The Shadow
There were only three of us kids living at home myself my brother Merlin and my sister Mindy, my elder siblings had branched out, we were reduced to six having lost a brother and sister. My brother Taffy was off doing his own thing, my sister Kate moved to South Africa and Rachel my other sister moved to the USA.
When we were kids every year we would go on holiday to Wales, Kiln park Tenby, I really liked Cliff Richards mum would have me sing “were all going on a summer holiday” my dad would be driving I enjoyed the journey there.
Kiln Park was great we had a caravan in walking distance over the dunes to the beach; I was an explorer and adventurer as were my brother and sister, and so we would go around the coast to Saundersfoot and Stepaside exploring any old buildings, going over the cliffs.
We would go with dad and mum to see Gran who had a cottage in Glangwili Village, Carmarthen. She was a lovely little lady and I was always putty in the hands of a lady with a welsh accent, I just love it.
There was a good clubhouse on site as well so I didn’t have far to go for a good night out, I went down to Tenby a couple of times with my mum since dad died; she took me to the Rugby Club and introduced me to people she knew, this is where I was introduced to Bill otherwise known as the king of the fishermen he was a friend of mum and dad so he invited me out fishing.
I had been out on fishing boats before because they ran fishing trips on bigger tourist type boats such as boat trips, this was going to be different Bill was retired so he only had a small boat, not a fishing boat, his friend came with us and so we were three men in a boat which was about right for the size of the boat which was more like a rowing boat with a motor, we headed out towards Caldey Island we were using single hook lines.
Caldey Island is a small island 0.6 miles off the coast near Tenby in Pembrokeshire, Wales. With a recorded history going back over 1,500 years, it is known as one of the holy islands of Britain I had been out there on a boat trip in the past, but now I was out to sea in a little boat.
We fished not far off the rocks and caught six dozen and two mackerel. I took six back to my mum and she passed them on to the neighbours the rest went to the patients on the heart ward of the local hospital so they had a mackerel dinner.
You can’t have a fishing story without the one that got away; on our way out I cast my line in and had a fish which Bill said was a rare catch, however as it got near the boat it was off the line and gone, I cannot remember what type of fish he said it was.
My mother also took me to the farm which my uncle and auntie owned he was married to my auntie at least we always called them uncle and auntie and visited whenever we were down there but this was me and mum, the farm was near to the folly crossroad which was called the folly cross for short.
His name was Dave and he invited me to go down in the hay season to help him get the bales in, and I could bring a friend.
My mother myself and my friend returned to Tenby Kiln Park, my mum was cool, she was a great laugh, Dave would pick us up in the morning and we would get the hay in, sometimes I would be on the trailer while my friend threw up the bales then we would swap, then I would drive the tractor, we all rotated, I did take a corner a bit sharp and toppled some bales off including my friend, we had a blast and enjoyed working the farm, it was hard work, we really earned our money, Dave paid us every day and every evening we were in the club house making merry as one would say.
I was in school one day when I got into a conflict with a group of lads maybe four or five of them when someone I never knew came up to them and said “are you crazy, do you know who he is? He’s Taffy Evans’s brother” that is when I realised that I lived in the shadow of my elder brother.
Taffy was a hard guy with a reputation in the City, sadly he passed away in 2015, we had our disagreements but in his way he loved me and I loved him, a typical love hate relationship, however regardless of what others may think we were close, he would pull me close and tell me you’re my brother and I love you, we have history and now he is dead, the one thing I realize is that despite his fearful reputation and all of our differences, he told me that he loved me, I never once told him that.
Being in his shadow had some good points but mainly bad ones, I had inherited a reputation that was not mine and which I was not capable of living up to, and I had no intention of trying to either.
We had moved from Coundon, my mum brought a house in Avondale Road Earlsdon some days I would walk to school up the Kenilworth road which was nice it’s lined with trees and by the Memorial Park, the park had tennis courts and bowls green, I would go for a game of tennis with some friends, and would play bowls with my brother Merlin, who I would also play snooker with at Victoria Billiards Hall in town where they thought we were twins, we are similar build whereas Taffy was shorter and bigger build. We also played skittles at Rangers.
I got a part time job at the market on Les Phillips stall; Coventry Market is primarily an indoor market with some stalls round the outside Les Phillips was a big outside stall which took up the whole outside corner, I would be there for 6am and help set up, the storage was underground and there is an elevator inside the market however the goods trolley would have to be pulled up a slope, after setting up I would get the bus to school and be there for 9am, after school I would return and do some selling before packing up at the end of trade.
