Dad and Politics
I told yer, didn't I, that he was a staunch Union man and Labour supporter - oh that was Dad. Especially election times. I remember him coming home one night, it must have been election time I suppose, and it was dark.
"Say, Ern - you fancy coming for a walk with us tonight?"
"Yeh please Dad, where we going?"
"Haydon Wick"
Mum says "Haydon Wick? What yer going to Haydon Wick for then, Dad?"
"Oh, so and so's giving a bit of a talk. A Labour candidate. Joe Compton or somebody. And he wants us to go out there and keep the crowd happy until he gets there"
"Ah right oh" Mam says
"Go and get the storm lamp" Dad says
Then off up the shed and gets the storm lantern. We walked all the way to Haydon Wick with a storm lantern, well there was no buses in them days. Haydon Wick fields, I don’t know whether any of you know there that is; right the other side of Haydon Wick. We got there, and there's a few milling round like, you know. And Dad was there trying to keep them happy with his mic. Course the meeting was supposed to be about, we'll say seven o clock. Come quarter past seven old Joe hadn't turned up as Joe Compton or whatever his name was - he hadn't turned up. Come half past seven he hadn't turned up. Course, the crowd was getting a bit rough then. I thought we was gonna get lynched! I think Dad and his mate was ready to make quick getaway!
Anyhow, he turned up eventually. So everything was alright. Yes, we got home alright. Ah, they were election times - oh we used to have some fun then.
I remember there used to be slogans all over the place, you know, proper bill posters and that. And sure kids would come along chalking. And I remember coming along the canal side once, and somebody had a lump of chalk and along the factory wall somebody had wrote "Vote Vote Vote For Joe Compton" - somebody put a three word sentence underneath, very very rude. Oh we come home, we got a good hiding then for asking our Mum what it meant.
If were anything special, like a union meeting, like the time Dad went to some meeting or another and Ramsay MacDonald was up there, oh he was as proud as punch about that. Had his photo taken with him, I remember we had that photo here for years. Don't know what happened to him, and Dad thought a lot of that photo; had him hung up. So I think sometime Joe, must have been during a General Strike anyhow, "Damn traiter, damn traitor! Him and young Jimmy Thomas" he said. Anyhow, didn't see so much of the photo after that, it was a matter of 'face to the wall, mother.'
Anyhow, Dad would come home when there was anything happening like, have a bit of a quick swill and
"Where's me clean shirt then, Mum?"
"Ooh, I don't think he's aired yet, Dad. Have yer dickie front"
Well, you know what a dickie front is, just a stiff collar with a stiff front just to cover yer old shirt up. That was poor old Dad.
"Anybody got a spare collar, son I gone and damn and blast it my old Dad lost mine again where is he? Here Fred, lend us him - ah, well let's have him back then. When yer finished with him, Fred is saying, well first of all, bit of lard out the cupboard and stick a bit on his hair, and greasing his moustache. He had a little moustache, a little twisty moustache, and he used to stand in front of the mirror and twist that moustache like, oh I can see him now.
It seemed as though he always had that, until I'd really grown up. He probably only had it for a few months or so.
