The Pecking Order

A Memory of Newburn.

I was fourteen in this year and I had been at Walbottle School about a year. I had teamed up with two mates, one was Tony Grey from Lemington who dressed like me and we were into the same music. One of the sayings at that time was "Cool" that's the category we liked to think we fell into, the other lad from Newburn was my mate 'Ginger Broon', or Derek Brown, he was a big fella with bright ginger hair, his face covered in freckles and he wore the prevailing black burberry mack. A total contrast to me but he was my mate, he was a strong lad so a welcome mate in the face of danger. There was gang from Throckley who didn't take kindly to our cool look and one day in the toilets we were attacked by this lot, Dave Danskin who was the hard lad amongst them, Wes Coulthard, Brian Young, Joe Curry, Billy Freestone, and probably a few others whose names escape me. Never mind, we took our punishment and went off battered and bruised. When me pal Ginger saw us he asked "Whose done that to you?",, when we told him he went straight to Dave Danskin and arranged a fight after school. The venue was up the Cinder Path behind the Engine Inn and up past the allotments to a clearing where we all stood in a circle. Off came the Danskin's drape then Ginger's burberry, talk about the film 'The Quiet Man', this fight went on forever, nothing nasty but toe to toe fisticuffs. Ginger beat the hell out of Dave and it ended in a handshake then we all became friends, especially Wes who I went through my early teens with living in each other's pockets, so to speak, which I have told you about in other memories. After we left school I never saw Ginger again, maybe he might read this and send me a message, fingers crossed.
Amongst my mates I would like to mention was a lad called Jackie Newton who lived in Lemington in the white buildings running parallel to Union Hall Road. I would often sleep over at his on a weekend, he had a younger sister called Madelaine Newton who became a famous actress starring in many of Catherine Cookson's TV adaptations, in fact I just saw her in Milly Trotter, also in 'Auf Wiedersen Pet'. Jackie got a terrible beating in town in his later years and almost died, his face had to be rebuilt and he was left with steel plates in his head. The years have since passed by and I last saw Jackie, who was with an old friend Eddie Ions, at Peter Graham's funeral. There was another lad from Westerhope called Alan in my class who was a 'blue baby', if that's the right term, and his life expectation was short. He was well protected by all of us because of his condition but alas he died when still at school, I remember in the Assembley Hall when we were told of him passing away, the shock and tears fell upon everyone.
Another disorder which was a common site in those early days was epileptic fits where people would drop like flies, writhing on the floor where they fell, and we all looked on in a frightened state not knowing what to do. Then a teacher would be sought and get them into a recovery position until this waned.
Tucker Thompson was a very tall lad compared to us, with blond hair and he came from West Denton. I met him on a few occasions later on in life due to me being in the Building Game. He was in a gang laying cables in the roads around Tyneside. He then became a foreman and a few years later I had to go to the Electric Boards Warehouse in Westerhope to buy and collect meter cupboards, the ones which were used to site the meter on the outside of houses, and low and behold there was Tucker in the stores. Then I never saw him for years, when about a year ago I was coming out of Wicks in Westerhope walking to my van and I seen this fella and a women staring at me. I looked on, thinking maybe they were going to ask me to do some work for them, then this very old man stooped almost in half said "Are you Jimmy Burrows?" to which I nodded and he said "It's Tucker, I have Parkinsons". You could have floored me, how this big fine man had been reduced to this by this dreadful disease. He said the woman was his sister and carer. I should have got Tucker's details to stay in touch, but the shock of seeing him like this had removed any sensible thoughts from my mind. Never mind, if you read this Tucker, at least you know you're still in my thoughts and I'd like you to get in touch.     

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