PAGE 143.  the limit in height l could go, council bye-laws  say that l can have a fence all round my property , its six-foot six high at the  back and two sides, but at the front facing the road must only be three-foot  high . Back to the New Red White Blue pub, this is coming a long nicely, in the  specification it says we are to board all the street sides to the old pub, and  pull it down brick by brick, that’s going to take a long time, so l said to  Gerald what about a hawser wire rope through the bottom windows, and pull it  down all in one go, yes lets go for it, now l get back to the council surveyor  with what we propose to do, he comes, and see us, we explain, all we need is to  Stop traffic for just a half an hour, the answers no, it's in the bill of  quantity a sum of £500 to take it down brick by brick, and that’s that. Well  Gerald , and me still went a head, and to take it down our way so we posted two  men on each road to stop the traffic, and down it came  very little mess on the  road it took fifteen minutes in all no problem, Oh yes  there is the surveyor was  there with a camera, and he said l am taking you to  court for breaking a  bye-law, we are as we thought in the shit now . Off to  court we go later that  month, its a Magistrate court, we both pleaded guilty of  breaking a bye-law, and  disobeying the council surveyor, the maximum fine £13  so with £500 in the bill,  with the fine, and labour we must have saved £400 for  the boss, now l am to  purchase the bricks at £17 a thousand, and l need 10,000 bricks so in all my  boss did well out of this pub job, and so did the Brewery as they opened the pub  a month earlier for us taking it down as we did, we got a lot more work through  that . The bricks are all down on my building plot now
stacked at the front so  its all hands to move them to the rear of what is going to be the building line,  but in the mean time l take the railway carriage to pieces, and cart down the  garden to burn, and what a hellof a job that was, this carriage was built in  about 1910 to 1912, all the best hardwood well l did it, and saved a lot of  timbers which over the years came in handy in my work shop, that’s another  story. I get a friend of mine to draw up the plans for a bungalow, to what the  wife wanted she planed it all but we had to put the final
measurements in to  correspond to the site size The planes all ready to go the council, for  approval, well we put random rubble in the front wall of the house this was to  be under the front windows and up to the apex between the windows . Well the  only thing they did not pass , was the random rubble to the apex ,we
had to cut  it off at the top of the windows , it was no big deal , so the digging of the  footings begin , now another mate of mine comes in handy with his J C B digger ,  all footings out , the council pass for concreting , Cutlacks has a mixer for  sale cheap its half full of hard concrete , l do a deal , and its been converted  to gas , no petrol needed ,l get it to my site , l take all the bolts out around  the centre 

PAGE 144. of the bowl ,and give it a few hard strikes with the club hammer ,and out it falls the concrete in one lump ,me l jump for joy ,bolts back nearly new mixer, and it starts straight away what a bargain . Next sand and gravel mixed and cement .Next off to borrow a cowly level , that’s the first job level all round with a
  cowly level me l am in the trench with all the pegs to knock in , the wife is looking through the lens to give me the height , which should be nine inches above the bottom of the trench , all that done the wife is going to level the concrete in the footings, well we both work hard, l nearly tip the concrete on top of her, well if looks could Kill l would be dead, and buried in the footings  with her levelling the concrete on top of me . All the concreting of the  footings done, now for the first stage of the brick works to complete, Tony our  next door neighbour is a bricky, so he does it at weekends, all that done, and a  extra thick concrete slab for the chimney stack . Now its hard core all over the  site about four inches thick, then the binding of asraised all over, well its  going to be hard work again mixing concreting for the oversite four inches thick  on top of a plastic sheet membrane, after that done, our daughters looked at the  setting out of the bedrooms, they said we will never get our beds in there so l  made them lay on the concrete, to prove we would, these were
large rooms, about  twelve feet square . We spend all our spare time down there at the site, and all  weekends, but we do make a rule, it's off the site by nine p.m. no matter what .  Time now to get the bricklayers in to do the shell, and the interior walls,  there is only one main wall in side that’s the load bearing
wall. l have picked  out as big windows as l am aloud to have, they are all picture windows, and  large pains of glass, now the wall between the hall, and lounge, l am going to  build in glass with cedar wood framing, this makes the hall light, as we call it  borrowed light , when l said we are going to have a  glass partition between the  hall and lounge , Mary said no way , as she thought it would be like the ones at  school that side across the room but after a little explaining , everything OK .  l am getting all sorts of jobs at work, some large projects, but a lot of small  ones, l like them, its start, and finish in a month, then on to the next, l do  have one nice big job at Huntingdon, the Coach ,and Horses, on The Roman road,  Ermine Street, that goes
very well that’s for our local friends at the Brewery  in Ely. There is not much  l can do at the moment on the Bungalow as l am waiting  for the brickys to finish, so l buy a plough workhorse, that’s a engine at the  front, then two large wheels, with a plough, and handles at the back, you walk  behind it, so off we go, and plough about three quarters of an acre, then we set  potatoes, beans, and green vegetables, Mary’s dad helps us with the garden, but  we do get a few remarks, like, l cant see why you put this mill stone round your  necks ,
what’s wrong with a council house, nothing, l see it as money in the  bank, every month l pay the mortgage, a few more bricks are mine that’s why. I  can see the world changing where more people are going to own their properties , shall we say a little more independence , and 

PAGE 145.  something  to call their own ,having said that ,no one should never belittle people that  live in council houses ,as most people started life in them ,its a good jumping  stone to own your own . lf l pay rent its lost, and never will be mine, the  orchard is looking good with the new grass, and the trees are in bud,
The next  thing is the roof my job, Mary is the labourer, and this is quite a story, l am  going to make T.D.A. trusses for the roof, l have six to make, and They will be  heavy as they are bolted together, Derrick my brother in law, gives me a hand, a  big strong old boy he is. First lets get back to the unloading of the timber for  the trusses, rafters, ceiling joist, and roof plates, this is were the story  starts, l have now got some timber on my shoulder, they are nineteen feet long,  so l say to Mary, as l put the front end on the ground, this timber is now at an  angle of forty-five degrees, the other end is about fourteen feet in the air, l  shout, and say grab the other end so l can turn around, and lay them on the  floor, l stand there for a few seconds, and shout again, back came the reply, do  you think l am a monkey, forgetting how high it was, in the dog house again  Holden , after a while we have a good laugh, then came the levelling of the  ridge board, l send Mary up the ladder about ten feet high off the top of the  ceiling joist, up this straight ladder to put a level on the top while l adjust  it for the level, but a mate came past as Mary was up the ladder, and made a  remark, think the answer he got was, Not go away or anything like it, it  finished with B*locks as in rowboats, and l love you too, this shy little girl  is certainly standing on her own two feet . Well all the timber is up for the  roof, its now the brickys to finish the apexes, but at the rear, we have a  change of plan ,one of the brickys point out, why don’t you put a window in the  apex for light in the roof, down to the Surveyors office E.U.D.C. (Ely Urban  Districted Council )as it was then, and we were the lsle of Ely no problem a  rough drawing on the plans signed by me, and the surveyor l bet it would take a  month to get that done today, this is knowing people you could trust, and they  trusted you, well l think most people know me in Ely, my wife is alittle  surprised at this, as she was born here, well in my job you get to now a lot of  people . I now have a job at the Cambridge Observatories to lay a sewer pipe  from the main building to the other side of the main Madingley road, a length of  about half of a mile natural fall, but tunnelling under the road that’s  something l have never done so out come the books, have to read up on this, well  when the time comes l am ready, just tell the men what l want, and how to do it,  it goes quite well, you see at times you have got to beleave in your self that  you can do it, breaking into main sewer pipe connect up with our pipe, and then  ask council Inspector to come, and certify the joint OK, but the first Inspector  came, he said l am not going in that tunnel under the road, no not me, l don’t  get paid to do tunnel work, off he went, another Inspector came along, and past  it, we fill back with lean mix concrete, next job to excavate the trench to

PAGE 146.  the main building now this is sandy soil and eight feet down ,so at every three feet a Accrow Trench Jack to hold the sides up , the digger removes the soil and a man in the trench just to clean the bottom but never move outside the shoring, this chap thought he would be clever, and get in front of the shoring, sandy soil it collapsed on top of him, all hands to dig him out, he suffered a broken shoulder, but it could have been his life ,you can’t watch them all the time, so Ted Holden no more to do, had two eight foot steel tube wheels made , and bars welded across the two to the width of the trench, and shuttering ply on the wheels to outside now any man can work inside the wheel, all he has to do roll the wheel along the trench, and he is safe, now everyone is happy, l ask Accrow Ltd to come, and look at my crude wheel protector , this is now greatly improved on by Accrow that specialise in this sort of thing, Ted Holden’s first Invention, when l see one being used now, l say to myself l had a hand in that. l have now got the roof tiles on our bungalow, after a bit of HO, HA , l get all the tiles up on the roof stacked ready for laying well l have a go at laying them , no matter how l try , they just don’t seem to come right , well l call in another mate a roof tiler , within quarter of an hour all set out ready to go , and no time l have finished tiling, and the glass in the windows, and the back, and front doors all hung ,so we can now lock up, time for the ceiling board to go up, so l make two dead men, me, and the wife up go the sheets of plaster board eight foot long, four foot wide, l nail as she holds them in position with the dead men quite easy really, that all done, door linings to be fixed that done, in come the plasters, me and the family off on holiday, we can not do any more till that’s done, a well earned rest for the wife, she’s a brick, l look at her some times, and say to my self, Holden you have one in a million, l am not that easy to live with,. that’s What l think, l am a very determined person if l get something in my head, its hell or high water till l get it done, and sod the rest . I suppose my old Majors words are coming true, l think he new me from the start, and one or two of the others, a man who studied other people, or was it his training as a college lecturer, l think about him quite often, and wonder what he Is doing, what ever he is doing l hope the people will take notice of him, they will learn a lot from this man, l did . Now before the plasters started, l have been told about a new fangled stuff that is pumped into the cavity of houses to stop cold coming in and heat loss going out, that sounds good to me, so off l go to Ely Urban District Council, Surveyors Office, l see Dennis King, and ask what he thought of it, see for your self we are trying it out on some council houses, see the workmen doing it, get all the gen its a fellow l know Don Page, he came, and had a look, now they drill holes in the joints of the bricks, and pump this stuff in to the cavity, but in this case it can be done from the inside, this stuff is made of two chemicals when mixed together, as it goes into the cavity it becomes like polystyrene foam then it sets firm it also stops dampness coming through, this is 1965 l am one of the 

PAGE 147. first to  have it done ,now for the holiday one week to Dorset ,l tell them l am going to  take them to the places l did my Army training , that’s right Dad get your tin  hat on , well they have never seen Lulworth Cove , or Durdle Dour , and what a  surprise they got , their eyes just lite up . But we are camping at Durdle Dour,  just over the hill that was even better ,we walk across fields down the cliffs  to the beach, and its all pools of water in the rocks, crabs, fish, and shrimps  trapped in them, the seagulls are scuarking away on top of the cliffs, nesting  time, and young chicks, l ask do you like my Army days, great Dad, we walk miles  over the hills to the next villages, cups of tea here, and there plus cream  scones with jam . This is Hardy’s Country, the famous author, and play right,  remember Far From the Maddening Crowd, but what l didn’t tell them that just  over from Lulworth was a firing range for the tanks at Bovington, and heavy  artillery, well one night the gunners thought they would practice, about  midnight, (A BIG BANG ) it shook the ground, we now have  four in a bed, so l  said lets look out side, and they could see the tracer leave the guns, and hit  the targets, like fireworks then they settle down, no more worries, you see the  Army has taken over a village in the war, and still use it as a battle ground,  it is open to the public to drive through at certain times when not in use  ,there are warnings not to go on the fields as unexploded shells are laying  about. We go to Weymouth, Portland, and to the famous Chisel beach, with large  stones one end, and reducing in size as you go along the beach to near sand,  this all happened in one night, of a very high tide, then on to the Swanery, and  other times to the giant hill, the wishing wells, not forgetting my old army  camp, then on to Bovington tank museum, where they can climb over tanks and sit  in them, then the Blue lagoon, Corfe Castle and home
over Kimeridge road to  Lulworth . Next were are we going next year kids, big shout Lulworth, Right  holidays over back to work, and finish the bungalow as the plastering all done,  give time to dry out, then a coat of emulsion to all the walls, the girls have  chose there bed rooms, the spare bed room is made in to a every- thing room, up  goes the wood, and glass screen in the hall , everyone likes it, its patterned  glass, and the glazier cut the glass to my request so that the pattern follows  from top to bottom, l have asked if the gas board can put the gas on as the high  presser main runs past our drive way, answer no, but l go to see the rep; l  know, he said l cant see why not only need a reducing valve, got the OK l have  to pay £10, wife happy , life’s back to normal no more nagging from the kitchen  area, l now cancel the oil fired boiler ,and fuel tank ,and change them for a  gas boiler ,and her gas cooker can be installed ,perhaps a little piece for a  while . The kitchen work tops, and cupboards are my next job also the dinning  room table, there are no fitted
kitchens on the market yet no one has thought of  them yet, l make everything out of chip board ,then cover them with Formica,  there is a large range of colours to chose from, now a lot of friends come down  to see how we are getting on, we get a few comments 

PAGE 148.  like lt must be worth a Bob or two, but what they don’t know is, that l put everything
  into the home ,not down a Publicans drain, like some do. Well one day l could be  rich, dream on Holden, well the dreams are nice, as l tell my daughters, in life  aim for the stars, but if you hit the moon on the way up you haven’t done bad, l  think everyone should have a goal in life. Kitchen tops all done, now the draws,  then the sliding doors at the bottom, a double sink unit stainless steel. The  plumber wants to go on holiday who doing my plumbing, so l give him some money  up front, if he promise to finish when he comes back, yes OK, he’s on trust now,  l trust everyone till they let me down, then the sparks fly, well he let me down  l impound all his materials on site, and tell him not to come back, he threatens  me with court action, l say do it, he never did, l give my old mate Trevor a  ring, yes mate be there tomorrow, job done paid him in ouncers cash, l could  have done the plumbing, but the time l need to do other work, l have to work to  get it done as quick as possible, as we are now started to pay mortgage, as well  as council rent so things are tight, doors all hung in
side , and all the walls,  and skirting painted, last job every room floor tiles to be stuck down l have a  1,400 sq., ft to do, and lay, the wife helps out with that putting the icing on  the cake . We move in, with a few odd jobs to finish, we are lost for a while as  its a big place, large bed rooms the girl’s love it, as they can go in, and out  as they want no going up stairs, and lights everywhere . I get a job to do at a  Professors house a mathematician, this is only a little extension of enlarging  the lounge, and UP stairs bedroom, well he had to see how we did it, and explain  to him all the time, come to the day when we are going to lay the floor boards  to the bed room, he could not see how we were going to fix the last board, now a  brainy man like that he had not got a clue, after we had done it, he said  simple, really what, l often wonder how they survive in this world, l only hope  his calculations are corrected when he work something out . l get another job at  the P.B.I. the Plant Breeding Institute, putting up glass houses, that’s an  interesting job in these glass house are bearded wonders as l call them sitting  down, and pollinating corn with pollen from other plants to make them produce  more yield, and they said in thirty years from now we will produce enough grain  to feed the world, l said
pull the other one its got bells on , then they  explain, and they proved right, the short straw, and long ears of grain, about  three times the yield that used  to be , now also at this P,B ,I complex is, yes  another Walter Mitty l could not believe it, l thought there can not be another  like Robby at Ely Hospital , well there is but this one is a seed Technician, he  has meet everyone of the well known celebrities, or is related to them, l just  agree with him, his work fellows say take no notice of him, as they said he is  good at his job, l never
meet anyone in the army like that, l just wonder if  there was, or is it that these people live 

