Wild Teens

     
I left school at sixteen with very disappointing exam results (no university for me) and started work, training to be a carpenter/joiner in Leeds.

The company I was working for was very old school and my new work mates were very boisterous, mischievous and downright bullies, especially to apprentices. To this end I really had to 'man up' to survive in this environment. One particular joiner in the company had the accolade of Yorkshire apprentice joiner of the year, 2 years running, and this was to be the company benchmark. To this end I fell way short and did not receive the training that I would have expected, and spent most of my first year sweeping up or painting, and only getting out on site when they needed an extra pair or hands.

Towards the end of my first year I was sent out on a new build supermarket with the star joiner that I mentioned earlier, and suddenly he twigged that he was at college with my older brother (who failed his apprenticeship) and whom he bullied intensely. Unfortunately he had the same plans for me!

The second day on site he and a few of the others grabbed me and locked me in a steel site box and locked the box in one of the offices and left site. I was left in there for five hours and if it hadn't been for a alert night watchman it could have been over night and I may have suffocated. I got home as a very insecure 17 year old who did not want to go back to work.

The next day all my tormentor could do was laugh it off, and I bit my tongue and carried on with my work, which was that day hanging directional signage in the new store. The same afternoon he approached me in a fit of rage accusing me of placing two signs in the wrong place, and proceeded to grab my tool bag and scatter its contents on the floor. What happened in the following 30 seconds shaped my career for the next two years as I swung into a stiff arm tackle (very illegal and dangerous move in both Rugby league and Union) and my nemesis was out on the floor with a fractured jaw.

Immediately I was sent back to the company office and given a written warning, but to my surprise instead of being punished I was sent out with another joiner to give him a lift.

Work had spread round the company that I wasn't a soft touch and would stand up for myself.

This new assignment I regarded as very formative in my career as I was asked to do an operation, working at height which I considered highly dangerous, and to which I refused to do the task. So I was sent back to the office for a final written warning and transferred to the company small works department.

My new reputation followed me, a trouble maker who was now afraid of heights (nothing was further from the truth) and I started to feel more and more isolated.

Fortunately the manager of the small works department was a kindly man in his last years before retirement, he was wise and could read between the lines of what was happening. It was agreed that I would be given a clean slate, and although the warnings were still on my record if I behaved for six months this would be wiped from my records.

To this I knuckled down and started to develop my skills learning from two elderly bench hands who took me under their wing and I would be forever grateful to.

Work was now going well and on my 19th birthday I was able to buy my first motorcycle. This was at the height of the CB radio fad of the early 80's and I was able to form a small network of friends

Whom I am still in contact with and am very supportive. As a group of teenagers we were wild to the extreme and seven nights a week in the local was the order of the year. Although I was still secretly cross-dressing the constant alcohol induced wildness seemed to suppress this to some point.

This was only going down one path, arrested several times for fighting and public disorder (although surprisingly not charged.)

One evening on a night out in Bradford a friend of mine ran though a department store window and with all of us being slightly under the influence we jumped into a taxi to go for a curry.

However the taxi driver had seen this happen and as soon as he dropped us at the curry house, radioed in for the boys in blue to pick us up.

It was apparent that police were only after the one who did the damage, but we were all threatened and subjected to violence until we signed statements to enable them to charge our comrade. We were then released in Bradford city centre without charge, very black and blue and facing a 5 mile walk home at 4 am in the morning. Two hours later and only yards from home to our amazement we were re-arrested because of the state we were in taken back to the same station and instantly re-released to have to do the same walk again (Bastards!!).

To this when I got to work on the Monday morning I was greeted by the news that the manager had a car accident in which a child ran out in front of him on the previous, Friday .This was to prove fatal for the child and it was the last I ever saw of the works manager.

His replacement was installed immediately, a snide wirery man who was known in the firm as ‘piggy’.

He took an instant dislike to me and tried to stop me going on site claiming I was a disgrace to the company image. Neither the less the stiff arm incident was still fresh in the companies mind and he was cautious enough not to step over the line.

June 85’ I came back to the yard after a day on site to be find a note taped to my motorbike petrol tank asking me to go see the company owner. The new manager had firmly locked himself in the office until I had left to see the owner.

I was told that I was not being kept on after my apprenticeship was over and I had one weeks’ notice to get another job.

I jumped on my motorbike and drove to just outside Whitby, armed with a bottle of brandy and a bottle of paracetomol wondering what to do next.