Sunday 29 April 2012

Memento: Things Go Better with Coke ... And Your Mates..


I've loved this (now old and a bit battered) photograph all my life.
What a bunch!

3 comments:

  1. I love it, what a cool lot - but who are they? please tell more...

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  2. Well P, I can tell you a few things about these dudes ...
    They were all following 5 year Electrician Apprenticeships at John I Thornycroft, Woolston, Southampton. The bunch of apprentices all became firm friends, and I can give you a little more info on three of them.
    Far left is Ray, wearing the (slightly too big) leather jacket, which he bought off the guy in the centre (3rd. from left). Ray was always up for a beer and a laugh, a very personable guy. They were friends and colleagues for over forty years. Sadly, he was the one who found Ray dead at his home, concerned to visit, as he hadn't heard from him. He said he felt like he had lost a brother.
    The next guy along is Ken. He became such good friends with the guy in the centre that he was invited to be his best man, when he married, in 1962.
    Now to that guy in the centre, the good-looking one (!) - He's the one I knew best. My Dad.
    He told me that he spent quite a lot of his wage packet on the jacket that he's wearing in the photograph. And. The turn-ups, always turn-ups.
    He had this photo up in his shed for years and years. I remember looking at it so many times. Being fascinated by an incarnation of a person who looked like they'd stepped out of a 50's film, but who now was my father.
    I hung out in Dad's shed quite a bit.

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  3. What a great story, and how nice that you know so much detail; this tour is making me realise that I sadly know very little about some of the things I have inherited (I wish I had asked more questions, or paid more attention!). Your Dad in particular looks v cool – great styling that wouldn't look out of place today.

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