PAGE 149. in a world  of their own. I met Cliff Wedgebury the other day, he asked when l was going to  start on my own, l keep thinking about it, he said l can put work your way when  you do. Now at this stage the firm makes me redundant, some people wanted me out  a bit of back biting went on that l didn’t know about at the
time, no big deal,  l had in my mind to look for greener pastures, a firm makes me an offer l take  it, a nice job as l thought, its measuring steel that is put into the new motor  way bridges, and roads, this firm supply the steel, and bend it to shape, l go,  and measure it with a ministry surveyor, and l cover my self with the measuring,  everyone happy, but my new boss wants more, l am now measuring the shuttering to  a big wall to the Rotherham, Blackburn Bypass M I, now this new boss is a greedy  man, he said up your measurements they will pass it, no one will catch you out,  l look at him, and say if you want to go to
prison, l don’t so from then on l am  off home , out of work again, who cares, the wife will be happy she hated me  working away. Home time to think, and time to go it alone, see Cliff Wedgebury,  fixing new windows to council estates, and repairs to windows on military bases,  l am classed as a subcontractor, it all  goes well for a time, then the bomb  drops Cliffs firm is not going to fix windows anymore, only supply them, so he  goes around all his costumers, and tell them to ring me, the work comes in, but  the ministry l have got to go on
there books, no big deal l get the secrets act  read to me, so l said will this do It's my lD card l had at Mepal Rocket Base,  no more problems, l get a contract number to use at all times, and it's away the  work just keep coming in. I get a letter from Kerridges LTD ,and ask me what l  want to do with my pension that l have paid into through the firm, l had a  choice of leaving it in or take the lot out l said leave it in, it should make a  little when l retire, not knowing that the firm would be sold, and the pensions  milked dry by the directors, then it went into bankruptcy, but the receivers  sent a letter saying it might be possible later on to get the pension, yes l did  get the pension but l had been retied five years before l got it, l had written  it off . Contracting to the ministry l will never make a fortune, but a good  living, l also get work from the local councils, and some private work, with  also the don’t payers , that’s when it hurts, l had a exmajor retied army, now  this wife
of the major rang me, and asked if l could cut the bottoms off the  doors before the carpets were laid in all rooms, and a new Yale lock to the  front door, arrangements made, job done, invoice sent, we are talking late  sixties, twelve doors taken off, taken out side, bottoms cut off rehung, and new  Yale supplied, and fixed for the sum of £5, now what ever l do l make a good job  of it, l was taught that way as an apprentice, no good when you have to go back,  and put it right, do it right the first time no problems, well that’s how it  should be,
till you get this, l get a letter back from exmajors wife, l get the  lot, it starts something like this , as you know my husband is an exmajor of the  army , to me he is just plane Mr now , he thinks your charges are too high

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as none of  his men under him were paided nothing like that, welcome to the real world  exmajor, he thinks the fee should be £2-10s this is old money, now that didn’t  buy the petrol, and the lock to get there, No more to do, l go to see my solicitor l said get it, l don’t care how you get it, but get it, about three days later l got a letter from the Exmajor, l have never been so insulted in my life, he wrote, a solicitors letter demanding money, l don’t suppose you have ever been in the army, then you would know what status l have, that is like   showing a red rag to a bull, now Holden not a happy man, so a reply letter followed, and put him in his place, the last part went something like this, and if l had served under you l do not think you would have arrived back in England Mr /////////////. He paid in full, but unbeknown to me this man is now in charge  of housing, and furniture stores on Waterbeach army camp that l have some work  to do on, the ministry officer that l deal with, asks me to do some work on  these store hangers, now at this time, l have a work man with me a good
worker,  me to keep my hair clean at work , l ware my old red beret, so off we go to the  stores hanger, who should be there, but the exmajor to greet us, now his face a  picture, he looks at me the ministry officer introduce us, l said l have meet Mr  //////// before , he then said l would like to be called Sir, l said oh yes you  been Knighted, no , then its plane Mr to me, he said l don’t now what sort of a  Major you had over you, l said he was a gentleman, and all of us lads would have  followed him anywhere, his way of life was that all men
equal, but someone has  to take the lead, we were all on first names, we had to be as we were a tight  nit little force, after the war he went to the War ministry in London, but now  he might be back at his old job as college lecturer one day you might be reading  about this man if someone writes a book of our exploiters in S.E.A.C. well some  of the exploiters are in my book, but what my old Major did before l met him, l  have never been told by the Major but there were barrack rumours of his work  behind the lines in S,E,A,C, but it was here
say, so that will be for someone  else to write down . By now l think this man is getting the message, and l don’t  think he has ever been out of this country, l think he has been a Major of the  general dogs body type, the near Baron who loves ordering miners around as he  thinks, but l am afraid he has lost out here as he has just met Holden, and l  like to be asked to do things not ordered to do them, those days are long gone,  well we do get things done around the stores, and in the stores, no complaints,  but he gave the other Civvies a hard time that worked directly under him. Back  to R,A,F, Hospital Ely for the ministry, and Robby is still there, now as l have  told you he is a bit of a Walter Mitty, but he is also a man of his word, if he  verbally told you to do something that was his bond , the ministry law is you do  not do anything with out a written order . 

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That’s all  very well till a emergency comes up, and Robby, and me got called over the coals  for that, as an ministry officer gave a spot check while this work was going on,  lt was nearly completed, when he asked for the emergency order to be shown, l  had none, now this chap thought he would show Robby up, Robby never
said a word,  only walked back to the office, and rang H,Q, London, now this officer is  listening to Robby talking to London, after Robby had his say he then handed the  phone to this Officer, well his face was as red as a beetroot, unbeknown to me  or this chap, the man in London, and in charge, was with Robby during the War,  Robby was one of those fellows who filled in the craters on airfields after  bombing raids, he did it so fast that aircraft could land with in a hour and  take off, this chap was told to leave the site post haste, and
let Robby do his  job, old Robby in my books then went to the top of the page, he might be a bit  of a Walter Mitty but he knows his onions . After l got the job done he said  write down what you have done, and price it, then l will make the works order  out, l said is this not arse about face, no, you see if l write down what you  have done, and back date it to when you started, and l put the approximately  price, and invoice me two weeks later, people like that chap  think l am good at  estimating jobs, pratts like him don’t know they are born, Robby your tops . I  have got to give up a lot of private work as the ministry work is coming in  fast, R.A F ,Bassingborn is going to be an army Barracks, so l am called to get  over there to do some work , a lot of barrack windows need sorting out, these  are steel windows , wartime fixed, and a build up of paint on the frames,  windows will not close, asked can l make them work, yes, l ask how many windows  need repairs, answer don’t know you will have to check, tell us, and cost we  will write the order out, and the number of windows, l get the job, but there’s  an old mate to ring . Now Cliff Wedgebury comes to mind, ring  cliff, what’s the  best way to remove paint from your Hopes Windows, answer you don’t, oh, then  what do l do, l will come, and show you, l will also bring some special tools,  right see you at Bassingborne, the windows will not shut as the build up of  paint to the meeting edges, Cliff no problem, he just got a lever bar he had  made for the job just give the hinges a little prize, and bingo job done, and  another lever bar to the casement handle, Windows working perfect, with the  price l got in for the job it's a nice little earner. l have at the moment more  work than l can cope with on my own so l must look out for a good man who can  weld, drill , and tap metal, a good all round metal fabricator, l have one in  mind but getting him to leave his job, and Come with me, that’s
going to be a  job, we shall see, yes l do get him, everyone calls him Bud, and we hit it off  from the start, as l find out he is a bit of a prankster like me, so work is  going to be a bit light hearted from now on . Our daughters are growing up , its  youth club , and Disco dancing , and its Dad take us here , and take us there ,  l am just their taxi , not only take them but fetch them home , never mind we  have a 

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good youth  leader at the drill hall in Ely, a man by the name of Les Langford, l think he  was fair with the teenagers but very firm, he made them run there own snack bar,  snooker table, and the painting of the walls of the hall, with murals which were  great, the lad that did this was and is Andy Bailey ,some had very good talent,  We get invited to a dinner dance the Police Ball well l am no dancer but Bernie,  and May are going that’s my wife cousin, and Bernie loves dancing so that’s all  fixed, then from then on we make a foursome, its the Mayors Ball, and a few  other dance nights out, then another mate wants to come, Ernie and Sheila Jugg ,  so its six now, and we have all have a good time with lots of laughs, the men  fairly well lubricated, all this before drink driving ban came in . There’s new  words getting about ,D,I,Y, (Do it yourself ) and 
there are shops opening up in  every town so l look around to open a shop in Ely, l have meet a Exprisoner of  War, a German, who was captured in Italy and was sent to England, he married a  local girl, and has started a shop of cycle repairs in Newnham Street, he is not  really German but a Czechoslovakian, when
his country was overrun by the Germans  he had no choice but to join the German forces, he chose the German Airforce ,  we hit it off pretty well as most exservice men do, of what ever country . I  also find a little shop in Newnham Street to open a D,I,Y, l have not yet made  it finale, as being a shop keeper, is different to being at work out side, but  in the end l do go for it, there are lots of preparations to be done, and  alterations to the shop, l think we can make it work, its now down to the finale  signing, l have to, have good think on this . I am getting in to local social  work in helping to raise funds for different charities, l am at a stage in my  life when there’s lots of things going on all at once, there’s a lot of pressure  on me at the moment a bit more
than l can chew, so Some things will have to take  second place for a while. l still keep on teasing Mary, like when she goes to  see her Mum, l will say we had better get going as l have things to get ready  for tomorrow, so l go, and get in the car start it up, and drive off slowly so  she has to run to catch me up, she says ill kill you yet my lad in between puffs  to get her breath back, l am now thinking of joining the local shooting club, l  haven’t fired a shot since l left the army, as l said at the beginning of the  book l started shooting at about ten years old, and carried on from there  through the army days, but after l got demobbed l thought l had done enough  shooting in my life, but its like any other sport the bug gets you, its like a  golfer to get a hole in one, but with us its man, and gun against a target, with  a black spot in the middle, and see how near the centre you can get , or if you  are a marksman take the black spot out , so l join the Ely City Pistol and Rifle  Club , l get my Firearms Certificate , and l purchachase a B,S,A, Sportsman’s  Fifteen .22 not only to shoot targets but vermin as well , now in these days 

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to see a  man carrying a gun was no big deal, most farmers carried shot guns on there tractors or in there cars, and no one took any notice, it was part of everyday life then, in the country, that was what we looked on as right to do this, we are still taking in the 1960s late and l also buy a lovely Smith, and Wesson 6 chamber special, just like the cowboys had a well balanced hand gun, l took the original hand grips off, and fix special ones for target shooting, now to see a cowboy blast at bottles, and so forth, fast draw from the holster is a bit far fetched l would think if they hit a barn door at 20yds they were lucky, but it looks good on screen . Shooting to me is like to some people smoking 20 per day l get totally relaxed from this sport, l am thinking now of going in for shotgun  shooting, clay pidgins, never done it but it looks a good sport, this is a round  black plastic type disc four inches across, and about 1/2 inch thick fired from  a trap, l am into this, l purchase a Berreta single barrel semi auto- matic that  holds four 12g cartridges, back to my old days as a Bren
gunner most guns have  two shoots l can get four in . My wife also comes with me on firing range, she  likes firing the pistol, and she also have a go with the rifle, l now start a  clay shooting club down at my Bungalow there’s some waste land that my neighbour  lets us go on to shoot, this is a Sunday morning club 10am to 12-30pm midday  well it goes down like a bomb, a cup of tea at bungalow before home there’s  about twelve of us , and most are exservice men so the banter is very good, and  the micky taken . All this has not gone down well with some of the people of  Chettisham, as they can hare these bangs in the Church so l say everybody to  their own, anyway there are more people that come shooting than there is in  Church, the world is changing fast, children are seen, and heard now , not the  other way round as it used to be, they speak their minds now . Well after  ploughing all my energy in to my business, and charities, l am starting to relax  again, the old story, all work, and no play makes jack a dull boy, that’s very  true, and it can upset home life to breaking point . l also get my grandson  interested in shooting, he is about the same age as l was when
l started, now l  am not hitting many clays as l should do, l suppose about average, but my  grandson is hitting more than me, and with a sly grin he says that’s how to it  granddad, but inside l feel proud really as l can see my self at that age, he  becomes part of the shooting team, as we sometimes split into two groups,  shooting against each other, and the team that lain is in usually win . Just on  a Sunday morning we usually get through 25 cartridges each, so there is about  between 10 to 12 of us, so we get through 300 cartridges in two and a half hours  . Back at work , l was carrying out some work at the P,X, its what we would call  the N,A,A,F,I, on R,A,F Mildenhall base , when a Ministry clerk of works came  ,and said you are to go to a certain hanger on the other side of the base , now  its not long ago since Gary Powers was shot down over
Russia , in a U,2, spy  plane , now these planes 

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are high  tech glorified gliders, that ride on hot spots, l have never seen one on the  ground or flying, these are highly secret no one knows were they fly from , well  we are about to find out, over l go to this hanger, open the personal side door,  as l just step in side there’s a automatic gun pointing at my belly, l thought  shit must be wrong hanger, no it wasn’t, as a Sgt., shouts is your name Holden,  yes that’s me, he comes over says to the guard its OK he has been cleared, l  look around, and sitting in the middle of the hanger is this queer looking  aircraft with a wheel under the belly, and two little wheels one on each wing  tip, that drop off on take off, its completely black, matt black, l have been  sent there to repair the hanger doors the cranking chains have broken, Sgt  Hannah is the chaps name, he said these doors have got to be working tomorrow  night, no problem, if you get them working, we will make a good team, l have  never met this fellow before till now, and he seems to know a lot about me, so  snouty asks how do you now so much about me, he said that he used to be at  R,A,F,Feltwell , Thore Rockets, and he said You were at Mepal, that’s right, l  used to see your name come up on the files now, and again, l said small world,  an American (YEP) . l walk backwards a little way, and crack my head on the tail  fin its like a knife edge he laughs, your not the first to do that, l said  what’s your line here, oh l look after the systems circuits, l said that sounds  like something out of this world, He laughs, could be, l better be off, see you  to morrow, OK, and you have not seen this plane, l said
what plane, that's it  you got it. But after a while the locals find out that its here, as it has to  take off, and land, after a while the U,2, becomes the T,R,1 then more arrive  Mildenhall becomes the spy station, Sgt Hannah, and myself we have a good repour  going between us, as more work needs to be done in the spy hanger, its funny as  none of the Ministry are allowed in the hanger, they have to rely on the Sgts  say so, his ldear is that the less people l allow to come in, the less l have to  worry about things falling in to the wrong people, he said what the eyes, and  brain don’t see, the heart cant worry about. After sometime of working with  these aircraft in the hanger l get to move around with out an escort, till one  day a new Major is on the seen so he comes with Sgt, and me to look at some  alterations that need doing, after all this sorted as l was leaving, in my usual  way l said to Sgt. Hannah just leave the hanger door undone tonight l will come,  and pick up the plane later for my grandson, now this has been our bit of fun  from day one, but this Major , no  sence of humour , you cant come in here , and  interfere with this aircraft you will be shot , now Sgt and Me look at each  other ,and burst out laughing , Sgt has to explain ,he said , pointing to me ,  he always says that ,and how the hell do you think he is going to take it away ,  on his back , the plane weighs tons . l thought the British Services were the  only ones who had thick Officers , then he tells the Officer l was in 

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the special forces,l said how the hell did you know that , l didn’t tell you , no l know that but you had top security at Mepal it was on your clearance papers , OH  l see you been spying on me , he laughs , l said Sarg let me go to do some work,  and you two can chat as long as you like, just put him in the picture, OK
limey  that’s what he calls me, but later on there’s another one that calls me limey .  l have now taken over a Grocery shop, that has closed down, l am going to try my  luck at D,I,Y, its small but its a start, Mary is going to run it by day, and l  will get the orders ready, for next day, this works very well, till the electric  meter is read, and the electricity board chap said, you know this wiring in the  shop is dodgey, no l didn’t, well two years ago, l said to the owner all the  wiring should be changed, now l am told, well l will see what the
owner says, we  had been trading about year, and half then, it happened, l was at Soham Joinery  at the time, collecting timber , when the phone rang, and the fellow in the  office said your shops on fire , l thought a leg pull as l know these people  quite well, l said pull the other or something like that, he said no its for  real. l said can l ring the wife she should be there at the shop now it was  about ten to nine a,m, the message get there as soon as possible, when l arrive  two fire engines it was all under control, and Mary was OK next person l
see was  Fireman Nobby Holiday who l have known for years, l go into the shop its a mess,  my little shop gone, or should l say our little shop as the wife ran it, l had  just had a load of spring cleaning goods come in, paint, timber, fittings, and  wall paper, all gone, now how did it start, an electrician found a mouse had  gnawed though a cable , which was rubber coated it had arced, and set fire to a  small paper bag , and as it got going it melted the lead gas main, and that was  that, now the rest is history, Nobby try’s to talk to me,
but l cant see the  wood for the trees my head is numb, we worked so hard to make it work but never  to be, it was news, and our Doctor who is also a friend was on holiday up north  he phoned to see if we are OK , do you want me to come home, and see you both,  this Doctor really is a man who cares we said no We can
manage, l wonder how  many Doctors would do it today, he certainly look after his patients . Now the  worst to come the loss assessors come, and make an assessment the first thing he  said sell everything at third of the price what’s left, hell that’s less than l  paid for it, all he said tough you will get something back, everything smelt of  fire, and Blackened, my wife went, and repriced it all, l could not go near it,  it was a big blow to me ,and l had put a hellover lot of time and work into that  shop , one of the first to come to see if l was OK was my mate Henry, then my  German friend Jack Zaschke who runs a Cycle shop . Now later Jack will come to  see me again but that’s another story, while we were at the shop , just over the  road is a live stock market
every Thursday ,and my youngest daughter loves  horses , well once a year they have a pony sale , from straight off the Moors or  New Forest , so l

