My Dad

A Memory of Crewe.

Ken Purcell (the mighty atom) called that because of his height worked as a train driver, the knocker upper woke him for early morning starts by tapping on the window with a long pole, no alarm clock for him, came home covered in coal dust, which was washed off in the yard each night
I used to go with him each week to collect his wages at the cleaning sheds, to this very day I can still remember the wonderful smell of the steam engines and oil.
A holiday was a day trip to Rhyl, via a free pass for railway employees, on trains with compartments and corridors, our brother was allowed to stick his head out the window above the door in the corridor which was opened with a thick leather strap, my sister and I were told if we did that we would get our heads knocked off by the passing trains or tunnels, I always wondered why my brother still had his head.
"Oh come along on satday morning greeting everybody with a smile" the cinema ( the police station is there now) our hero Flash Gorden better than all your Star Wars, always finished on a cliff hanger, no such thing as staying in to watch tv as nobody had one