This day the fair came to town and so I went and enquired if they needed help setting up and I got some work with the fair, I also worked on the darts I would shout out over 45 wins any prize, I was quite good at it and got the punters in, the fair people liked me so much I had the offer to go other places which would have meant traveling which I had to decline, however I did do the carnival fair at the memorial park, apart from that I also helped out on the waltzers, that was much more fun than the darts, the more the girls screamed the more they got spun.
As I said I always enjoyed female company and gave equal respect but I would still give them a hard time but in a fun way and they would give just as much back, those were good days when you could make jokes about each other without being called sexist or racist, I think people know by how things are said if it is meant to be offensive or humorous, today things have gone way over the top in my opinion, it is so easy for someone like me to get in trouble, you have to watch everything you do and say.
I worked hard and I played just as hard or maybe a touch harder.
I took the lads from the fair to the market tavern in town; we had some good times with no trouble, this is not to say life is trouble free we are living in the real world and this is a true story after all.
I left school summer of 1970 I would be 15 in August, I did pass the test to stay on a year but I had been accepted to go to technical college at the Butts Technical Collage for one year painting and decorating, they also had a bricklaying course among others.
I was into motorbikes although I never had a bike of my own my friends let me ride and borrow there’s, I rode Triumph Tiger Cub and BSA Bantam, I was pretty much a rocker without the stigma, because I also rode Vespa and Lambretta scooters, I even did a wheelie down an entry on one of the scooters and ended up running flat into a fence, whoops.
There was a dispute in collage when a friend of mine had a problem with some brickies, I did intervene on behalf of my friend and I got expelled for fighting, I wouldn’t call it a fight more a dispute, but the principle didn’t see it that way.
I would often stand up for my friends because that’s what friends are all about in my opinion, for example I was dating a girl and my friend was dating her sister they lived in Radford on this evening I had gone over to visit my girlfriend and instead I found my friends girlfriend in tears, she had a lump and cut on her head, I enquired as to what had happened and was informed that her exboyfriend had hit her with a 2x4 piece of timber, so I enquired as to his whereabouts and was informed that he was in the Grapes pub, this was his pub and not my turf, she pleaded with me not to go in there it had a reputation as a rough pub.
I left and headed to the Grapes, I walked in and went to the bar to buy a pint, I noticed the looks and heard the murmurs and as would be expected I walked out in worse condition than I went in, I never even had chance to get a word out, it was quite dirty really, then could I really expect any better?
In them days in Coventry areas were governed by what some would call gangs but that may be too strong a word it was like mods and rockers and not criminal elements so I will just call them mobs for want of a better word, there was the Tile Hill Mob, Radford Mob, Canley Mob, Town Mob etc. the town were supposed to be the best, however as one would expect there are many from other mobs who would disagree.
I was known by the town because they were my friends, or maybe I just knew them because friends may be the wrong word I never actually ran with them I was always off and about doing my own thing and so I can’t say I was a part of any fraction because I never committed myself but they were my friends, as I walked through town the guys saw the state of my face and they wanted to know who had done it, I just said I had a run in at the Grapes but never said details or names, they were going to go and take the Grapes down, my brother Taffy said he would burn the Grapes down, I told them all to back down, reprisals were not needed, instead I walked back in there with my other brother Merlin and had a drink, no-one messed with me, no-one could believe that I had the gall to go back in there, I was showing them I was not afraid, I could have taken reprisal, however no reprisals were taken against anyone, it could have been a totally different story.
Cafes also use to be a meeting place and hang outs, it was not all pubs and alcohol I use to go the Rosebud in Earlsdon, the Ponderosa in Coundon and Bob’s Café on the A45, pinball machines were the game at that time.
I wore style of clothes that I liked and not to belong to any group, I enjoyed many types of music, I was into Motown, Reggie, Disco, Rock n Roll, Rock but not the real heavy metal stuff, I can never understand how rock gets tagged with rock n roll to me they are totally different.
I went to Saint John’s Youth Club (not to be confused with the St John’s ambulance brigade in Coundon) this was a church hall in Spon End opposite the Bowling Green Pub.
It was more of a dance than a youth club, if we wanted a pint we would go across the pub and I did like a drink, I had a girlfriend who I met there her name was Jane and so we hung about together.
Saint Johns was up some steps with an iron gate at the bottom, a girl was at the bottom talking to two guys I was at the top of the steps having a smoke when one of the guys swung the gate and hit the girl on the head, I instinctively flew down the steps and put the guy down, then turned to his buddy who just held his hands up and so I went back up the steps to check on the girl while he picked his friend up and helped him down the road, in the meantime the girl had run into the club in hysterics.