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buy a six  month old Moreland foal , and he’s wild, we get him into my van, and off home we  go, when we get home, l call Alison well she doesn’t know weather to laugh or  cry, Now this little foal we tether him to a tree in the orchard. He is given  water, and feed, he settle down but we can not get to handle him, but the seller  at the market said he will be eating out of your hands in two weeks, well Alison  soon got leading him around, then let him roam the orchard, and as soon as he  saw her he would come trotting to her, and he follows her every where, now if  you want your daughter to swear well buy her a horse, they are never wrong, its  the horse that’s wrong, as he will not do as its told . The pony gets the name  of dusty, it is not long when he’s coming up to the back door, and opening it,  and sticking his head in for a tit bit, great days, this was Alison’s present as  she didn’t want to go with the school to the continent on Holidays, like  Rosemary did. Rosemary has now started work as a telephonist at the Cambridge  exchange, l take her to catch the train every morning, after a while one  morning, l better explain l always said if you ever here me swear you can swear,  well this morning going down back hill, and approaching broad street junction,  this stupid burk came straight out, l didn’t call him stupid, l called him a  stupid looking bastard, my daughter said “DAD “l can swear now,
and we both  laugh. We now get the boys phoning for dates, one boy from Soham wanted to take  her to a Battle of Britain dance, he said we wont be late, well my wife started,  up and down its twelve midnight where are they, he said he would not be late,  well two in the morning they are home, my wife meets them at
the door, if You  think this is not late what do you call late, then they explain the dance didn’t  start till late, it was at R,A,F Oakington knowing the services, nothing gets  going till midnight . I have taken on a good mechanical engineer who can weld  work things out, and a good locksmith, l have got to get ID, card for him that  was quite easy, as he will be working with me all the time, we get on fine  together, and he do not mind working overtime as sometimes l do so that l have  not got to go the next day, a job came up for us to pick a
lock in a safe as the  keys are lost or miss laid, now this chaps is named Bud, this is his nick name,  so Bud says piss off while l get this lock undone, l mean everyone, so off we  go, and leave Bud to it, half an hour later , all OK l know he could pick  ordinary locks , but not a safe lock is a bit different , l find Bud to be an  honest person , l have come to this assessment of him over a period of time ,  now at one time we were repairing council house windows in Newmarket, l was in  one house and Bud in the other next door , well after we had finished for the  day and got home , l had a phone call from the police , wanting to know if l had  a workman , working for me that had been in a house in Newmarket , l said yes,  then l asked why, he said the occupier has made a statement that things are  missing out of the house, l said well you 

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can forget  about my workman, l bet he cant tell you what was in the house, as he is not  that sort Of person, anyway we are coming over to see you, that's OK by me. Yes  they came, and searched my van then they wanted to know where Bud lived, l said  you are on the wrong trail, not them, they didn’t want to know, so they searched  Buds belongings nothing, next l got a call its OK everything found, its the next  door neighbour, to the woman concerned, so from now on we don’t go into houses  ,when the people are at work, and leave us the key, we make a rule that someone  has to be there while we are working . My daughter Rosemary is going steady with  a lad from Littledownham, as our house has been a cafe for all our daughters  mates, with B,B,Q,s ,and so forth it was bound to happen, now remember me saying  the name Harry Godbolt would be coming up again, well the lad she is going out  with, is Harry’s Grandson, small world, l wonder if old Harry remember the time  the R,S,M, tour him off a strip for walking on his parade ground Gods Holy  ground, the young lads of today all have long hair, and sideburns, bovver boots,  and trousers with bracers, what a fashion, and the girls in mini skirts, some  look as if they are only wearing a belt as they are
so short, or they are in  mini leather shorts, with big clumpy shoes, when they take them off they are six  inches shorter in Height, a crazy world of today, the thing is the boys, and the  girls look like the Bumble bee’s cartoon, a body with thin spindly legs with big  boots on (remember) Walt Disney cartoons. Jack Zaschke has come to see me, he  has a good plan, he ask me to go in partnership with him to purchase the Old  Post Office, must have time to think about it as l have only just got over the  trauma of the shop catching fire, and loosing a lot of money, l am just getting  on my feet again as l was at rock bottom, l said come back in two weeks, and l  will give you my answer, l weigh up all the pros, and cons, and decided not to,  in a partnership l think we would have clashed it wouldn’t work, we are friends  now but l think we would have soon been enemy’s, we both have different out  looks on life, Jack did go on to purchase the old post office, and made it in to  a major store in the City of Ely, l suppose you could say Jack has made his mark  in Ely, but there are always some people think different, and say another bloody  foreigner come to make a fortune , well Jack
was willing to money where his  mouth was , l didn’t see any local bidders for the Old Post Office if Jack makes  a fortune good luck l say . Well l can say this about Jack , he was a German  P,O,W, he had only one choice when the Germans over ran his little country of  Czechoslovakia, to join the Germans or be shot , after the war , Jack had no  homeland to go back too as the Russians were there , Communist ruling , so with  nothing to his name Jack stayed in England , worked hard ,and started a new life  married a local girl , with
everything against him he made it , and the language  barrier , but he still have trouble saying his Vs and Ws , l don’t know why we  keep saying he is German, he is Czechoslovakian , over the years Jack did go  home to visit 

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his home  land, and by that time his parents had died ,all the parts he new are now bulldozed down, even his house he was born in, all gone ,he always say people of  England don’t know how lucky they are , not to have had to be ruled by force of  another nation. At times when we get together, and talk, the War comes up in
our  conversations, and what l can make out it was no different in the German services to ours, they had good officers as well as bad ones also Sgts, how Jack  talks l think he was pleased to be captured, and no more fighting, l also got to  know another German his name is John Muller, and he stayed, and married a local  girl. Sometime after Buds first clash with the law , another wrongly arrest for  Bud, this was few years later, Bud always had long hair, and a beard, and as l  said there isn’t a lock that Bud can not pick to my knollage,
he was held in the  police station for breaking in to a Pub, and opening a one armed bandit or  gaming machine what ever, l got this phone call from the police, and told what  had happened, l said rubbish not Bud, yes l know he could do it but its not him,  oh yes it is the description fits, well you have the wrong man, l go to the  police station but as usual no one believes me, after some time the police get a  call from out of the county they have arrested a man, and he has confessed to  the Ely break in, and also this man had long hair,
and a beard, this really had  upset Bud so we got a solicitor to write a strong letter to the chief of police  about the incident, a reply was sent to the words, my officers were only doing  there job, yes they were but they also could listen to other people, but soon  after that the officer concerned was posted to another station . Derrick my  brother-in-law has left the R,A,F, after two years national service, back on the  railway as a stoker to real steam trains, one day he said to his mum l will  never make an engine driver, oh why is that , you see
my eyes are not farenough  apart, to See through each side of windows at the same time, at the front to see  were the train is going, l think she clouts him, and he was stoker to the train  that carried all the mourners from Sanderingham House to London for the funeral  of King George VI . We all used to go to Mary’s
,Mum and Dads for tea on  Sundays, now John has a girl by the name of Barbara, Mary and me, Derrick, and  one his mates, there was always Mum saying, don’t let me catch you lot staining  my white table cloth, on the table was salad, home made jam, cheese, beetroot,  and lots of cakes, now after all that trifle, spots
do appear on the table  cloth, so that Mum does not spot them we move dishes over the spots, now if some  one wanted something off a dish , it was like playing draughts . Now Johns young  lady Barbara funny how things happen well while l was in the Army l had a mate  named Tommy , his sister married a man from Adelaide which is about a mile  outside Ely , and he wonder if Mary new of the family , but not as then , till  John brought this young lady home , so we find out that she is this mans sister  ,small world , so Tommy like me are working hard, but sadly Tommy died before we  were able to meet again.

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One Sunday  we were all there, and some one said we are off to the pictures , Mum said  what’s on, someone pipes up, and said the roof, she said that sounds like a good  murder, and we all laugh, Sunday opening of cinemas was greatly frowned on by  the Church ,and Ely Cathedral or anything else that was going on, as l said the  War has changed people, they are going to do what they want, not what the  hierarchy want us to do, the barons have gone, and so has the Domineering church, of all faiths, why the Church is against cinemas, and other places opening on Sunday, its because there will be less bums on Church phues, now no one is stopping people going to Church if they so wish, people have joice now, you see the Church has always ruled with fear, no one is frightened of the Church anymore, World WAR TWO saw to that, all the praying in the world never stopped a soldier being shot, or a civilian being killed by a bomb, having said
  all that, l still think the Church has a place for certain people who need reassuring, and guidance in this rough hard world . Back to my workman Bud, he is a bit of a prankster like me, when work had to be done in the work shop, the steel bench was sixteen foot long, and four foot wide, that gave us plenty of space between us, now if Bud was welding at one end, l had to watch him as he would work it that the metal l was working on would touch his metal by laying tools so they touched each other down to my end, and as he started to weld l would get a tingle in my fingers so that l would Jump, he would look at me straight faced, and say did you get a shock well how did that happen, and laugh But l usual got my own back on him, such as putting grease on his hammer shaft on the under side as he picked it up a hand full of grease, l used to say pay back time, this is how we got on so well . Well one day the on R.A.F.Mildenhall the M.O.D. and the U,S,A,Contracts Dept came to see us , now the Yanks as we call them love pressing buttons that open doors, these are electric locks that open on certain buttons that are pressed in sequenced, now we have never fixed one before so we are in the dark, but they say can you fix them, l wink at Bud, and say yes no problem (liar)so during the day we cook up a story, and ask if we  can take the lock with us as we want an early start, and you don’t get here till  nine am, yes that’s OK so we sign for it, take it home, lay it all out on the  bench wire it up, and set it to some numbers then press (bingo) it works, to  this lock there are about 500,000 combinations, put it all back in the box reseal, work next day on the job fix lock perfect ,M.O.D. blast you two are good, its like this when you employ us you get the best, little did they know we  spent three hours working it out the night before, but from then on we got to do  all these locks on all the Military Bases, later on there is a nice little story  to one of these locks. Now on Mildenhall base there’s a gate guard on number two  gate opposite side of the road to Mickys bar, this guards surname is Alfreard he  is of German decent other Wise a Kraut to us exservice men . Well you must  remember 

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the war  hasn’t been over that long, and of those times, that was said, but this Yankee  kraut has took a dislike to me, l am being checked more than average by him, so  l thought l would get my own back, l go in, and out of the gate about six times  in a row l thought he would get the message, not him, so off l go to
his  Officer, and let him know what’s happening, all l got was he is doing his job, l  thought no help there but within two days he’s posted back to the states, and a  few days later the Officer came along, and said OK now, yes thanks, nothing else  was said , he had to say my men are doing there job but he also has to be seen  not to upset the British Nationals, Anyway it's my Country,99.9% of the time  ,,we get all the help we need from the Police guards, but there is that one who  wants to upset people. There’s a M,O,D, Clerk of
Works by the name of Dick  Fuller a man like myself who knows building work from A to Z , l have to deal  with him quite a lot, and his American counter part, well a new American came  over from the states, and Dick introduced me to him, now this mans name is  White, its really Rudy White a SGT, and he is black l  mean black, so l give a  little smile, he looks at me wondering why l am smiling, so l said l have got to  tell you, he said (shoot) so l did, its like this in England we always call the  person who’s name is White ( chalky ) , he
thinks for awhile then says, you can  call me chalky if l can call you Limey, done we shook hands, well we get on  famous, and keep people turning there heads, a Brit. calling a black man chalky,  then one day we were at the passenger terminal to look at the entrance doors  from the unloading area, a plane had landed with fresh intakes from the states,  and as they past us he would shout out hi limey look at this, and l would say  just coming chalky well the look on there faces, a limey calling a black man  chalky, this was our little bit of fun, and no harm done, but a great friend  ship blossomed from this all barriers broken down, sadly after a while he  returned to the states, We did keep in touch but he got posted again, and  contact was lost . My
neighbour is still always wanting to pick an argument why  l cant make him out, its this is not right that’s not right, the thing is he not  only has a go at me but all the neighbours, a friend who owns the garage about  four house away, everytime, his men work late he’s after him for making a noise  its only very occasionally it happens, and they shut down well before nine p,m,  no one is right, only our taffy, yes he is Welsh, maybe he should go back to the  Rhonda, hill two cave one . Now my youngest daughter had to be brought in to  line as
she was getting a little bit too big for her boots yes l lost my temper,  and hit her, l also broke a glass shelf, she went to her bedroom but after a  while, came out, and Said l see someone broke a shelf Dad, now what do l do but  laugh, and that was the end of that, after that she realised, she had to toe the  line. Back to the locks again, in the mean time the T.R.1.s are now over at  Alconbury in purpose made hangers just for them and out of the way in there own  compound l got sent there 

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to fix some more of these electric locks, l already know the crews as they have just transferred there, so as l walk in l get greeted with its that limey, get him his tea, if not no work today ,that’s a repore l built up with them over the years, these hangers are over the other side of the air field, and they have a new office block, now one of these locks have got to go on the Colonels office, now this is easier said than done, lock all fixed, and working to my combination, all the Colonel has to do is turn a special key on the in side, and  put his own numbers in, easy job done Colonel knows what to do,or does he, lm  off ,but l didn’t get past the main gate, the guard stops me there’s a Colonel  wants you to go back, and fix his lock, l look at the Guard he smiles,
and he  said you only have to put up with them for a few hours we have them all week,  perhaps years, we laugh l said it happens in our services as well , he laughs  again and said thank God for that . At the Colonels office l take off the lock  reprogram it, and get him to punch the numbers in then fix it, now its only me,  and the colonel now the numbers, so on my way out l say to the SGT in charge,  all l said don’t let the Colonel fly tonight, didn’t know he was behind me, and  in a loud voice OK Holden point taken, and smiles, we all did . The A10s or  Thunderbolts are arriving at Alconbury, queer looking aircraft, but highly  moveable, and aerobatic they can turn as we say on a sixpence, or in U,S,A, a  dime, there nick name is Warthog, later on l get to know the crews, that will be  another story . Holidays come, and go, sometimes back to Dorset,
and other times  Yarmouth or Hemsby, maybe Caister on sea, the trouble is working for yourself  you are under a lot of preasher, and don’t know it till you are on holiday then  its hard to unwind for the first two days or more . Life is a bit better now  after getting over the set back of the fire at the shop, l don’t think l will  ever totally get over it but we have to move on in life, every Christmas the  wife makes a different cake, we have had Snowmen, Fatherxmas, Yule log, and  Igloos, the girls loved them, and she also makes all the Christmas trimmings, we  try to make it as a great day as possible, even the ponies, the cat, and the dog  gets a present. I have a funny story about Christmas later on it came a surprise  that l couldn’t get away from, just
because the other person had no sense of  humour. Well it looks like wedding bells soon as Peter, and Rosemary are  engaged, l call him brains as he went to Soham Grammar School, he is a grafter  as we Norfolk people say, meaning a hard worker ,also Alison has a boy friend  from Littleport, his name is Alan Arnold ,nick name ( Arnie) another hard  worker, so the family is getting bigger ,we play cards, and have a few drinks, l  am always the looser, l think they cheat me at cards, and drink my whisky, they  think its great, so all systems go for the great day, me l am there to foot the  bill, but Peters ,Dad said he will go halves with the reception, that’s a big  help, and less of a load on my mind . 

