September19th

September the 19th was the date Ed and I were to take our driving test,I was 17 yrs in
April of that year. There was a rumour going around that they had started to make it more
difficult in Warrington  to pass your driving test,so this put us under more pressure.
I was carrying my lucky four leaf clover and passed the test  so I gave this to Ed who
was  taking his test later, he also passed the test,so we put great faith in the contribution
the four leaf clover had made to the occasion,needless to say, we were both excited and
                      relieved to pass our driving test at the 1st attempt.
A few weeks later my friend Ron was taking his test, he too was carrying the lucky 4 leaf
                       clover,and he to passed,so maybe just maybe !!

I enjoyed Reaseheath from day one even now just thinking about it brings back happy
memories,I am not going to say too  much about it other than to tell you there were 4 of us
in the same dormitory all of the similar age but from different backgrounds and leave the rest
                                                to your imagination.
There is one story I must tell you about, there was a student that sat next to me at meal times
he was a banker in Hong Kong and was dispelled because he had a relationship with a local
girl this was a no go area in those days,his father was high up in the same bank which made
the situation more difficult for him to handle,and eventually affected him to the point where
he had to have an operation and was still under medication then,He used to spend time
writing  to the person in Hong Kong who supposedly had reported him to the bank.
Within 2 yrs of  him  leaving Reaseheath,word came back to us that he had taken his own
life ,very sad.he was very clever and was always on the panel representing Reaseheath
when debating some issues with  other training institutions,he was so well spoken and
                                                       very articulate
He used to come and watch us playing football he said to me once it is better than watching
Rugby watching you play football.I used to play center half  then and because of  Auntie
Bess cooking and Uncle Johns weight lifting I was very fit we used to get odd games
against the local post office and they were older than us I remember stopping one guy
and hearing him exhaling  his breath as he hit the ground,he also expressed his feelings
which I just took as part of the game he wasn't the 1st nor was he the last,but it did
             help me to understand Marks remarks about likening it to Rugby.

When we finished our course at Reaseheath four of us joined a Cheshire contractor
harvesting peas ,this was a well-paid job and hard work, we were divided into two
groups and worked 12 hours each so there was 24 hrs cover we would change over
at the weekend when extra hours had to be worked to facilitate the changeover.
Our role was to load the pea haulm onto lorries,the pea haulm was picked up by a green
crop loader,I held the record for the highest weight of peas delivered to the Birds Eye
factory from one lorry.our team was considered the best team and when the harvest
               finished the contractors offered us more work ,which we excepted

This work involved hedge cutting and on one occasion.were entered into a competition
which we won and were awarded a Cup with some prize money.this was presented by
               Babara Castle, she was a leading figure in the Labour Party

This helped the contractor to secure more work,it was a very satisfying job,there was
always an improvement to be seen in any area you had worked and one of the favourite
comments were 'that looks better'and sometimes depending on the area or the age of
the farmer you could put an 'eh ' on the front,actually there is no ending to all the various
terms you could use,we were just happy to receive all the compliments coming our way.
The only complaints we ever received were from cyclist complaining about punctures
                                    from the thorns left on the road.

We used to get involved in the cereal harvest as well and I had been combining not too
far from home on one occasion and finished too late to make a start at the next farm so
decided to take the combine home with me.I stopped outside the front door I never
forget mother's expression when she opened the door and her words 'where are you
  going to park that ? ' there was a piece of spare ground at the end of the avenue.
                                      so it stayed there overnight.