by Nick Drew | Wed 07 Mar 2018
Memory of the month the way things were (Part Twenty Two)
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I had been home from Canada for about three days when I saw an advert in the local paper for an operator for a JCB wheel digger, this was a small company about six miles away so I paid them a visit and got the job, I thought it would be nice to sleep in my own bed for a change. As it happened that didn’t work because I ended up on the Bodmin bypass in Cornwall staying in a caravan with another chap, but it was OK.
I was doing various work until I was detailed to work with a drainage gang, this site was run by McAlpine so as usual the job was run by paddies, the site agent was Irish with elder son in charge of drainage and his younger son in charge of our gang, well he was a real idiot who thought he was god and gave us all a hard time, although he did work hard. This went on for months with the swing shovel taking out the trench and me carrying the pipes pea gravel and gravel to finish off, it was difficult to see the trench because I had to drive up over the spoil from trench so the bucket blocked my view.
On this particular day matey was being particularly obnoxious and as I drove up to dump a bucket full of 60mm gravel to cover the pipe, I caught a glimpse of him right in front of me where he shouldn’t have been and I thought payback time, my hand was on the lever and I was just about to tip the lot on him when I thought of this small company and the hassle it would cause them so I relented and let him get out of the way, that was his lucky day. One day we were late leaving site due to repairing a machine and as we got near the end of the site there was a trench right across the road blocking the way out and no other exit, fortunately there was a Cat D8 handy and I always had a bunch of machine keys with me so I just filled it in and we left, I bet they had a surprise next day
This small company had four of their five machines on this job which I thought was a silly thing to do as no doubt the rates were low and they neglected all their usual customers then when the hire finishes the customers have gone elsewhere. Well that is exactly what happened, the job finished a few days before Christmas and we were all taken out for a meal at a hotel in Salcombe and at the end the boss said I’m sorry but I’m shutting down and you are all redundant.
I had seen it coming but other chaps hadn’t and it came as a real shock so I did feel sorry for them, but s*** happens. Luckily for me, next day a work colleague of my wife Angela said that Calor Gas were looking for temporary workers for the winter months so I nipped over there right away and got a start on January 2nd filling gas bottles, it was quite decent pay as well and this lasted until the middle of April, but there was not the camaraderie you get working in earthmoving. Following this I thought I’ve had no holiday for well over two years so I think I’ll take a month off, and as I had never been out of work since leaving school before I was fifteen, paid all my taxes I thought I’ll sign on the dole this should be interesting.
There was a dole office in Kingsbridge in those days so off I went, I had an interview with some bloke who asked what I did for a living, when I said I operate large earthmovers he just sucked air through his teeth and said there’s not much call for that around here. Well I said you know what they say “You’ll never get a good man out of a dole office” he really lost the plot then so I said “If I can’t get a job I’ll be back, but I don’t expect to be back” They paid me £9 the first week £11 the second week and £13 the third week.
During the second week I was in the garden when the phone rang, a voice said are you Bill, "yes" I said, to which he replied, how do fancy going to Saudi Arabia, I said I don’t, well he said that’s a shame it’s £13500 for 10½ months tax free, well alright I’m interested, bear in mind it was 1976. So we agreed to meet in Taunton in Somerset, half way between us. To cut a long story short I went out there but that’s another story. I never did find out how he got my name and telephone number. The co-operator