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Rosemary  and Peter make a list of families, and friends to the reception, l  think the  mothers had the final say, and who sits were, and what. My daughter is getting  married, she’s no longer the little girl who put my hair in curlers, and  lipstick me up, but a grown woman, l begin to feel old ,Rosemary is like her  Mum, she can sort all the money out, and stretch it, l see her sorting Peter  out, like Mary sorted me out, he is going to get a girl in a million, like l  got, we book the Drill Hall in Ely for the reception, through Les Langford who  runs it as a youth club, we order a bar, caterers, tables chairs etc., and a  Disco. All we have to do is wait for the day to arrive, and just hope things go  according to plan, the council have an area with hard standings
on with all the  connections for Mobil homes, now Bernie has a Mobil home, and l purchase it for  them, we just have got to wait for an empty site, there’s a few repairs to be  done, and refurbished other wise bingo . Council houses are still in short  supply this is the quickest way to get a house, it put people on the
waiting  list a little higher up the ladder. At times the cash flow gets a bit behind,  just because someone hasn’t signed off the paper work on the ministry bases,  this does not make Holden a happy man, if some can do it why cant the  others,  now another American has arrived in one of the hangers, he is a K,C,135
Aircraft  engineer otherwise (tankers)he is also of Mexican descent , put he calls me,  Pierre, so l said right mate, from now on he’s a Wet Back, and he roars with  laughter, as he has never been to Mexico his family came to America in the  1800s, and then l met what l thought another Mexican, but he turned out to be a  real Indian, and his mates said don’t turn your back on him, or might get a  Tomahawk in your back . You see when all barriers are broken down there’s no  problems just great fun ln having a go at each other, yes they still call me limey or Pierre ,sometimes there’s a lot of explaining, to do as there sense of humour is not like ours . Back over to Alconbury l have got to repair some sliding doors to the bomb dump, now to do this an escort has to be with us all the time, where we go he comes too, no big deal to me l just get on with the
  job, the young guard assigned to us has just come from the states been here about a week, the guard Officer who knows us, said we are sending a jeep with you, now a jeep in American terms is to us a young rookie first time out alone, l said we will break him in, he said l am sure you will , so off we go. We start the job, and then a break we get talking to the young lad, l said what  do you make of England, he said its nothing like l expected, oh why, well DAD  was here in the War, didn’t he tell you what we were like oh yes he did, he  pulled the wool over my eyes, oh yes how, he said everyone in England wear  bowler hats, and have an umbrella on there arms, well we used too, some city  gents might but that’s in the past , you are no
different to the people in the  States, no l suppose not, we do speak a little different, and our sense of  humour is different .

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Then l said l hope you are not going to be like some of your guys, that stay in the barracks for three years, not me he said l want to see as much as possible of this Island, well the place is full of history, there’s lovely scenery, and then  there’s the coastal towns best to visit in the summer, your best bet is to go,  and see the base lmformation, in the base library, my Officer said anything l  want to know ask the limey, l said oh did he ,yup, then he said why do they call  you limey, l said don’t you know ,noop, well back in the days of sailing
ships,  it took weeks or months to get anywhere as they relied on trade winds, the  seamen often eat too much salted pork, which gave them a skin rash called scurvy, and to counter act it they found drinking lime juice kept it at bay, so the limey was born, so from then on Brits were limeys, OK l must write to my Pop  , l bet he don’t know that, it seems as this lad, and his Dad are like two peas  in a pod. Yes there are Yanks that are just ordinary guys, but when you get one  that shouts his mouth off, we tend to tar everyone with the same brush, that’s  life, well while we are here at Alconbury l will tell you the day we were in the  middle of the airfield, and about fifty yards from the side of the runway now  this runway is one of the longest military runways in Britain, this is  midsummer, and roughly midday there are nine of us, five yanks, two M,O,D,
and  two of us, we are to put up new tacking signs, everything going well till one of  the yanks got on about Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier, and what they  had in planes that could break the barrier, well we just said oh yes with a  pinch of salt, till out of the blue this aircraft approached us, level with the  runway, and flying at about one hundred feet up, do you remember the Lightning  made by English Electric that had the speed of Mac 2 it was two jet engines on  top of each other, and a pilot on top, he came down the runway like
a bat out of  hell, and at the end of the runway he pulled it straight up, and climbed out of  sight, l heard a yank say Jesus Christ what the hell was that, we just said, oh  just one of our super sonic fighter planes they call it the Lightning, never  seen one before, they didn’t now we had any, well we Brits tend to keep things  to our selves , funny for the rest of the time not a lot said from them, the  plane did three runs then flew off, that’s when l feel proud to be British. I  get a call from Forest Heath Council Newmarket they want some council house  windows repaired in the Exiling Road area, so l make an appointment to meet who  l know as Ginger Johnson, Clerk of Works ,we go around the houses take notes of  what’s to be done, well l get the shock of my life he swears at the tenants,  this man swears every other word, yes l swear at times, but not in front of  Ladies, they just say, oh that’s just Ginger’s way of
talking don’t take any  notice but at least he gets the repairs done, the Other
chap before him took  months, at least Ginger has the women on his side, and
that’s a good reference  for a council employee, a man on top of his job,
everyone happy.

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Now its  the Wedding day, Mobil home complete, water on, and all connected , all waste  pipes connected, and the electric all working, ready to move in, right Holden l  thought my little girl is going to start a new life, l just hope things go  smooth for her, but who can tell what’s round the next corner, l suppose l have  been lucky in life so far, as some of my mates that l left behind will not ever  see their daughters getting married, or ever know what married life is about,  some of them were just another soldier doing his job, most just had nick names,  there real names l never new, l was lucky as most of the people in our squad  were together all the time, as l said the ones in the other squads just had nick  names, but still your mates, Stop getting morbid
Holden it's her wedding day, l  expect l will have a few whiskeys, as our Doctor friend will be there, and he  loves a tipple. Today’s the day, Holden in his finery, and my Mary looks as she  always do lovely, Rosemary ,and Me are the last to leave the house, on the way  to the Church l don’t know what to say to
her, l feel choked, and proud she  looked lovely in her wedding dress, and she’s twenty-one the same age as her Mum  when we got married in the same Church although, as l have said l am not that  religious ,but everyone loves a Church Wedding so we go a long with it, and  don’t say hypocrite there are lots Of
things in life we don’t agree with but we  have to go along with them for the sake of other people. Arrive at the Church  St. Mary’s Ely we walk to the door lots of cameras clicking, and one or two wise  cracking, that ease the tension a bit, as l am a bit up tight like going into  action not knowing what’s going to happen, and l am only going to give her away,  after that my jobs done, from then on they are the centre of attraction, Peter  looked smart in his new suit, and long hair plus side burns, that’s the fashion  of the day, Rosemary what can
l say she looks really lovely, and a lump in my  throat, photos all taken off to the sit down meal now the speeches, and the best  man reads the cards, all over its dance time all the youngster’s on the floor  its rock-un-roll time, the bar is open after one or two whiskeys l feel more at  ease, time to pack up, and see them off l stand at side of the car, and off they  go, l just stand there, then a hand on my shoulder, and he said she’s gone to  make a new life, come on we will have a drink at the bar, yes, l was thankful he  made me come have a drink, it made me pull my self together, l really am a big  softy at heart, although l was a paras we are still human . Not many months  after the marriage we are told, lm pregnant, lm going to be a Granddad l thought  great, but the wife said l am not old enough to be a granny, so that’s how Nanna  came to the family now everyone calls her Nan. With Rosemary, and Peter married  30-6-73, and getting on with life, now she pregnant, the baby should born late  June74 or early July 74 that’s something else to look forward too, and my Mum is  going to be a Great Grandmother, all l can hope for is that everything goes well  for her, all l can
do is just sit back, and wait for everything to happen. 

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There are  less unemployed now, the Country seems to be getting its fair share of the market over seas, l hope its not a flash in the pan, and back to dome, and gloom, the only trade that’s falling behind is the building trade, but that’s an  up, and down industry anyway, l still have plenty of work to keep me going
for a  while yet . Peter, and Rosemary get a council house at Soham a very nice place ,  and will be better for my Grandson Iain, yes l have a grandson born 3-7-74 now  to get the Mobil home off the site down to mine as l have plenty of room to  store it nearly an acre of land, also Cannon Hurd has just died as you know my  Mum was looking after him, we go to the funeral at his home Village, Mum is now  on her own, and l cant see her on her own, and so far away so l surjest she  comes with us, not on your life, l will get a place of my own,
maybe l thought,  now she can stay at house of the cannons till she ready to move that’s in his  will, and she has got to be paid for the rest of her life from a trust fund he  Set up, well in the end it was agreed she come to live with us only if she had  Rosemary’s Mobil home , done at least we can look after her . Peter and Rosemary  now have a daughter Vicki born 30-3-77, yes a Granddad again, and Mary in the  last few years has passed her driving test, learnt to swim, she slimed, and  learnt to ride Alison’s horses, not bad for a shy little girl l first new, the  trouble is she never got the encouragement at home when small, not like my Mum ,  go on boy have a go . I get the Mobil home all connected up, and telly, all mode  cons, she comes, and give it the once over, that’s mine no arguments , who’s  going too anyway, no one argue with Mum, at nearly eighteen, and in the army she  still clouted me, but we made her come and have her meals with us, yes l will do  that, l think she had done her share to the world, now she can sit back, and  watch tele all day if she wants. But Mums up to her old tricks again, the chap  who works for me Bud, well Mum was going to mustard his sandwiches, and make him  peas pies in stead of apple pies, but Mary stopped her as she said l think  that’s all the food he has to last him all day, But she did play other pranks,  what a lady . Mary has bought me some concrete moulds, for making blocks that  look like randum rubble, paving slabs, and wall features, now my grandson lain  is with us for the weekend l am making wall features all nice, and fancy, l have  about a dozen made, and young lain thought l will walk through them, and he did,  well l shouted at him, and
Granddad never did that before, so Nanna is the next  best thing to get out of the way, Nan is giving him a bath, and she said you  come, and talk to that boy, so l creep in, and say watcher mate having a bath,  his little old face just lights up, so Granddad is back in good books again. Now  Mary from time to time gets her own back on me, for the pranks l play on her,  this is one of her favourite ones, she waits till l am out of the shower, and  put her hands under the cold tap then grabs me , now l hit the ceiling and my  shape is imprinted on the ceiling. 

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Her hands  are like ice that’s one back, and laughs. We are now preparing for another  wedding, this time its Alison, and Alan a date been fixed, this is going to be  different, the Church they going to be married in is at Chettisham just round  the corner from our bungalow, no cars just a horse, and trap, It's what we call  a governess trap, and l have got to ride in it with her. But before the wedding  day Mum dies, 30-3-78 now its who to contact, her friends, and people who new  her, so l put an add in the Norwich local paper of her death
, and times of  burial at Chettisham Church l had no ldear who would come from Norwich, but l  new she was always in good company, and spoke about lots of people, well the day  of the funeral l got the surprise of my life who turned up, there were business  people from all over, one stands out, the boss of Gammers Cider at Hethersett  Norwich, there was the Dean, and lay preachers , people from London, she always  said you don’t know half the people l know , she was right, l did get introduced  to Jack Holbert and Siserly Courtney once that was great, l think why Mum got on  well with people, was it that she never put on airs, and graces, and never  decried people down if they had failed in something, she used to say well pick  yourself up, and have another go at something else, l never heard her moan if  things weren’t quite right, and l am certain things were tough at times, she  always come up smiling, so on her head stone we wrote, LIFE’S TOIL DONE LIFE’S  RACE WELL RUN LIFE’S VICTORY WON NOW COMETH REST. Well lets get on with the  wedding, date set 26-8-78 a large hall booked at the further education centre in  Chapel Street Ely, Derricks Wife Josy
decorated the cake it was lovely, but l  had something up my sleeve for cutting the cake, lets get back to the way to the  church, Alison told all her mates to come, and friends see me at the Church its  first time you will see me dressed up like this, well Alison is mostly in jeans,  and denim top a right scruff, its the day l ride with her to the church in this  horse, and buggy, now imagine Victorian era a lady off for a joint in a horse,  and buggy, a white long dress to the ground, a large floppy hat with a bow a  round the brim, and a sun
parasol she looked a right madam, and the Church was  lined with people just to see her, just great proud old Dad again, ceremony over  down to Ely for the sit down, all the speeches over cut the cake, now its me,  well l new the icing was going to be hard as Josy said she had to make it hard  as there were three tiers
and in between the tiers wine glasses with flower  heads in them, so up they get shouts are coming cut the cake well the knife will  not go in, so from behind me l go and fetch a club hammer and hard chisel , well  all hell let loose with laughter , someone said trust old Ted Holden to think of  something like that , at least it will give them something to remember. 

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Before l  go any further, l better mention that my wife made the Wedding Cakes for Rosemary, and Alison, and Josy decorated them, buying that cookery book before we got married, l think it was a good investment. After the wedding Alison put her flowers on Mums grave, and on went the ribbons to my bee hives to tell them that one in the family, had got married l also did it for Rosemary, an old superstition but if it pleases someone l do it ,there are lots of superstitions  about bees, heres one, A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon A swarm of bees in July is not worth a fly,  and it's true. l have now kept bees since Alison was at school, her rural studies teacher had some at school it all started through him . It started like this, Alison came home one day, and said Dad do you know anyone who has bees , yes l do, will he sell some to the school, l will find out, well the person l saw said if we fetch them we can have all his hives, there were about six hives but only two had bees in them, so the teacher said l only need the live hives so  l had the empty ones, and just stood them in the garden, but within a week l now  have bees in one hive, never kept bees before so l am about to learn all about  bees, l got all the gear, and books now its hands on l found that if l just  spoke to them as l opened the top of the hive they stayed carm, and all movements slowly, l got to the stage that l didn’t have to dress up to inspect the hives l used to rub my hands on the bees wax they would settle on my hands and take no notice what l was doing ,bees are fascinating to watch, time to take  the honey from the hives that’s quite an operation, but between the wife, and me  we get all away, and in jars, l now have to register with the ministry as they  send some one round every year to give a clean bill of health as there are a lot  diseases they can catch, and can wipe out hole colonies in no time .
Alison, and  Arnie as we call him they move in to there house that they are buying in  littledownham, its Derby and Joan for us now, well around this time Mary’s  brother John who is in the RAF has been posted to Cyprus, Akriteria station, now  we are invited to go for a holiday, well Mary has never been out of the country  before, let alone fly in a aeroplane, the day arrives off we go the seats are in  the middle of the aircraft she doesn’t see much, we are meet by Barbara and  John, l must say jet flying is better than the old Daks more
comfortable, the  very first weekend its Battle of Britain dance then a wedding in the Greek  village in the mountains that was great, the pinning of the money on the bride,  and the bed dance, and a sit down meal that was great , l had young man looking  after me , and telling me what l would like to eat and what
not to eat , now in  Church the wedding is Greek Otherdox , three priests , bride and groom at the  alter , they have ribbons in their hair that are pulled out after the blessing  ,and everyone who is todo with the ceremony sign these ribbons , 

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Must tell  you about the Battle of Britain Dance , well what ever the R,A,F, do they do  well, the food , you name it , it was there , and a Spitfire carved in butter  ,about two feet across it ,and the drink flowed freely ,so in all a good night  out , next in line was the wine Festival in Limersol ,now that’s something , l  think everyone we met who ever they were you had a drink , and the old wine  makes the feet go different ways ,and the words don’t seem to flow as they  should, like trying to say ssssassages, and also during the time we
were there  we went to the Keo Brewery for a tour ,well we all went in Johns car left it in  the car park ,and by the time we came out l can swear he had four cars waiting  for us ,l am not saying l was brarmes and list ,but l wished the world would  stop spinning ,it wasn’t the wine l drunk it was the fumes of the vats, that’s  my story, and l am sticking to it . My brother in law John is now a W,O,1  (Warrant Officer) commonly known as God in service terms , well at one stage  John had to go out to a tanker that’s anchored off a buoy ready to pump
fuel to  the holding tanks on the base, his job to check the oil to be pumped a shore to  the RAF Base , now the boat that had taken him out there ,and had climbed aboard  , plus a few drinks in the Captains cabin time to leave, unbeknown to him the  boat ,to take him back to base had moved to the other side of the tanker ,John  climbs over the railings no boat ,drops in the drink (splash) back at the Sgts  Mess a message comes in SIR has fallen in the drink , service men for what they  are , paints a big sign , saying , WARRANT OFFICERS are not Gods ,they cant walk  on water ,well John had a Job living that down, good old service humour. Also on  the base was a man l met in my early days as a company Forman ,he was working  for the ministry then, he has since then climbed the ladder ,and is now at the  top a Superintendent of Works , that means he is completely in charge of all the  maintenance to the base , so we had a day together ,well we went all around his  sites he was looking after but there was more to his questions, and answers than  l expected ,he had two jobs with the government , l said snap ,so from then on  we talked more openly , he said he was working on a project that was about to  break at anytime ,just watch the papers ,and it did it was head lines ,people  were dismissed from the service ,some imprisoned ,and a lot of people were  posted to different bases ,they all were involved in selling classified  documents to the Russians ,part of the Russian fleet at that time were in the  Mediterranean just off Cyprus . After a while he was posted back to England, and  we met up again on the RAF BASES that the Americans were using ,we used to pass  the time of day quite a lot , and a bit more , then we both retied ,and lost  touch . The Falklands war is on the Para’s ,and the Marines are the front  runners its going to be a dodgy war so far away ,our troops are out numbered 5  to 1 so it means killing five of their’s to one of ours to break even , then one  night it was all on television as it happened the Sir Gallarhad had been bombed it 

