Wednesday

I heard that yesterday my old make jack died. The last person i know who served in World War two. Nice old chap always wrestling with a mars bar addiction and a loopy wife. I once went into his house, under strict instructions not to tell his wife anyone had been in there. She had covered all the ornaments with cling film to "stop dust" it looks awful and the cling film was dusty. She used to get up at five every morning to clean (very badly) and wash things, and would only let jack get films out to watch, with no bad language, no nudity and no sexual references, so when she was there he was limited to children's films. When she went away he would nip down the Vid shop and rent naughty films, which wernt all that naughty. I remember when my brother gave us a video player he gave us some films, they were definitely not tame porn, but red hot hard core porn. We were quite surprised.

We first met him when we lived on the boat, he was always at the beginning of the path "fixing my boat" he had a wheeled basket with his tools and every day he would go to the boat and "fix" it. A more "fixed dingy once couldn't find. It was more badly applied patch than boat. Sometimes in the summer he would go for a row, claiming that it was OK as the water didn't come past the thwarts. I did point out that it was acting as a raft, but he was happy enough.

He was a rope maker by trade, born down here but moved to London to make rope. Even made a rope for Onassis's yacht, out of manila which stank so bad they used Lux soap on it. In the war he was called up and put in the RAF where much to the instructors surprise he volunteered to be an airframe fitter (almost everyone else wanted the excitement of engines or armaments) Some time spent sewing up holes in Hurricanes, lying in the mud (well don't the Sargent said, but this is a combat squadron we don't do such a neat job here) Eventual just as his Girl friend (to be his wife) had to endure the Blitz he was sent to Madagascar to service the Catalina flying boats, that searched for submarines off the African coast. Not that they ever found any. In Africa he had all the fruit one could want, sugar, and even a servant to polish his shoes and do the washing. The worst danger was sharks or sea snakes when swimming in the warm sea. Though he admitted a sort of phobia about cinema ceilings falling in on him and a fear of the barber... I don't think he ever saw any Germans till after the War.

Returning to making ropes then working in factories down here, he retired to his tiny cottage with his mad wife. Wandered about and fixed his boat.

I remember him saying to me i just want to make it to the year 2000 and he did and them some. I used to see him all dressed up and off to the family plot at the cemetery with all his relatives, they would all go and tidy the family graves and talk about the departed and have a picnic. I hope hes going there to be buried.