Just finished reading this thread and I have to admit I never had a wrong word with my dad in his whole life I think I have been a good dad to my two and done everything I could for them but then I started thinking about my old man, he worked at Rolls Royce at Pallion and he would get in about 5 30 on a night collect me at home and take me for a walk down the gardens and on to clatchy along the river through Hylton woods and back down Hylton Rd to Ford Estate, I was usually asleep over his shoulder by the Round Robin but it never bothered him loved the bloke. ( wish he had done it when I was a kid though and not when I was in my 30s )
After my mum died, he went to bed for what seemed like a long time, nearly 2 year? When he did go back to work, when he was on nights, he'd come back home about 11 just to check I was in bed, then go back to work. Then he'd get back home after 7, wake me up, send me to school and go to bed. Thank **** Social Services hadn't got a clue back then!
I left school when I was 14 and one week later just told my mam and dad I am off to work up in the Lake District and went, till this day I don't know what they thought at the time probably as worried as hell but they didn't try to stop me as they new I had wanted to do that since I was a bout 5.
A different age mate. Can you imagine any parents these days doing what your parents did? It's not that it was wrong, its just what happened back then. Social Services would've been over you like a rash! I totally get that we need to look after our children. But something got lost along the way. I think it was common sense.
You know mate I hadn't even considered that I went with my mate Eddy to Shields as he wanted to join the Merchant Navy he just signed on and he was away as well no body seemed to bother then.
May I venture onto your board? Great thread Smug. Have to admit I had it easier than most of you guys but my Dad had a hard life, never laid a finger on us kids but instilled into us loyalty, fairness etc. I lost him two years ago, he was three months short of his 100th birthday I sometimes think that he deliberately gave up as he really didn't want a fuss re reaching 100 and definitely didn't want a card from the queen. Typically for him he donated his body for medical research, I am still waiting to get his remains back. When I walk to St. Mary's I walk past the medical school of Soton University, he's there and my heart swells with pride.
Of course mate, that was a post that would be welcome anywhere. Strange isn't it, that it's easy to talk about football, drink and women etc but not the things that mean most to us.
Great post Milton. Donating your body to medical research is any easy thing to say, not so easy to commit to. Probably the most uplifting post I've read in a long time
It's never too late mate. I was the same as you, I hated school even though I was quite good at most subjects, mainly the practical subjects like Wood & Metal Work, Tech Drawing etc, I also have an A-Level in Truancy but I am finding in later life that there is a brain in there somewhere amongst all that grey matter. I was never ever threatened with the belt, although most of my mates parents used to do it, my parents never had to even though I was a right handful for them. Their form of punishment was to ban me to my room cos they knew I hated being cooped up when all my mates were outside having a great time and getting into all kinds of mischief, I hated that and they knew it
Yeah, mine too mate, but he didn't need to lift his hands to do it. I've got nothing but respect for both my parents, times were a lot harder back then than they are now and looking back, I can see how much they struggled to make ends meet and make sure us kids were brought up the right way. It couldn't have been easy for them and I'll always be grateful and try to do the same for my kids.
My da would be struggling big style today though, Think I'd have struggled to get him computer literate. Mind you he'd have been 78 now. My dad did struggle after he got custody of me. After he broke his backyears ealier on a scaffold so he couldn't work again(he could walk again though) so when I went to live with him we didn't have much at all. Didn't bother me though, I saved from my paper round to get what a wanted.
My dad would have also struggled with the computer age. If he had still been alive he would have been 93 now.. My mam is coming up 87 and she is right into computers and social media and is often contributing on facebook..
Yeah, loads of the older gen do get computers don't they? I had the kind of dad where to fix the remote control he'd bash it off his head He'd defo struggle when many would succeed.
My dad the same mate.. He was strong as a bull, but useless at anything technical...I think I take after him on that score..
Just like we all did mate, Paper Round, Milk Round, Tattie Picking, Flogging Coal round the doors, all that good stuff. My old man used to even make me follow the rag and bone man round the estate to pick the **** up off the horse so he could make manure for his frigging roses Imagine asking a kid to do that these days, Social Services would have a field day eh? but I guess that's what makes us what we are today unlike some of the kids coming through now. They don't know they're born, **** me!!! i'm even sounding like my old man now