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was full  of troops, it was slaughter they didn’t have a chance, my two daughters were at  mine at the time, it happened so they saw War as it really was, men with limbs  missing, and men burnt, l just said that’s War ,as it happen ,l think it shook  them to see it happening ,in my day there were no cameras on the spot as it  happened, l get a call to go around to different houses in the area to parents  who have sons in the Para’s, just to make sure they are OK , and someone looking  after there interest from the Para Association, and to see if they needed help  if there Sons were in hospital, not a nice job but someone got to do it. We get  a job at RAF Alconbury in the bomb stores again, this time to repair the  ventilator shafts, and putting new grids over the out lets, so no one can get in  or plant explosives, well about half way through the job, its everyone out , and  taken to a hut, blinds drawn so that the windows are blacked out, in comes a  lorry, and its going to unload bombs in one of the magazines, all done back to  work, its not, it is, the same magazine we are working in, we are not allowed to  see them unload them, but we can work beside them after they are stacked in the  racks, these bombs are supposed to home in on there targets, that’s the yanks  for you, what a grazy world . Then while we are the same base, same bomb dump,  we are to check all the posts, and wire around the perimeter fence, we get a  guard assigned to us he is in a jeep type truck, we are on foot, and its, what  we call a route march around this compound, so Yankee boy stays in the truck off  we go, about two hours later we are finished, Yankee boy has fell asleep in the  truck, so we creep up to the truck, and press the horn, hell he jumps, and for a  few seconds he don’t know were he is, we just laugh, but this is a court martial  afence falling a sleep on duty, l think he thought we would report him, l just  said you keep your mouth shut, and we will, thanks buddies, that’s one happy  yank. Now at this time there’s a new plane at Mildenhall, and special hangers  built for it, this is a new spy plane the SR 71, all is said about it, is that  it travels at Mach 3 plus, well the first time we saw it take off, it looked  like a flying pencil, and the ground shook with power from the engines, as soon  as it left the runway it went straight up like a bat out of hell, this hanger is  heavily guarded, its not long, its Ted Holden report to hanger 619, you guest  its the SR 71 hanger, l have got to fix
electric motors above the doors on a  beam to make the doors work automatic, these are queer types of doors, they do  not open side sideways, but fold in half width ways, at the moment they are  opened by hand crank, installing these motors at the press of a button, and hey  presto , a yank comes over from the
States to give us the gen on how to fix all  the cables to the motors , but the worst thing is the SR 71 is in the hanger  while we are doing all the work , just think if we drop some tools on this plane  l am not going home tonight , we are talking a few million quid here , but  thankfully we have Sgt Hannah in charge , that makes it easy to work , now my  Grandson is off school so l 

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mention this to the Sgt, he said fetch him to look at it, so l did, he sat on  the front wheel of it, the Sgt showed him allsorts of things about the plane,  but not me, l thanked the Sgt, l said to him you know what the play ground talk  is going to be, oh l have touched the Black Bird, he will be top man for a  while, yes l bet he will, lain used to come, and stay with us at the weekends,  and l would go, and buy plastic model kits of airplanes, and we would make them  up over the weekends, and paint them to the correct colours, now later on you  will see what lain is doing now, At Christmas l buy him a Macarno set so he can make things  with metal plates, wheels, little tin sheets of steel, and nuts, and bolts with  all the tools, l got it in the neck for buying it, he’s too
young for that, oh l  said we will see, well he soon proved them wrong in no time at all, he was  making, lorries, tractors, and airplanes, my motto is anything you do with your  own hands is also a brain builder, no one can not have enough knowledge in the  old brain box. I now have both my son-in-laws with me working, and one Christmas  it was two days before 25th Dec a rush job came up, so off Arnie and me go to  Alconbury to sort it, its the shower door to in the Generals suite for overnight  staying, well we get the job done, now to report it back to the maids rest room,  well about twelve are all drinking coffee break time, now there are British, and  American staff in this room, so with my sense of humour, who’s in charge of the  Generals suite , a Black Maid said she was, so l just said don’t bother to clean  it up now you can do it Xmas
day, and clean it properly, well this American  Black girl got up, l do not work on Jesus Christ’s birthday, then l got a  lecture on the Bible , now all her mates are in the back ground, and pulling  lots of faces, and taking the mickey behind her back, while l was getting a ear  bashing from a religious fanatic, l look around Arnie gone l am on my own, when  l did get a chance to speak l said sorry it was a joke, l was pulling your leg,  you don’t do that about Jesus Christ, l thought time l left, as l said some  people no sense of humour, if l had said the same thing to a British worker they  would have said only if we get double pay, l expect she was from the Bible belt  in USA . Sometime later l did meet up with some of her work mates, l said what’s  she like to work with, you only saw her for one day, we are here all the time  ,so we arrange for her to work on her own we keep our distance as she is waiting  for The second coming of Christ, l said he is a long time making up his mind.  Alison and Arnie are trying for a baby but no luck yet so she is thinking of  going on the fertility drug well we will see, lots of people who go on that  usually get twins. A contract comes my way to supply and fix shower screens to  bathrooms in the Housing blocks at Mildenhall , now l have fixed one or two  before , they are a piece of cake to fix , but knowing the Yanks we are going to  have trouble getting in the flats , we forewarn them with letters through the  letter boxes of days ,and times we are coming , well as you know the yanks have  a law to them selves, well today the day first flat call , yank not in , gone  out for the day, l new it, 

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try the  next one no luck, third time lucky, ask where are the others oh they decided to  go out for the day, they just said the limeys will be back again, right now they  can wait till last, next day they are waiting for us, sorry, we made other  arrangements, but we are here now , tough luck we have a schedule to keep you  had letters like everyone else , and plenty of time to let us know that you  would be out, l haven’t got time pissing around with you lot l have a business  to run , we will see the Officer in charge, that’s up to you, it will not change  my mind, now this Officer comes to see us, and in good old American English  starts to slag us off with what, we will do, and will not do, and you will do  the bathrooms straight away, is that so, yes, well lets put it this way l have  the materials l have the contract, and if your people think l am going to be  pissed around by them you have another think coming, they will wait till last to  show them that arrogance does not pay, and that’s good old British awkwardness,  how is it that most people in the world play ball, and one or two try to make  life a drag, so wait till last they did, l am glad l did it as it sharpened the  rest up, but by the time l got to there flats, they had moved ,to out of  barracks accommodation so the places were empty that made it easier. Then a  urgent message comes , Generals garage, up and over door will not work, this is  electric operated from his car, so off we go, get it sorted, and as we are  leaving the General comes home, all working, yes sir, that’s was quick, well its  like this Sir, l think from your side of the fence, your men tend to
look at  those two Stars on your shoulders, laughs l think you are right you know it  helps a bit, and then we all have a good laugh, a man with a sense of humour, he  also kept bees in the garden, we talked about them for a while, he said the  trouble is they don’t like the wife, tell her to remove all her perfume, and rub  bees wax on the skin, you tell her, she will shoot me if l said that, then  laughs, seems a nice guy, but then l am not in the service. Now with these spy  planes there’s a new radio signal its known as Micro Wave signal its a direct  line between two objects, anything in between, and in the way is bombarded with  Micro wave, if in the line it could burn the flesh if exposed long enough. Well  some work has to be done on these aerials, so a big turn off has to be done with  permission from the pentagon, that done up we go fix new aerials to existing  ones job done, report to signal office underneath aerials, what l didn’t know  was that whole office was lined with lead to protect him, what l was told that  the transmission was fast , clear, and in a straight line, it do not bend like  natural radio waves that can pick up interference. Back to the family l still  play hell with the wife like tying her night dress in knots, and allsorts of  pranks but some back fire, as you will see, as l said earlier l
joined the rifle  and pistol club in Ely so one night l said l am off for some practice are you  coming , no l have plenty to do here, OK , l will come straight back l will not  go to the pub tonight OK , now in the mean time our
nephew went to see Mary ,  and 

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said coming for a drink no Eddies at the gun club we can tell him to come to the pub,  come on don’t be so miserable, OK then we will tell Eddie, now in the mean time  l have changed my mind, and gone for a quickie at the Pub The Red White and  Blue, Mary goes to the gun club, Eddies not there, right they say we will
get  him, now in the lounge bar full off people, my old mate the Police Inspector ,  and a few off duty Policemen that l new from the days in the Fire service , now  in storms Mary l thought l told you not to go to the Pub tonight, everyone goes  silent, l just laugh as l know what she’s like, but the people in the Bar don’t  know her, then one of my mates breaks the ice, he said only Mary dare do a thing  like that, l think it was Dave Canham. Now while l am talking about this Pub,  yes its the Red White, and Blue the one l was in charge of in the rebuilding, we  all had knews of a new police officer moving to Ely station, now l know most of the police at the station so l expected to get a  low down on this new officer, from away, before l got
the history of this man,  well this what happened, one night early evening l thought l would have a  quickie in the Blue that’s what we called it, now as l go in there’s already one  costumer in there, looks like a sales man having one before going home, we pass  the time of day in general chat, then he said l better be off, and cook my meal,  l said not married then, oh yes, l am but the wife just sits around all day, l  have to do all the house work, cook, and all the shopping, l said oh dear not  very nice after a hard days work, l know he said, and then he went. So when l  got home l told the wife about this chap, she said he should sort her out, well  later that week l happen to be in the Pub again, and there he was with some  police that l new, and they were calling him Sir, so l walked over to him, and  said l believed you the other night, now it was a good laugh all round, l said  right matey you will not catch me like that again, then l got introduced  properly to him, this is inspector John Hepplestone, well a few weeks later, we  met again over a quickie, l noticed on his hand the skin had been cut or torn,  how did you get that, oh l had a run in with a Hawk, where, up in the Cathedral  tower, its got a nest up there, and they want it removed, as it could be a  danger to the workers, l went up to
remove it, and it went for me, and clawed  me, l said l would have loved to get a photo of it, don’t go up there its  dangerous, well later on l was taking to one of his mates, and saying, that was  a nasty thing that happened to John with that Hawk, what Hawk, oh you mean his  Budgie that bit him, the sod got me
again, you didn’t believe him did you, John  is a great story teller we also found out that his wife is a nurse at the local  Health Centre, she gave us the low down On John. A few years we met again over a quickie, l noticed  on his hand the skin had been cut or torn, how did you get that, oh l had a run  in with a Hawk, where, up in the Cathedral tower, its got a nest up there, and  they want it removed, as it could be a danger to
the workers, l went up to  remove it, and it went for me, and clawed me, l said l would have loved to get a  photo of it, don’t go up there its dangerous, well later on l was taking to one  of his mates, and saying, that was a nasty thing that happened to John with that  Hawk, what Hawk, oh you mean his Budgie that bit him, the sod got me again, you  didn’t believe him did you, John is a great story teller we also found out that  his wife is a nurse at the local Health Centre, she gave us the low down On  John. A few years later John retied from the force, but we kept in touch, and  still friends. There’s talk of starting a full bore range at Mepal, the old  firing range that the RAF used in the war, its on a farmers land, and he willing  to let us use it if we can get it passed with the ministry, that should be no  problem , as it was built to ministry standards then well the ministry are happy  if we just do a few things , such 

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as new  sand on the revetments , and the whole area cleaned up , all done , ministry passed it we are in business , shooting can begin , l already have a Rifle, l am  now going to purchase a Smith and Wesson pistol .38/.357 magnum police special,  l am also going to reload all my own shells, or bullets, what ever you
want to  call them, as l can reload 100 cartridges for about 3p each against 15p new, l  can reload 100 in about 1- 1/2 Hrs its only leisure time. Yes the love of  shooting ,its back, me against the little black dot on the target, its like golf  you have to do better each shot, and there’s the good days ,and there’s the bad  days in the end l have a few guns, 7 in all. I get some work in a newly built,  under ground complex at Alconbury, this has airtight steel doors to every  department, its three story’s down, allsorts of funny little things keep going  wrong, and l hate it, its like working in a coal mine ,never been down a mine,  but that must be like how it feels to me, its a bit claustrophobic for me, l  would never make a miner, but l will go as high as you like, this place is  really an underground command post, working in here ID, cards are warn all the  time so people can see them, in here what you see, you don’t see, no questions  asked, no lies told, the order of the day, this also applied to RAF Chicksands.  We were given the order to repair some doors at an American School,
now these  American Children are not restrained from doing anything, if they want they can  walk out of a class, or just do nothing, this to us is a strange going on, and  chewing in class, hell my head master would have blown his top to all this, they  have something about children’s rights, well this is what happened to us, we are  in the process of repairing these doors, and floor springs that close the doors,  and in this case we have in use electric drill, and electric grinder plus  electric cables all over the floor, now these tools in the hands of children are  very dangerous, as fingers can be lost or even a hand cut off ,the children of  this School are from about 8 to 12 years old, now two of these boys will not  leave these tools alone, we spoke to them about a dozen times but they seem as  thick as two short planks, will not take no for an answer, so no more to do we  get two wooden dowel rods about 1/2 inch die, and 3ft long the next time they  play about with these tools (whack) right across both arses, we are going to  tell our Dads they will sue you, that’s up to you,
Dads come storming after us,  who do you think you are striking our children ,and on and on he went, we just  stand there till they have had there say we are going to prosecute under  American law, you know the type, all mouth, and no brains, right that’s OK by  us, you don’t care no, only on one condition you now pick up these electric  drills, and electric grinder, and give it to your children to play with , we  cant do that, why, they will cut them selves, are but you are going to sue us  for stopping them playing with them, we have already told them about a dozen  times, talking has no affect on them, so we gave them the good old British  method, a short Sharpe stick across there arses, a bit of old fashion discipline  never hurt anyone , OK fellows we get

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the point,  no more said, we finish the job, the School Principle comes to see us, that was  touch, and go, not really, that wouldn’t have held up in court anyway, why, well  any Judge could see we were protecting life, and injury, he said you see how my  hands are tied, l said that’s what’s wrong, with too much freedom,
law , and  order goes out the window. We get a phone call from Cyprus, John and Babs coming  home on leave, Saturday night B,B,Q, at ours bringing a Demi John, of Brandy,  and Fruit, you get the beer, and other drinks in ,and food plus family, and  friends, Saturday arrives John with this Demi John, of Cyprus brandy, now as the  night gets on the way l am getting a bit loose tongued, so l start on John, as l  said before l do not have brother in laws, l have brothers so l can say what l  like, and no offence taken, it goes something like this, when Henry, and Me were  up the Irrawaddy paddling our sandpans with mess tins, and spoons across the  River, we shot better Warrant Officers than him, and we are drinking his brandy  ,now they think we should have some black coffee, so off to the kitchen we are  taken, l said Henry old mate this coffee got no taste your right mate ,well we  have to do something about that, we did we topped it up with brandy that tasted  better, but after that l don’t remember a thing till next morning with blood  shot eyes, every thing is so bright, so on go the dark glasses, and no sympathy  all day, but a week later one of the guests was
arrested for stealing money from  his works safe, he was there accountant ,and we drunk the booze he brought with  the money, yes he went to prison as there was more money involved, well a good  time was had by all ,I now have three grandchildren Iain, Vicki, to Rosemary and  Peter, and to Alison and Arnie, just
born Stephen, my little family is growing l  feel quite proud really, and lucky, l have never been over flushed with money  ,but there seems to be always enough to get by on, that’s because l have a good  wife that can manage, its a bit lonely at times l miss the house being full, but  Mary likes it as she says at last sometime to my self, we are getting a right  old Darby and Joan . I seem to be always fighting the Tax people as l think l am  always paying too much for a small business like mine, but the accountant says  its correct so pay up, and look big, it always leaves a nasty taste, may be my  accountant is not doing his job Properly, later on you will see what happens as  that is another story. This was income Tax l was talking about, now l move to  V.A.T tax this is to do with Custom and Excise people, and what a load of  walleys they are no ldear of
running a business, at least the Inland Revenue  people new what we talking about, as soon as an invoice is sent out you now owe  the custom ,and excise the vat, but you haven’t got your money yet, that don’t  matter they want your money ,but if the costumer do not pay tough, the excise  still want there money , this
goes on for a while till l have thousands  outstanding to me from the ministry , two Custom Officers come to see me , why  have you not paid , cant ,why , l haven’t been paid , that’s not our fault , it  is, its ministry money that’s owed to me , you still have to pay or we will  bankrupt you, oh we will see, we will 

