Outings with Gramps

 

Let’s be clear he was no saint, more of a pipe-smoking ancient mariner with a penchant for a drink or two that got him into trouble more than once.

It was not unusual for Grandpa to be delivered home by taxi and more than once it was not clear he was in the taxi until you opened the door and this body fell out! He was a heavy man and it took both mother and a neighbour using a blanket as a stretcher to get him in the house. Life was never dull with Grandpa!

Nevertheless he was kind and very supportive of mother bringing up 4 young children alone and helped me in my quest to be a seafarer.

I remember that sometimes my brother and I were allowed to accompany him on his Saturday trips to the local fishing port of Whitby to meet his cronies! I suspect it might also have been mother’s strategy to ensure her father got home safely.

The steam train stopped at the West Cliff station first at the top of the hill overlooking Whitby before reversing down the hill to Whitby town station. Out of the train with Gramps in the lead we walked down Baxtergate past the swing bridge over the harbour entrance to the inner harbour and onto the fish quay. There were a number of pubs at the back of the quay and Gramps had his favourite and made a beeline for it. “See you in two hours, he shouted as he left us. Not sure what mother would have thought of her father abandoning two young teenagers to their own devices whilst he went off drinking with his cronies.

What to do? Well it was not too hard to figure out what to do with this 2 hours of freedom. At the harbour entrance end of the fish quay was an amusement arcade as we called it. It was a large building open to the street out of which one could hear loud music.

Inside there was everything from slot machines to dodgem cars and many other ways to spend your time. I am not sure if Gramps gave us money to help us pass the time but I remember we had money!

Slot machine really did not interest us, more a waste of money, but dodgem cars, well that was another matter. Driven by overhead electrical poles somewhat like a tram they were small single seat cars that could be driven in an enclosure. With only a steering wheel and accelerator they were ideal for us. Usually there was a single direction around the circular enclosure dictated by the operator and the game was to drive safely around and around avoiding all other cars, hence the name dodgem. Well, of course that was not good enough for us, it was much more fun to chase and hit other cars, especially your brothers, even going in the wrong direction to do that. This was fun usually until the operator told us to “cut it out or you are finished”. What a spoil sport he was. Anyway after 15 minutes the session was over and 5 pence had been used. Another attraction for us was those where you paid a penny and could operate a small crane in an attempt to pick up small prizes and dump them down a chute where you could retrieve them. Not a very successful thing. Another was to operate a slide that pushed coins towards a chute so you got back some of the money you had used. The only winner seemed to be the amusement arcade. But it filled the time until we must meet up with Gramps outside the pub.

Always good in timekeeping he would meet us outside the pub with a heavily loaded suitcase and we would wend our way back to the train station. Of course, in those days it was a steam train with closed passenger compartments, no corridors. So who you started the journey with were also the people you finished the journey with.

So into the carriage, Grandpa breathing heavily. Once seated, out came the pipe, a clasp knife with a large plug of tobacco. Then he whittled off enough tobacco to fill his pipe, took out his matches and in no time at all the compartment was full of tobacco smoke.

One such journey we had 2 nuns in our carriage. We said hello and Grandpa proceeded to take out a ball of string from his jacket pocket. Then he took this brown suitcase down from the overhead racks, placed it on the seat and opened it to reveal a seething mass of seafood! Picking up a lobster he would tie each claw and then return it to the suitcase. Crabs also were dealt with in the same manner whilst he lifted the salmon and cod to show them off. By this time the 2 nuns were huddled the farthest corner from us next to the window. They kept exchanging glances towards Grandpa as he continued to produce as much smoke as the train engine, it seemed. They cracked open the window by releasing the leather strap that held it closed over the door in an attempt to get some fresh Yorkshire air.

Grandfather was completely oblivious of their predicament and once all the seafood had been examined and returned to the suitcase he shut the lid, knocked his pipe out through the open window and fell asleep snoring heavily for the rest of the journey. Once we arrived at Middlesbrough and the train jerked to a stop the nuns fled the train even before Grandpa had gathered all his belongings!