The Fair Ground, Stolen Bike

46 working in Watford. Dad had moved to Watford to get a job, and was living with his mum (our grandma at Ash Tree Road Garston, Watford). Mum and dad were able to by a house at 149 Coats Way Garston and it was mum who decided to buy the car to get Michael and I down from Oldham to Watford.

It was this car that I often fell out of when the breaks were hit. It caused me to move forward and push open the door lock and the door opened the opposite way round. I would end up on the road outside the car. Dad eventually was able to put a safety chain on the handle to stop this happening.

Dad had rebuilt the engine and painted it black and green, Mum made a new convertible top using her sewing skills. It was a bit like Noddy’s car it was really good.

In this car we went to Brixton for a holiday and it was there mum and dad bought Michael and I a fishing rod each. I had a wooden cane one and he had a metal rod. I remember I was always jealous of what he had as I always thought his things were better than mine.

Keen to try the rods out near the sea harbour Michael rushed to the waterside just around the corner and soon came back crying. He said a man had taken his rod and thrown it into the sea. Dad rushed around but no one could be seen. We looked for the man on his bike but no one was to be seen. It is only now that I look back that I believe Michael had quickly put the rod together pretended to fish by casting an imaginary line and the rod top had gone straight into the see. He probably felt he would have been told off by our dad and be in trouble. So he invented a story about a man on a bike.

When I look back it is incidences like this that I learned about the way Michael thought and worked and in later life it made one wonders at the tales he told.

The Fair Ground, Stolen Bike

Every year the fair would come to Garston and I really looked forward to ride the dodgem cars. All the kids would go to the fair and spend lots of time watching. I can remember two brothers who worked on the fair and these were like heroes, and we would wonder who was the strongest and speculate which one could lift a dodgem car above his head. We would also listen to the latest pop music, which played through large loudspeakers. This was before any one had personal radios or cassette players. There was no Top of the Pops on TV. So the fair was the place to hear pop music.

I was probably about 11 or 12 years old, and this year I remember stealing £3 from my mum’s purse. I felt very guilty and bad at the time and I still feel the shame as I write about it now, but this was spent on the fair. I am thankful for the truth that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. This became my only way of me dealing with my sin when I became a Christian