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give you a  week to pay, l new that l wouldn’t be paid in a week, so a letter to the  Primeminester of the day, explaining what’s going on, within two days, l get a phone call from the VAT OFFICE, it was like, Ah Mr Holden how can we help you, we would like to send two of our Officers down to talk to you, they came, one
  said you sent a letter to the P,M, that’s right,want to see the copy, not really, why did you send it, it,s like this l am trying to make a living through  hard graft in all weathers, and at times beyond my control money gets
held up,  and when it does l don’t want stupid Pratts like you coming here telling me how  to run my bussiness, when you lot haven’t the guts to get off your arses ,and  try, all your types wants a good cushy job, and a good pension at the end of it,  and hassle everyone else in the mean time, that’s rather strong Mr Holden,  that’s meant to be, you saw fit to threaten me with bankruptsy, you see l don’t  run a fish, and chip shop where its cash over the counter, all my money comes  from the ministry by cheque, and at times l have to wait, and my policy is from  now on when l get paid you get paid, that’s against VAT ruling, may be it is,  and if l don’t get satisfaction now l will go further to all the Nationals  papers l think they would love this story, VAT bankrupt bussiness man, but the Government owes him thousands, point taken  they said, we will call it a day OK Mr. Holden you pay as soon as you receive  the money, why in Hell could you have not said that in
the first place, it would  have saved all this, and money, its cost me money being here, and your office to  try to prove a point plus P,Ms time, and a minister to reply to me, l think from  now on your office should rethink where action to be taken, yes maybe we will,  good day Mr. Holden, and from that day no more problems from that quarter. The  trouble is that when some people get a little power they become Little Hitler’s, you Vill do as l say, but  not with Ted Holden ,after a day or so l get back to the norm (still got the  paper work to all this ) . Iain still comes at most weekends, and at Christmas l  bought him a steam engine, we had great
fun with this, we were only allowed to  fire it up in the kitchen, its a big kitchen anyway so plenty of room, now Mary  (Nan ) comes in, and put some sausage rolls in the oven, now you two look after  them, and tell me when they are smelling of the cooking don’t let them burn OK  was the reply, well we get all steamed up, with the smell of mentholated spirit,  and steam from the engine we couldn’t smell anything else, well as the saying  goes, when brown done , when black buggered ,and these were the later as my mum  used to say, in comes the wife not a very happy Mary, get that steam engine out  of here, Iain says Granddad l think we are in the dog house , l said more like  the horse stables down the garden , so the steam engine was band for a while  from the kitchen , well we will have to revert to making a few more model  aeroplanes , l also make
him a soldiers fort with a portcullis ,and soldiers ,l  also built him a garage with pumps , and show room , so when he comes ,and stay  there’s plenty for him to muse himself with . 

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Now at  this time l get a set back in health, l have now got Angina, so the Doctor says,  l am now on little pills that go under the tongue every time l get a pain in the  chest, at first these little blighters give me a head ache, l get the hang of  them as soon as they work spit them out, l have now got to be sensible, and not  over strain myself, it comes as a bit of a shock to slow down, and l must admit  l have put on a few pounds, l love my food, and the wife is such a good cook, l  think shedding a few pounds is going to be a struggle, the order
of the day is  as soon as l get a pain, pill under tongue, and sit down till pain goes, do it  he said no matter where, OK l will but he didn’t say there would be good days,  and bad days, and for a time the bad days were a little bit frightening for a  start, people used to come, and say are you OK do you want a Doctor, no l don’t  want a Doctor just leave me alone, and let me be quiet for a while l will be OK  . l must try, and get over this up tightness or it could cause a heart attack,  so l cut out all work after 6 o’clock in the evening, but sitting makes me feel  worse as l keep thinking what has to be ready for tomorrow morning, so l slide  back in to the work shop, and do a little work at least it ease the tension,  after a while they bring out a spray that takes over
from the tabs under the  tongue, l get one, and its a hundred per cent better for me no more head aches,  and they don’t loose there strength like the pills do, l go for check ups, l am  told that l will never get better of this,
something l have got to live with,  its a big kick in the guts as they say for a active man . Well we get another  holiday in Cyprus with John ,Babs ,and Family but this time l take Mary on a  trip to the Holy Land or lsrial, we board a ship to lsrial at Limasol harbour  its a Greek ship it like crossing the channel , we have to hand in our passports  on the ship as we are not allowed to enter lsrail with them, its some kind of  argee bargee with Greeks, and lsriales well the lsrailes say they can still  come, all they want is our money anyway, arrive at
Haifa harbour met by gun  boats, and as we enter the harbour l point out to the wife those blastard jelly  fish are still here waiting for me, told you of them earlier on when l was here  before, that cause a bit of a laugh, we disembark to the coaches waiting they  all have signs saying which language they speak we head for the English but he  speak quite a few languages, Mary is going to see in a weekend that took me two  years to see so its a whistle stop tour, the coaches set off in all directions  this is to stop congestion at the different
sites we head off to Bethlehem, this  is just over eighty miles so on the way we stop at a cafe for a drink , and  toilet then off we go again to Bethlehem , and into the Church ,and then down  the steps to the cave , and stable were Jesus Christ supposed to have been born  , yes l say supposed to have been born , in this area there are dozens of caves  where people kept cattle , and lived with them , this is no longer a Jewish  place of worship, only a Christian pilgrimage now , and the Jews .,and Arabs are  still at conflict with each other , Jewish soldiers everywhere. 

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A Church  has been built over this one, yes it has a manger, and stalls for one or two  cattle, and a star on the floor where Mary supposed to have given birth , most  properly on some straw . In those days l suppose they would be goats, and donkeys, now what l have just said, l wrote early on in the book, but l never thought l would be bring my wife to see all this, as when l first wrote about this, l had just sent my first letter off to her, The guide comes, and have a word with me, l told him l was here thirty odd years ago, oh yes who were you
  with, the Para’s l told him ,he smiled l was about eight or ten at the time, and  do you remember the song we sang about you, yes l do the poppy song, something  about red petals black heart ,that’s it, l said you have certainly cleaned the  places up a bit no Donkeys or Camels in the streets, and the fields are green  with crops, yes that’s due to irrigation, and hard work, and also the hills have  trees on them, yes we are putting back what the Romans took down to make  charcoal for burning, but the Arabs are still sitting on there arses
waiting for  Allah to provide if they didn’t go to prayers no less than five times a day, and  got on with some work they would have a much better living, we will chat later  we must be off to Gethsemane, and the church, and to touch the olive tree Jesus  prayed under, but on the way there are trucks, and jeeps on the road side all  painted red, l said what are they there for, that’s the ones we blew up in ,1946  /1948 they are memorials to our independence from the British, yes but the roads  were not like this, you have done a lot in thirty
years, we had too as when we  needed tanks to move, the roads had to be good, l remember them as camel tracks  now they are dual carriage ways. Arrive at Gethsemane we are meet with the  beggars with children in there arm’s ,Mary’s not prepared for this, she gets a  little up tight l didn’t warn her, now this is the first place where men in  shorts have to cover there knees, and women there shoulders, and head l am  prepared for this but a lot of tourists are not, this crazy thing about religion  what you should do, and can not do, at the end
of the day does it really matter,  well in we go to the church yes we have to pay to go in, and its nice to be in  the cool for a while because its midsummer here, and out side we visit the olive  tree supposed to be two thousand years old (l really wonder if its the same tree  ) its a very large cemetery, and to be buried here you would have to be some one  special its the Holiest of Holy burial grounds, out side on the road yes there  are two camels, to have your photo taken with, l said l would swap the wife for  the camels he refused, perhaps he knows how l am hen pecked ,? from this point  we can see the gate ways to Jerusalem now you are saying , l have told you all  this when l was here in the Army , yes l now but not with the wife and thirty  years on , most of the places have all been cleaned up , no camel trains, or  donkeys carrying heavy loads , and the roads are all tar-mac what a difference .  Just over from Gestsimminia is a new law building , very modern but built in  natural stone of this area , in keeping with the surroundings 

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Now it’s  on to Jerusalem, first stop the Wailing Wall, it’s had a face lift all round the  site, all very clean area now, to what it was years ago, a lot of the tourists  are amused at the way the Jews go up to the Wall, and put little bits of paper  in the creaveisers, then they start to chant, and sway, l am talking about the  Autherdox Jew with the long beards, this Wailing Wall is supposed to be the only  part that is left of a Temple , now time to move on to see the Golden Dome  Mosque that’s about fifty yards from the Wailing Wall, this is a Muslim Mosque,  in side it is the stone that Mohammed supposed to have sat on, Mohammed was born  in Mecca 569AD, and died 632AD, he also had something to do with Medina, both  Cities are forbidden to the infidels that’s us , the Islamic way of life was  proclaimed by him, that made him 63 years old when he died, at
this time the  Moslem faith is spreading fast, just like the Christian faith is spreading in  Britain, but now the Christian faith is on the wain ,but the Islamic faith is  spreading , that’s another bit of history, moving on to the
Church of the Holy  Sepulchre, this massif piece of rock inside this Church is supposed to be the  tomb that Jesus Christ was laid out in, and his body bathed ,now according to  history the tomb that Jesus was put in was out side the city walls but this one  is inside the city walls l think this needs a question mark against it ? , but  over a years there’s millions come here just to see it , having been here  before, l say to the guide is there still a place at the back of the Sepulchre  were we can get the olive crosses, yes l forgot, so off we go
to the rear, and  you kneel down in a little grotto a priest say a few words, and you give him  your loose change for a little olive cross, and we still have them as a momento  of the visit, now having said all this , within fifty yards, there are three  totally different religions Jews with the wailing wall, Moslems with the Golden  Dome Mosque, and the Christians with the Holy Sepulchre, and no one agrees with  the other, that’s why on every street corner there are guns at the ready like  when we were here, but the Jews are in control now , and theirs is the oldest  religion here is the Jewish Hebrew that date back to two thousand BC, we now  move on to the Via Dolorous that’s the way Jesus Christ carried the cross with  its fifteen stations points, instead of us going up to the hill we came down,  this is now turned in to a spice market and there was a donkey going up the  steps, its back to the coach, and a trip to the sea of Galilee just a drive past  then on to Nazareth that was another drive through but we do stop at a village  for shopping then back to Haifa as we were ridding though the country side the  guide was giving a running commentary about the Romans, and other Nations that  have ruled here . So its back on to the ship at Haifa l suppose the whole trip  was about three Hundred miles, for the people that have never been here before  it must have been an eye opener to see how the Jews live, as to how the  Palestinians live here, back on board for a nice shower, and a sleep
l know Mary  needs it, the food is very good on board, but at the time 

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of getting  our passports back when we were about to leave the ship , on my passport was  Mary’s photo as at first we had a dual one , then Mary said l will have my own  so she gets one , and a large cross out through the photo on mine, well l get my  passport OK, but Mary has to wait as they say one passport for two, we had a  hell of a job trying to explain to them, they had got it ,so we had to stick to  our guns, they looked through the boxes that they stored them in, nothing, right  get the Captain, well it’s funny it was under the counter
all the time, now  everyone happy, the best bit when we disembark, all other nationals one way, the  British another way, and we go straight through, l am ten feet tall, that good  old British Passport, John is waiting at the Harbour gates, l don’t think Mary  ever thought she would go to Israel or Palestine as l new it, l can say this the  Jews will never anymore turn the other cheek, l think they woke up with the  atrocities of Nazi Germany, l can see the Jews getting stronger, and they will  be a nation to be respected. What l also
noticed on leaving the ship, the  customs people just looked in hand baggage, and if they saw a fruit of any kind,  it just got thrown in a bin , the law is that no fruit from other countries is  allowed in to Cyprus this is to cut down on diseases, as Cyprus is a big fruit  growing country, they have very little thought for wild life, they shoot most of  the birds, and mammals the only insect that gets pride of place is the honey  bee, most orchards keep bees, another day out to the Roman town of Curium this  has a Chariot race track, Roman baths, large Villas, and an Amphitheatre facing  out to the Mederainion, this is high on the land scape, it looks if it will hold  a few thousand people, so one night we go to a concert there with the RAF Band  playing, and some pipers were there, no mics were needed as the acoustics were  so good, and the pipers played a lament as they walked from the top to the  centre stage that was brilliant, the clear night sky, and the MED with the skirl  of the pipes what more do you want, it just sent shivers down your spine. Then  on another evening l went to see the hatching of little turtles from the beach,  and that was also great as they have a save the turtle, they were getting to be  nearly exstinked around Cyprus, as soon as they hatch the sea birds are there to  take their pickings, that's why these people get as many as they can into the  water as
soon as possible. There was another evening a lot of Para’s had arrived  on Akiteria RAF Base, John had told them l was here, and staying with him, they said right bring him over tonight to the billets, l arrived to see them, and John was politely told now piss off we will look after him, and they did, wined,  and dined, and all the booze l could drink ,but why were Para’s at this base  some one is going to spill the beans shortly l can feel it, yes it comes out,  the Egyptians are thinking of having a go at the Jews, and Lebanon are set on  taking the Goulan hights, these boys are here to get the Brits out of these places if anything blows up ,mums the word, so John now you know after all these 

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years why  they were on your base . Now on this holiday John said l need a hair cut right l  will have one as well , so its off to Limersol , now this is ten in the morning  , well then we head back to Base first stop Sgts Mess now at five O, Clock make  way back to Bungalow his head resting on top of the steering wheel, 
peering  through the wind screen bleary eyed, and in first gear, every now, and  then, we  check our bearings through the maze of quarters, now John says don’t laugh when  we get in they will not know we have been drinking, we can hardly bloody well  stand let alone laugh, l think the first words when we walked in,
get in there,  and sleep that off, l suppose you could say that we are in the dog house, Cyprus  must be the best posting for any British forces, the beaches are safe, and  every- base has water sports there’s golf , badminton, trekking, and snow sports  in the Mountains. Moving on, l now have four grandchildren,
Iain, Vicki,  Stephen, and now Emma, what more can a man wish for, I have a brilliant Wife,  two lovely Daughters, four grandchildren, and two Son in Laws that cheat me at  cards, and drink my whisky, lm a millionaire. Iain is now eleven, and l have  bought a Merrytilla tractor cultervater, with this you can take the cultivators  off , and put on some wheels, and then fix it to a special made trailer, that  you sit on, and steer, l get lain on this, and in no time at all he is up, and  down the garden carting stuff for me, and in, and out, the
trees, little Vicki  its a job to get her to stop at the weekends, she’s a bit of a dads girl so she  stays at home, but lain likes getting here as we have clay shooting every Sunday  morning, and his shooting is very good, he is putting me to shame as he hit more  than l do, well we will soon have to find some were else to shoot as l am going  to sell this place for a smaller one, l am heading for retirement fast, yes we  get a new shooting range, down at the old sugar beet factory, which has been  turned in to a major warehouse, we are
allowed to use the land at the rear. We  finally get a bungalow, that will suit us in this place Littledownham, which is  empty, and the people that are buying ours are coming out of the RAF so there’s  no chain, everything goes OK we are in, and this place needs a lot to be done  too, so l am working all hours to get
it round, we completely revamp this place  ,when we moved in it was a farm bungalow the bear nessetesses, so the first job  the kitchen, all that is in there is the sink, one or two odd cupboards, a  broken cooking range, and a water heater over the sink ,everything out, and off  to FMI Cambridge cupboards, sink, and work tops, all fixed, and decor done  that’s more like it Next two bedrooms knocked in to one room for the lounge, and  a patio doors were the window is, and patio slabs out side that l made my self,  we are getting there, the village is great we were welcomed to the village by  the Editor of the parish magazine, a Mrs Kath Parr, at chettisham it was like  living with strangers all the time, as l am not Church going man so you didn’t  fit in, but
here its great everyone to there own, and that’s what l like about  it , the wife 