I had to explain my actions but I can’t explain myself, there is no time for thought no planning I just responded instinctively, so don’t go asking me why I did it, it is just what it is, I respond and face the consequences later, I am sure many people can relate to that and can probably explain better than I have, I feel that I was in the right anyway, he deserved it, and she was very thankful.
The elder brother of my friend also went to the dance, he had become a skinhead, and so had other lads who became his followers, he was a tough cookie but not my cup of tea; I knew the family I was also friends with his sister.
At the dance one evening my friend wasn’t there but his brother was he and his followers were heading off somewhere and they asked me if I wanted to go along and so I figured why not and so I tagged along with them, we were walking down the street when they spotted a guy walking along on his own minding his own business they suddenly ran up and jumped on him knocking him to the floor before running off.
I went up to the guy and helped him up, and made sure he was alright, his watch had come off his wrist and was on the floor so I picked it up and handed it to him and said I am sorry, and then took off myself when I saw them spot a Pakistani guy walking on his own and they took off after him, he ran into a house at which point a group of Pakistani men ran out, the first carrying an iron bar in which he hit my friends brother across the ribs, he went down and the rest of his followers ran off.
These were the days of paki bashing which means by definition the activity of making vicious and unprovoked physical assaults upon Pakistani people or of Pakistani descent.
Something I have never been a part of but I had witnessed it, I judge people by who they are and not by their race or colour, I have told jokes such as Irish, Welsh, English and other nationalities with no malice or offence intended, I been the subject of jokes myself, but I am not racist in any shape or form and I never associated with them again.
Living in my brother’s shadow was nothing I ever give any thought to but he was a criminal and therefor was known to the police and as a result I would be taken into doorways and searched they never had a pleasant attitude towards me, on one occasion I had a confrontation with the law I had come across an abandoned bike or so I thought it was and so I decided to ride it home it was faulty so I ditched it in an entry when I walked out of the entry the police showed up and arrested me for stealing it.
When I was in the interview room at the police station I was surprised when the officer pulled out a book and wanted me to admit to offences I knew nothing about; I went through hell until I ended up agreeing to whatever they said, I later retracted my statement apart from the bike which I never stole but I did ride and I was prepared to except the consequences for but everything else was a farce, I was sent to appear at Warwick Crown Court for a jury trial.
When the officer stood up to testify he was saying so many lies I couldn’t believe it, and then suddenly he collapsed, he fell backwards as if pushed.
I did chuckle and I was taken down to the cells where the prosecuting barrister came to see me with my barrister, he was furious and told me he would put me away for three years if I didn’t change my plea, and he stormed off in a rage, my defence barrister asked me what I wanted to do? I told him I was not guilty, we were to continue with the trial, he then left, I had chuckled when the officer went down because he was lying under oath, and deserved it.
I was alone in my cell totally boggled by the anger towards me; the officer was the one who was lying, why did they hate me so much?
I was then called back up to the court and the trial continued. My mother was called to take the stand the prosecutor twisted her words and tore my poor mum to pieces, I was gutted the police knew I was innocent, and I’m sure there Barrister knew it to, he kept playing with words and twisting everything she said.
I thought I was done for, I was seeing the system in its true light they wanted me to clear stuff off their books and they put my mum through hell to serve there corrupt purpose, I believed I was going away for three years, I went back down the cells while the jury made their decision, I can’t say what was going through my mind but I understood why there was resentment towards the police, I couldn’t be the only one they have done this to, no wonder so many innocent people are in prison.
This is when I saw an apparition, the face of a woman appeared on my cell door, she never spoke, she just smiled, in my mind I was down and yet I felt comforted by the lady on my door.
Time came to go back up for the verdict, the jury found me not guilty on everything including the bicycle, I felt so relived, I never expected to walk out of the court, then on my way out I was faced with hostility by the police detective who came up to me and swore to get me. I could not understand his attitude, he knew that I was innocent but I had dared to challenge him and his corrupt colleagues, and the truth prevailed.
My mum sold the house in Avondale Road and we went to a good rented house in Stevenage Walk, Walsgrave it was an Estate that my mum would call a concrete jungle, it was by the Hospital, although Walsgrave is a nice area it was miles from my friends which meant a long walk home at night.
My nephew and niece who lived in South Africa had been staying with for a short while; there were conflicts in South Africa at that time with apartheid, however it was time for them to return to South Africa and so I gave my nephew the orange record player to take with him, God bless my Alba ending it’s days in Africa, as orange as it was.
Now it was just me and my mum as my brother Merlin and my sister Mindy had married and moved on.