Part 2

A Memory of Newburn.

1964: While working here we would go to two different pubs in Southgate, one at each end of the high street, it was in these pubs we met a local group of lads and lasses who were from very wealthy backgrounds, and they all took a shine to us. We were from totally different backgrounds and we must have seemed like a couple of aliens who had landed in their midst with a language very hard to understand. The main lad called Dave was going out with a girl called Sue and they were forbidden to see each other as he was about 20 and she was still at school aged 14. They used to borrow our little cabin now and then (what do you mean why). We were in the pub one Friday night straight from work, with the wellies and all, as we had been concreting that day. The gang were going down Ladbroke Grove to some posh house where there was a party. We said "Hang on till we get changed", "No" was the reply, "You have to come like that you look great, they will love you down there". So, off we went on the tube, there was about a dozen of us ending up at this huge house and the party was in full swing with the Hooray Henrys and loads of posh girls. Dave, who I mentioned before, knew everyone and we were quickly introduced as the mad Geordies. The house was luxurious and every kind of alcohol was available. Apparently the owners had gone on holiday and left their teenage kids in charge, but nothing was wrecked or stolen, as has happened in recent years where these gate-crash parties have been held. The girls were very impressed with our attire, very much so, so Wes and me stopped over night in one of the many double en-suite rooms, of course with a couple of posh girls.
There wasn't much to do on a Sunday so one sunny afternoon we jumped the tube to Cockfosters, which was two stops away and the end of the Piccadilly line. There was a large park here and it had a golf course so we decided to pay our dosh and have a go, not that we had a clue, we just knew you had to hit the ball with a stick and put it in the hole. Wes went first, the hole must have been a hundred yards or so away and he got a hole in one, honestly. But we had no one to share this with as we were the only two there. He was a lucky bugger Wes, everything he touched seemed to work out well for him. One day we were down at Wood Green and we saw Cliff Richards and another lad in an MG open-top sports car, he even waved back at us, our claim to fame, OOOH Cliff.
On the site where we worked was a real mixed bag of workers, there were Paddies, Jocks, Indians, Sikhs and the odd cockney. There was a team of steel fixers, a man called Benny was in charge and he had come from around Durham somewhere and settled down there years ago. There was also a big Geordie labourer called Jimmy whose wife used to put our bait up for about a fiver each per week, and we always got the same as him. The Sikhs and Indians on the job were chippies (shuttering carpenters was their trade name) and they would come to work dressed in suit and tie and carrying a briefcase, then they would change into their overalls etc to start work. Why!?
We would occasionally go up the West End and meet up with lads from home. Porky Foster, and Spud Tate to name a few who had moved down there permanently from Throckley. I remember we were on the tube heading back to Southgate after being up West one weekend and we both fell asleep, we were woken by a conductor who said that was the last train. So we had to walk back, it was only two stops but you have no sense of direction after being on a tube. Off we went, two or so hours later we were completely lost and then the police car stopped us, "Where are you two going?" was the question and when we told them they gave us a lift to our little hut, they watched as we went up the two steps to the padlocked door leading through the hoardings onto the site and they called "Wait there a minute, what do you think you're doing?", we said "We live here, phone the local bobby and they will clear it", just then another cop car pulls up and the village cop said "It's OK they are the night watchmen". So off they all went with a smile and a wave and we got to our little bed early in the morning. Eeh what a night.
Next door to the site was a bank where we had opened an account, and every pay day we would put money in so when we left London for home we would have a nice little nest egg. We stayed until the site finished and headed back home after a year or so, we got off at the Central and left our cases in the left luggage and walked up Percy Street to the club A Go Go, had a few beers and decided to hit the gaming tables. When the night finished we were penniless, we walked to the station got our cases and as the story started we thumbed a lift home with nought but a memory.