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likes it  as well, as Alison is just up the road from us , and there’s talk that Rosemary  might move here as well, that will be nice , Now just before we moved here from  Chettisham Mary saw an add in the paper that some expara wanted to form a  Parachute Regiment Ass in Cambridge a meeting at the Golden Hind Milton,
off l  go, the only person l know at the meeting is Harold Long a D-Day veteran, me you  know all about me, this chap who wants to form this P,R,A,in Cambridge, is a Mr  Brian Day, he said he thought it was time we got together again, l looked around  to see who’s there, not a sod from my lot or anyone that served in the far east,  and it looks the same for the rest of them, no one knows anyone, so that’s a  good start, getting to now each other, well it was finally agreed that a branch  to be formed, so everyone gave some money to start it off, that was for letters  paper, and stamps to get it going, one chap that came gave a houndred pounds, he  was an ex SAS After a few meetings word got around, and we soon start to fill  the ranks, l met a lot of Para’s that were in the same areas as me but at the  time our paths never crossed. Now two names come to light, if you remember at  the time of Norwich blitz there were two soldiers at the other side of Norwich,  one was in the Norfolk’s, and transferred to the Para Engineers section, Ted  Northrop, and the other a Bofor Gunner, Reg Raynor transferred to 6 Batt R,W, F  ,Para’s, now these two chaps have joined this branch of Para Redg Ass Cambridge,  after coming from the far east to Palestine l joined Regs, 6 Batt at Kafer  Viking camp, but Reg had already left for home U.K. we have a lot of chat to  catch up with, also another para joins our
branch, now this chap did serve in  the area that l was in, he landed at the same airfield that l dropped on too,  just outside Batavia (Jakarta)now, our paths must have past each other, and he  can prove that the Japs actually helped us to police the town, he was then in  the 22nd para Independent company, this is the first time we have ever spoke to  each other, its great to talk to someone who was out there, his name is Cyril  Richardson, well l can say this Brian Day of the 1st Batt Para is doing a great  job so far in getting this
branch off the ground, the name off the branch is  going to be called Cambridge 85 Branch P.R.A., trips, and outings are bring  talked about, one place is a pilgrimage to Arnhem, as there’s a lot of Arnhem  vets in the branch, and me not knowing anything of the fighting on the continent  as we say, and every Arnhem vet that’s in the branch not one of them fought side  by side as they were spread all over the place, all what the paras did in the  European War l know nothing about only what l read in books, if the trip comes  off l will get it at
first hand. What l cant make out is that 10,000 troops  dropped eight miles from the bridge, and only a company of the 2nd Batt Paras  got to the bridge about one houndred twenty men, l would have thought a lot of  heads should have rolled over that, this General Boy Browning, after this  military cock up, he was soon
on his way to India, were 

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he had to  take a back seat. Mountbatten saw to that , l think perhaps a message was sent  to keep him in line , well the trip to Arnhem did come off , it was a bit over  whelming as the Dutch people were so nice ,they turned out in their thousands to  see us march to the bridge , as l said l was not here at the time of the battle  but so long as you are a Para you got the same treatment, it brought a lump to  my throat, and the next day Sunday at the Cemetery where thousands, of Para’s  are laid to rest, and everyone had a tear in their eye’s
as the Children laid  the wreaths of flowers to each grave, a sight to remember, l certainly will, and  the Vets going to the graves of their mates just to stand there for a few  moments in silence. This trip to the battle grounds around Arnhem has given me  more insight to what went wrong, l think two things that stand out to me is lack  of good leadership, and the radios didn’t work, it seems no one new what to do,  l can say this the first thing old jungle Jim did was let everyone know what was  going to happen, and how he wanted it to happen, he always said if l go down you  lot know what to do, and you can carry on, that’s what l call good leadership.  When you think about it, 10,000 troops landed, and only 150 made it to the  Bridge, if they made it why weren’t at least another 1000 following in the same  foot steps as Major Frosts lot, and l don’t think it was a Bridge Too Far, it  was in good old army terms, one major cock up of the top brass, they turned  blind eyes to photos, that the rececce got, and radio intelligence messages, and  the whole force could have dropped right beside bridge on good firm marsh land,  that’s put that battle right. But l must say the Dutch people are a race on parr  to us, in sense of humour, and of habits ,and eating, they are also a country of  shop keepers, this is a nice little story ,we were walking in a shopping  precinct all pedesrinized, and out
side one shop was a toy motor car that if you  put money in the slot it rocks, just like the ones over here for children, well  someone said l would love to have a go in one of them, no sooner said than done,  this person was pushed in to it, now we have all the Dutch people around us, and  egging them on, money in away it rocks now get them out that, proved a bit more  difficult, now the Dutch are in hysterics, we all are, we do finely get them  out, the moral is, if it had been teenagers they would have been hooligans, but  exparas of Arnhem they can do as they like, they look at the Para’s, and say, to  them it was the beginning of the end of the war, it gave them hope . I still keep adding bits, and pieces to the Bungalow to make it more comfortable  ,Derrick has given me a large plastic tank six foot by four foot by two foot  deep that’s going to be part of my pond set up, now in the old laundry in Ely a  firm is selling big second hand fibre glass baths
about the same size as  Derrick’s so l get one, and l have a small round one, its digging out holes to  put them in, and running guttering to each one to make channels, l pump out of  one

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then to  another one so the water flows around and round , l go to the dykes and get water lnsects ,fresh water shrimps that breed rapid, good healthy food for fish.  The next thing to start on is a conservatory all along the back of the Bungalow,  that will be a plus to sit in, with the sun to keep it warm, part of it will be  partitioned off for a washing machine, and sink unit, plans made now getting  down to do the job, Derrick came over, and dug the footings out, and help me lay  the concrete, then it’s the brickwork to the height l want, then its concrete  oversite, and brickwork again, then on top of that it’s wood framework for  windows, the windows l am using are excouncil house windows Galva metal, all in  good condition l refurbished them they are as good as new, l put a flat roof on  top, solid as so many people put glass or perplex on top it gets
so hot it cooks  you. I have now got to turn back to Arnhem tour, as l said l now nothing of the  fighting in Europe, but while we were there, and having a nice cup of tea, and  cakes at a restaurant next to the Arnhem museum, there were two coaches on this  trip a lot of the people l did not know, but we all mixed in together, there  were four of us at our table, and at the back of me were four more people at a  table, we all were chatting away, and the ones behind me were talking about  flying, one asked the other, and where were you
flying, Oh in S,E,A,C, with B  24s, now l am ear wigging, he said l was dropping supplies to the troops on the  ground, now l must find out more from this chap so l turn round, and say when,  and what countries, he mention all the areas l was in, he said all the drops  were daylight, l said that’s correct as we had a ground to air radio so we could  tell the pilot when to drop that’s right he said, and also no parachutes to the  supplies that were dropped that’s right, if they had dropped supplies with a  parachute they would never have reached us as they would have been stuck up a  tree, and that meant maybe one to two houndred feet off the ground, so the  supplies came down with a bump and some busted open but we got vital supplies,  this mans name is Les Ladds ex RAF Flyer, now when this man was flying over us  all we could say the bloody RAF are always on time, and when we want it, l  suppose they were dropping from about 1,000 feet, now after 40 years l have meet  one of the crew that must have dropped supplies to our unit, everything he told  me matches in with where l was at the time, the world is a small place but l had  to go to Arnhem to find this man, the thing is
he only lives in Cambridge, and  after the war he became a Policeman in the Cambridgeshire Constabulary he also  has a brother Harry Ladds who was a Para living in Wisbeach, he comes to some of  our meetings . At the moment l seem to be jumping back, and forth but l have  just remembered one thing, my Mary in
about 1976 had lumps come in her breasts  so an appointment was made to see Professor Caine at Addenbrookes off we go, and  we were expecting to hear him say l will have to take your breast off, but no,  he said they are lumps from having children, but as she was 

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dressing  he said what’s that on your arm, Mary said it’s a mole but it’s started to itch  so no more to do he calls his assistance in, take a look at that, they take a  sample we will let you know, now within a week Mary is in Hospital, operation to  remove the mole, and a skin graft from the inside of her thigh, the understudy  to the Prof, said within months she could have lost her arm, as it was cancer,  she makes six monthly trips for checks, we were prepared about the breasts as we  had time to talk about it, but this as they say, was a
big smack in the gob, it  took the stuffing out of her, with the skin removal from the thigh, and the  graft on her arm, but as time went on she was soon back to her old self, ten  years on she gets the all clear, that l think was the icing on the cake, as  every time you go for a check up it’s the uncertainty that builds up inside you  that hurts, now the all clear brilliant. Peter has left me now, to work for  another firm that deals in steel erecting, and welding up carrying crates he has  gone as a subcontractor it will make it easy when he takes over his, Dads  Business as a milk rounds man to this area, and with Rosemary helping at  weekends, Rosemary, and Peter moved from the first council house just across the  road to another larger one, and they are buying this one, but they were not in  it long, they sold, and bought A bungalow it's a very nice place, but they will  have to sell again, and move to our village as his fathers milk rounds are in  this area. At the moment its only Arnie, and me working together, the country is  in a recession, Margaret Thatcher our PM, is trying to sort the unions out, as  they are trying to run the country, and with pay demands, and strikes, yes l do  think the unions have got to be brought in to line, but there are ways other  than this stand off attitude, and Arthur Scrargill, miners union chief called a  strike of coal miners in the hottest summer, everyone in the country could see  he was going to loose, yes Maggy has some good points, but to the working man,  she has become a dictator, l dought she will last much longer, someone will oust  her out. Well this year the Para’s from Cambridge Ass are off to Normandy, to  see the landing areas, and battle areas of D-Day 6-6-1944 and the night 5-6-1944  when all the paras, and gliders landed, we will be staying in CAEN a town  levelled to the ground, but has been rebuilt, we are going to stay at the  Cultivators Hotel, well we arrive, the
reception is bad, the rooms not up to  standard, so a few complaints all round. On this trip we have an American with  us he’s a friend of one of the guests, well on the way over he gave us some,  what we call American hype on how he landed at OMAHA BEACH, and how he crawled  over dead bodies to reach high
ground, now we all know it was rough, but some  times they stretch it a bit, well the first tour was to Omaha, and as we arrived  there was a EX British Navvy Officer giving a talk on this beach, well l can say  this what ever Marty the Yank told us was spot on as this ex Officer nearly said  the same things as what Marty said this chap was in charge of 

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a Gun Boat  to draw the enemy fire from the troops on the beach, he said it was just slaughter, so from then on, Marty got full marks, and he spoke French, next stop  the American Cemetery, that was an eye opener, and there’s thousands and thousand’s of white crosses, yes the Yanks did there bit for freedom, and paid
  the price, yes l know we tend to have a go at them, but they do tend to let there mouths run away sometimes. Next on the list is Point-Du-Hock, this is a Guns Casement on top of the Cliffs, now the American Rangers are given the job of scaling the Cliffs, and putting them out of action, and they did, to a great loose of men, but just a mile down the beach was just sand of a small incline, and capture the guns from the rear, yes l know anyone can see what should have been done after the battle. On the way back to the Hotel we call in at Ste-Mere-Eglise, now this is a village, which the American Airborne captured with some looses, and there’s one Paratrooper that landed, and got caught up in the Church masonry, and hung down the side of the Church, he played dead for a while till his mates cut him down, and to this day they still hang a replecure  of him on the side of the Church on June 6th every year, and this Paratrooper still makes the pilgrimage every year, he has become the star attraction of the village, like us all we are getting older. Calling in at Bayeux to see the tapestry, and a British Cemetery, and again young lives resting there for ever, we move on to a German Cemetery, we all go in, not to gloat but to pay our respects, yes its what l call typical German hard grey granite stone cross, and two bodies to a grave, you look down to the ground to read them, in the  cemetery  were some German exservice men, in passing them we spoke, and they spoke good  English so we chatted for a while, one common comment was, what a waste of young  lives, yes both sides, we aired our views, and we summed it up, all this was  because of one crazy man thought he could rule the world . Brian came, and said  we are leaving soon but after a few more minutes nattering the wife came after  me ,and all she said excuse me but coach is waiting for you, now off l go, and  Mary following well from that day Mary got a new name, Tiger Tank, as they all  said she sorted me out, but the truth is she was very polite
in front of the  Germans, to this day Tiger Tank still sticks. Next day first stop Pegasus Bridge  that’s what its called now, this Bridge was captured on the night of the  5-6-1944 it was a glider assault of three gliders the orders were hold till  relieved, a Major Howard was in charge, and yes they did there job, it took the  Jerry’s by surprise, this Bridge is a cantilever Bridge it opens up, straight up  to allow large ships to come through, and we needed that for the movement of  stores, there were very few looses in capturing this bridge .
On our way again  to another famous battle the Merriville Gun Casements over looking this area  this also happened on the 5-6-1944, and one of members was in this battle ,there  were 600 Para’s of the 

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9th Battalion para that left England that night 5-6-44 ,and only 150 Para’s  arrived at the D Z (drop zone), and Harold Long was one of them, well these Guns  have got to be put out of action so they regrouped, and
in they went all Guns  blazing, the Casements captured with half of the Para’s killed, only 75 men to  hold the area, the Germans that are still alive, was very few, ships are now  able to come up the river, Harold was wounded in the ankle but managed to carry  on till help arrived, these casements are a Museum now, and Harold’s photo is in  there. Off to Breville, and Ranville, orders for the 12th Battalion Para to hold  a cross roads this is 5-6-44 night before D Day, and they did but high  casualties, as we saw in the little Church cemetery all the white crosses stand  out, and one in particular a Lad of Sixteen a para he must have been a big lad  for his age, and l thought l was young at seventeen, he must have done the same  as me, putting his age up with a letter, l wonder how many more did this, but in  the end the truth catches up with you, there’s a
nice little story of a para  that dropped here, he raided a wine cellar, and got drunk on Calvados, he then  sprayed everywhere with bullets, so the name stuck with him, from then on his  nick name was calvados, the story was well known in the Battalion.. I must point  out the fighting that was done out here was very different to jungle fighting, most of the time they had day light, and could see where the enemy was, not like  us in seamy dark all the time, there were times that we were in the open ground,  but still the terrain was different, we are now off to Arromanche the place that  Mulberry Harbour was towed across the Channel, and sunk in the Bay, another  British achievement, like the famous Bailey Bridges, and PLUTO, Pipe Line Under  The Ocean which pumped fuel to France from England on D-DAY, at Arromanches we  meet a soldier who landed there on the famous day, he said as soon as the  landing craft hit the beach, down went the ramp at the front, he then said he  ran up that beach like a hare to reach the sea wall, when he reached the wall he  said he was so knackered he could not climb the wall steps, after a little rest  he said they were off again they captured the village with little loose, he said  it seemed the Germans were out of town for some reason,
the big concrete blocks  of the Mulberry Harbour are still there, these massif concrete hollow blocks  were made in England, and towed across the channel, and sunk at a certain  distance apart and bridged from block to block with bailey bridges, ships can  now unload in deep water all the time . The French have built a large Museum on  the front, so a butchers hook, (look) at this place, but to our surprise a coach  load of English school children are in there, we are now confronted with these  children as the school teacher said to them, any questions on the war ,go, and  ask these veterans, l think most of them got all the questions correct , l am  sure the Vets enjoyed telling them, even l listened as l new nothing of this  landing, one old Vet returns every year to a house on the front, they gave him  some wine as he rested so a friend 

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ship started , these little stories that are coming out , and there must be hundreds more l only hope they put them down on paper like me , We also visit Juno Beach ,and Sword Beach , we also visit the newly built Caen Museum of W W 11 the stuff  in there, and Film Footage that has never been seen before, allot taken
by local  people as it happened on 8mm movie camera then transferred to larger size so  visitors can sit, and see it on a large screen, time to pack, and home, another  bit of history. The next trip is a day out at Aldershot the Para’s reunion day  to meet old mates, and chew the fat of old times, this is really a mans day out,  but the wives do come to do a bit of shopping. H.R.H.Prince Charles our Colonel  in Chief of the Regiment, is here, first there’s the Band display then the  regulars march past then the Veterans, and after that we line
up, and H.R.H.  comes, and have a word with one or two Vets, well he comes to me this day, l  have a walking stick with me with lots of shields on it with the engravings of  the places that the Para’s have fought in, he took a shine to the stick, and  asked me where l had served, l said l was with your Uncle, Lord Louis  Mountbatten, you were in the Far East then, l gave him a brief ldear what l did,  and as he was about to move on, so l said ill swoop my stick for your sword, he  looked at me, and grinned l don’t think l will, us Para’s are a bit cheeky. He  moved on to another Para, he said to this chap, l suppose after the parade, l  expect you will get your free beer, not likely Sir only if you pay for it, he  said l thought you were buying me one, you are joking lm a pensioner, another  cheeky old Para, he was well, and truly laughing now, at least he spook to a lot  of them, and that made there day, lt made mine, l now have a photo of him  chatting to me, and later there’s another story of our H,R,H, the rest of the  day was spent chatting to old mates, and looking at the
new weapons they use,  most of the weapons have a magazine of 30 rounds, and can be fired single shot  or automatic, and the ammo is now reduced from .303 to 7.65 which is a smaller  bullet but the cartridge holds the same amount explosive powder, the bullet is  smaller but travels at a higher velocity, l wish we had, had these weapons,  these are Bren’s in a smaller size, the ones we had weighed twenty-three pounds  these half that weight, and more powerful. The last display of the day was the  Red Devils Free Fall Team, l would have loved to have done that, you can guide  them, and land on a sixpence, day over home ward bound a busy day now a cat nap  on the coach. We stop halfway home for fish, and chips supper, and a drink, and  talk about the day plus old pals that we meet, and also Prince Charles, and  Diana, the comments are not in his
favour, most are saying why in hell is he  giving up Diana for a woman that looks like a back of a buss, and older, l don’t  think the British people will ever accept Parker-Bowls, so he is on a looser he  could loose the throne over this, as a person to speak too, one to one he is a  nice chap, but he likes older women, me l am not going to be judge or jury on  this, as this could be the down fall of the Monarchy in England. 

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Well at  about this time I have a heart attack, it all started on the Friday about dinner  time when we were working at R.A.F, Alconbury Air Base , we were lining up a  Mobil Office Cabin when it hit me in the chest , I sat down thinking it might go  away , it didn’t so I said , arnie we are off home , and as soon as I got home  the wife phoned the Doctor, he came out I was feeling rough my chest was tight ,  he said it wasn’t a heart attack , could be something I had eaten , now the  ambulance is here as well, and the medics know me, they said to the doctor twice  are you sure you are not sending him to the hospital yes, OK now medics turn to  me , and said ring us straight away if it gets worse , right, the doctor said  just rest all weekend. This is Friday afternoon, come Sunday morning just  getting out of bed then it hit me, right in the chest like a red hot poker in my  chest the pain was hell, so the doctor was rung again , and the Ambulance came  as well this time a lady doctor she injected me the pain just went, I said  that’s better , you are still going to Hospital, I said I feel OK now , that’s  the drug I gave you , so off I go wheeled out to the Ambulance , straight in to  intensive care unit wires everywhere and a monitor behind me, and a nurse  sitting at the foot of the bed watching every move I make . On my right next to  me another man just brought in also with a heart attack he was in
Gruntney fen  doing motor bike trials, so this nurse has two to look after , the thing is I  feel fine now no pain a little light headed , but I suppose it’s the thing in my  arm, as they keep pumping something in to me , after three or four days they  take us into the main ward , I am not allowed out of the bed, I can only sit up  , now Rosemary our eldest daughter always said , if any of you two go into  Hospital don’t expect me to come , and see you, as I hate those places, so I  resigned myself to that , but who was the first to come , and see me , yes Rosemary , and to this day I treasure that, Alison was always poping in , and out , till I got off the danger list, now I still feel on top of the world , I begin to feel a bit of a fraud now , I am allowed to put my feet on the floor , I think I feel well enough to go , and sit in the day room, but they will not  let me, and now I know why , a chap on the other side of the ward he did get out  of bed , and walk down to the day room the nurses were soon after him, but it  was too late he clasped, and it was his lot, now that put the shits up of me, I  will do as I am told , till I am told you can go home, I think all who was in  this ward took a yard or two backwards after that, I get so that I can go to the  toilet with a nurse beside me , then I can go alone , they have stopped pumping  the drug in my arm now, I am getting better as I AM HAVING AGO AT THE NURSES ,  now every morning they come round , and take your temperature, now one morning  they took everyone else’s and left me , we are coming to you later , nothing to  worry about I thought, but there was , the sods, turned me
on my belly , and  took my temperature from that end, they just said we always get our own back on  patients like you, and I also ended up with big Z s all round my bed one 

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morning ,  that’s because l was snoring . then as l got much better , and aloud to come ,  and go as l pleased around the Ward , l rang Mary to get a lot of Spirit labels  of Whisky, and Gin bottles which she did , and l stuck them on the men’s bed  bottles ,and hung them up, Sister of the Ward came in, and saw
these, and said,  all right who’s the Comedian, no one let on, but we lost out she told the tea  lady no one is to have sugar or sweetener in the tea all day, l didn’t know that  being in Hospital could be that fun when you are on the mend, the first few days  were rough. Time to leave the Hospital, and home, l go to see the Surgeon in his  Office, l expected a lengthy lecture, but no he said take things easy for  another six weeks then pace yourself, if you get a slight pain stop take a puff  of your Nitrolingual, and sit for a few minutes then carry on, so that’s what l  have done.l can say this, having a heart attack makes you see life in a  different perplex, also l had to cancel our trip to Holland with the Para’s Ass,  time to start work again, and ease my way into it,
l think l am going to be  bullied in to doing things, and not to do things from now on, as l used too ,the  wife she will be watching every move l make, and hovering around like a broody  old hen. In Hospital l had lots of friends come, and see me also the Para’s ,and  the family came every night, so l did feel l was wanted, and that boasts your  spirits in places like that, eight weeks has past, and l am starting on Monday  to work a half day, that will be great, for an active man like me ,and having to  slow down its going to be murder, but l
going to give it a try ,well its harder  trying not to charge around, than just getting on with it, l do still go At  break neck speed, but l get out of wind easy so the old body says ease up, good  thing. Now Iain my eldest grandson is about to start work at Marshall’s Airspace  Cambridge as an apprentice aircraft  engineer, well l said early on to see what  happened to lain, well building those plastic planes, and buying him all the  Aircraft book's l think helped He was just into his apprenticeship when he had a  accident with his Moped, he got
knocked off, and a badly damaged leg, that’s in  plaster, this is a set back ,but Marshall’s said they will hold his job but he  must attend tech college once a week, no big deal but he will be behind on his  practical work at Marshall’s, well he was but he soon caught up, and past the  others, as he was one of the top Apprentices, now unbeknown to lain l rang  Marshall’s apprentice school, and spoke to the man in charge of it, we chatted  away ,and what he was teaching his pupils, was exactly as l was taught when l  went to tech college in
Norwich, he said there is no way of improving that  technique, that was about fifty odd years ago, and still later on l will up date  on his progress, now our little Vicki, when she was small she had to have an  operation to remove a growth in her stomach, poor little girl, but she soon made  a speedy recovery, and was given the all clear, so she can now get back to  playing in the sports teams she love, she is like her Dad, he likes competitive  sports, and that’s  healthy for the mind, l suppose some will say at 

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this point  l am not writing much about me , well it is really , as its my family , and l am  very much involved with them, l try to give guidance so they stay on the right  tracks, l hope some of it rubs off, it’s a rough old world out there. Retirement  is creeping up fast, yes l am looking forward to it, l suppose looking back on  my life, l have had a few narrow escapes in my time, naming one or two, 1.  Hitler tried to kill me by Blitz Bombing of Norwich. 2. Being fired at by the  Japanese S.E.A.C. 3. Mortar bombed in a river in Sarawak by the Japanese  S.E.A.C. 4. Dashing out under fire to save fellow wounded mates S.E.A.C. 5.  Blown up by a land mine, While clearing them around Singapore. 6. Blown up by a  land mine in Palestine, wheel blown off the jeep M.E.L.F 7. Jumping on a  practice jump feet caught up in rigging lines coming down to earth
head first,  that knocked me out for a few seconds. 8. Nearly run over by a lorry as l was  reporting to the fire station for a fire call 9, Nearly Electrocuted up a ladder  putting a fire out the electric was still on ,and l
got a hell over kick . Well  that’s some of them, and looking at them brings back a few memories ,now all  these are on paper for anyone to read, life goes on, Arnie has left me now, and  gone to work for a firm in Sutton that builds road sweepers, so l am now back to  square one as l started on my own, well l haven’t got long to go till l retire,  and no one wants the hassle of Tax returns, and Vat returns ,l don’t blame them,  the Governments of past, and present make it so hard to run a Business these  days, as to when l first
started in the sixties all l had was two, one shilling  books from Woollies, one book for payments out, and the other book payments in,  dead easy, but over the years, you have one book two feet wide, which open to  four feet wide, you start at the left hand side, and finish the right hand side,  four feet wide, you employ an accountant to check for the Inland revenue Tax  also for the Vat returns to Costume, and Excise, and l pay for this, in the old  days you took your books to your accountant, and you sat with him he checked  everything in
front of you, and you agreed the figure to pay the Inland revenue,  they in turn sent you a invoice then you paid them. Now as we are on the subject  of accountants well l am still with the same ones l started with, but the old  boys have retired, and new fly by nights have come into this firm, and stamped  on there eye balls are £ signs, they look at you, and say to them selves money,  as soon as they were settle in, up goes the prices of preparing your books, and the patter is oh we will save you that on Tax, bull shit they can only save you  Tax legally on your turn over profit, we will look after you Mr Holden, the topical sales pitch. Now the price of checking my books has gone up so much that  l query it with them, back come oh prices are rising, and to 

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keep good  staff we have to pay over the top wages, that saying comes to mind again (Bull  Shit) l go, to see some of my mates, and have a chat about Accountants, and they  all seem to be paying a quarter of what l am paying, our turn over’s are roughly  on parr with each other, Holden now is not a happy man, now to get
my books back  from the Accountant, tells white lie say that VAT wants to see my books at my  home, in the mean time Mary has spotted a add in the paper, a young Accountant  has settled in the village, and starting up on his own, l give him a call, and  he looks at my books, then says l can do your books for £200, you
sure, yes it  should take me only two days, and posted to the Inland Revenue, jobs yours, now  l have been paying £850, this new accountant has brought it in line with my  mates, now l wait for an invoice from my old accountants, but in the mean time  my new accountant has got me back over paid Tax, he can only go
back six years  the rest l have to forfeit, it proves my old accountants were not doing there  job properly. l am now refusing to pay the invoice they sent me of £1,700, in  polite terms, get stuffed, so a court order was made on me, no big deal, off l  go to court, in to a office with the Judge, at a table me opposite him, he looks  at me, and said you Mr Holden, yes Sir, where are the other people who brought  this charge, no ldear Sir, well he said lets get started, this man is not a  happy Judge, with them not turning up, what’s this all about Holden ,l said in  good old English l am being ripped off, Oh are you what makes you think that,  Sir can l put it in simple terms, yes l like that, now over the years the cost  of these accountants have increased, but they are way beyond all my mates are  being charged, so l went to another accountant, and got my books checked, and he  charged a quarter of these prices, high figure l am going to ask  for a break down, see you in a month, thank you Sir ,and left. One month later  with a break down but still no one from there
office, now this Judge is not a  happy man in wasting his time, he said what do you think of the break down, l  laughed, he said what’s funny about it ,well according to them they sent me a  letter on boxing day, who works boxing days, he laughs l do charging drunks, for  being disorderly, l said that’s different, now he said l can see your point of  view, but you owe two years accountant work to these people what do you propose  to do, l said l think it would be fair if l paid the same as my new accountant  that would be £400-00 for two years, pay it, and no more said, thank you Sir,  yes but they are still going to pay me, you  are free to go, l Then left, that  Judge is not very happy with those accountants. So l came home £1300-00 better  off, l could have paid the accountants off, and been out off pocket, now l say  to anyone in business shop around its surprising what you can save, l think at  the time if l had said they haven’t the bottle to turn up why Should l pay, l  think he might agree. Iain is doing well at Marshall’s Airspace, but the pay is  not that good for an apprentice ,his 

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mates are  in mondayn jobs, and taking home more money, this is a bit hard on lain l know,  so l had talk with him to stick it out for four years at least at the end he  will be earning more than they ever will, it happened to me as well but in the  end it pays off, so l said stick it out pass your exams, and then you will never  look back, and l am proud to say he did stick it out, and still working at  Marshalls on top pay, later on there will be an up date on his progress, Vicki  she’s at college Learning all about computers so it seems she is going to
head  in that direction. Now my other daughter Allison is in trouble at the school  where her children are going, the teacher has been talking to the children about  Dinosaurs as they are head lines in the papers at the moment, and lots of books  coming out, about them, you see the teacher was telling the class that there was  no humans around in the Dinosaur days, but a little voice pops up , and said Oh  yes there was, Oh said the teacher how do you know that, my mum used to chase  them, now a phone call to my daughter would you please come to the school, off  goes Alison to meet the teacher, now lets get this straight how can l teach  children the truth as we know it about Dinosaurs when you say to your children  you chased them, l was only having fun with my children, but they believe you,  you must stop that, she also told her children
she could fly Helicopters, my  daughter tells them assorts of funny things, but this time it backed fired, and  at thirty years old being told off by a teacher, that made my day l suppose a  chip off the old block . You see when my daughters were small, and had there  mates around, l suppose they were between 5 years,
and 8 years old, l got asked  what did you do in the army ,now listen to this l would say, l had a special job  in the army of catching Elephants in the jungle, core didja mister, yes that was  my job, how didja catch em mister, well l got a jam jar, blackboard, and easel,  a telescope, and a pair of pincers on a long pole, oh yes mister what then, l  write on the blackboard 2x2 =5 then l climb a tall tree wait till the Elephants  come they look at the board, and scratch there heads at 2x2=5 that’s wrong they  say, so while they are talking l turn
the telescope the wrong way round so that  they look small l get my pincers on a pole and pick them up one by one, and put  them in my jam jar that’s how l caught Elephants, now l also had the job of  catching flies in the jungle, yer how’d you did that, that was easy, yer l bet,  well l got some lump sugar, and a pair of steps, oh yer mister, l go into the  jungle stand my steps up, and remove one step near the top, and put the lump  sugars on top of the steps, now the flies come along, and they love sugar so  they start to climb the steps, and they look at the sugar at the top of the  steps, and they forget that a step is missing they fall through the hole crash  to the floor and break they necks that’s how l caught flies in the jungle , you  cant catch flies like that mister, Why, flies can fly they don’t need steps they  just land on the sugar, is that right, yes mister you tell fibs, that’s one l 

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didn’t get  away with . l am now teaching my youngest Grandson the tricks that my Grandfather taught me, like how to catch Birds with four bricks, and three small  pieces of twig, this catches them alive so you can let them go again, also how  to set snares for rabbits, for a nice rabbit pie, and to snare Pheasants on the  ground, and in the trees, in this world it pays to know how to Survive, no one  knows what’s round the corner, he is also learning to shoot, Stephen is very  good at art drawing, and Emma is good at writing short stories,
its too early to  tell which way in life they are going to take, its time for me to hang up my  tools, and sell the van, and write to all my customers that l am retiring also  the date so that l get no phone calls. I do get a phone call ,the person on the  other end said is Mrs Holden there, yes, then would you tell her
that l have  something nice to tell her, l shout Mary your boy friend is on the phone he has  something nice to tell you, as you know l am always fooling around, as l thought  it was one of our mates having a go at her, as someone is always wanting to flog  a Battleship or a Tank or sell us Buckingham Palace, Mary takes the phone all l  hear is yes, yes, yes, she starts to cry, then shake, me l am asking what’s  wrong, nothing is the answer, he tells her to sit down have a cup of tea, and  ring him back in a half an hour, l said what was
that all about, l have won a  car, oh yes what sort, Ford Fiesta, he said something about gears, oh that must  be five gears, what’s the colour gold l think l have got to ring back in a half  an hour then l will right it all down,
she phoned back, it was a Ford Fiesta  ,colour Silica Gold, its top of the range a Gia, it also has five gears 1,398cc  engine, two door saloon with large boot, l had been thinking of changing my car,  we all have the day off to see the hand over at Gilbert Rice Garage Cambridge,  with all the trimmings, Champaign the
lot, Press ,it was her day, from now on l  shall not moan about posting letters late at night, and latter on she won a  Holiday in Swanage (Dorset) a week in a Luxury Caravan on the side of a hill  looking over the bay ,we took my mate with us Don Hull and his Wife . The only  trouble is now if l up set the wife, she
says if you keep on you will not use my  car, so Holden bite your tongue. Now this has become a standing joke in our  house hold, yes the wife can drive but leave it all to me, so l usually say if l  cant drive it you will have to walk, it ends up both having a good laugh . Now  in the Preface of my book l wrote, this book spans 1920s to 2001 Horse and  Carts, Steam Traction Engines, to Space Travel, this has happened in the last  seventy odd years. 1920s to 1930s Horse and Carts, Steam Traction Engines. 1930s  to 1945 World War Two, life changes for everyone, and those who survived have  seen greater charges to their life stiles. 1945 to 2001 Horse and Carts gone  ,Steam Traction Engines gone ,Steam Trains gone, Labourers working on Farms  gone, In come Diesel Tractors on Farms, In come Large Lorries Transport, In come  Cars by the thousands everyone has

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