One of the best times I remember well was a holiday to a caravan park in the lake district. It was to Fallbarrow Park on the shore of Lake Windermere at Bowness on Windermere. It was fifty yards to the lake shore and we had the use of a rowing boat. Dad took us across to the islands in the middle of the lake that had been the ones in Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, I had great fun with him and the twins playing at pirates. We took all our fishing gear and went fishing almost every day, there was loads to catch in the lake. Bream and roach were common and with a little bit of guile you could get a nice size perch. Dad showed me how to make a trap with an old wine bottle to catch minnows. You had to knock the bottom of the dimple into the wine bottle with a hammer and punch so it was like a funnel. String was tied around the neck and a piece of bread was put in the bottle. The cork was replaced to closed the neck, then the bottle was submerged in a little reed bed and left for an hour or so. When we went back, the minnows had swum into the hole at the bottom of the bottle and were eating the bread. You could pick the bottle up by the bottom and they were trapped. All I had to do was take the cork out and pour them into a bucket.
This was our bait for a special fishing trip, we took the boat across the lake to Wray Castle. In the harbour below the castle was loads of water lilies and in these lived pike. We were going fishing for the fish that I had never seen but was like a shark in my mind. We baited the hooks with the little minnows and sat and waited, after a while my float started to bob and I grabbed my rod, “Not yet” said Dad “ wait until it goes under fully”. This I did and was rewarded with a sound tug on my line. I had hooked something, I let it run a little while and then started to play it in. My rod was bending almost double and I thought I had got a real whopper, suddenly there was a flash of green and silver as it broke the surface for the first time. WOW, it was bigger than any fish I had ever caught in the canal or park pit in Scarisbrick. It took me about ten minutes of play before I got it near to the side, Dad got the net on the long pole out and laid it in the water. ”Bring it over the net son”, he said as I steered it. He lifted the net and I had caught my first pike, it was about eighteen inches long and weighed almost two pounds but it seemed as big as the tope we had seen hanging in Rhyl harbour to me. We took it back to the caravan and had it with some perch we caught for tea. Fish never tasted as good even if it was full of bones.
We went back to Bowness the next year to visit friends who were stopping at the Stags head Hotel. Their little boy had caught measles and was stuck in the hotel room. We were in the room having a lunch when this little man was brought in to see us all. He laughed and joked with us all and he was really funny. Before he went he signed his autograph on the hotels note paper for each of us. This little man turned out to be Jimmy Clitheroe, he had his own television and radio shows where he played a naughty school boy. He was also famous in the theatres all over the country.
Various celebrities visited the pub over the years, I collected as many autographs as I could along the way.
Bob Greaves was a presenter on Granada T V in the sixties. He turned up one lunch time with a co presenter Sue Woodford. They had lunch from the snack bar and I served them.
Ted Sagar who played in goal for Everton in the thirties was introduced to me by Dad, he ran a pub in Aintree.
Mike Newman was an Irish comedian that regularly appeared on tv shows like The Tom Jones Show and Cliff Richards. He struck quite a friendship with Dad and they would try to write his scripts for him. I remember them staying up late and Dad giving him loads of Liverpool jokes.
Like the dockers names.
The destroyer :- he was always after a sub.
The mechanic:- when he picked clothes for his wife he said diesel fitter.
The cat:- he asked “anyone seen mi owl man?”
The docker that was arrested for animal cruelty, he was caught kicking a tortoise, he said it had been following him all day.
What do you call a docker in a suit? The accused.
Why do seagulls have wings? To beat the scousers to the tip.
The Spinners were a famous folk group that had a big following and they became regulars in the pub and would even sing now and again in the singing room.
Saturday sing songs were every week in the singing room of the pub with the piano and drums going. The coach parties that went to Southport for the day would call in on the way home for a couple of hours and it was nothing to have six or seven coach loads of pensioners in the pub all wanting to be served first and all wanting a seat. It was hectic at times and a few rows had to be sorted about who wanted to sit with who and some else had pinched someone’s seat. They really boosted the weeks takings and it was nothing to have to refill the bottle shelves half way through the evening. There were loads of tips for a young boy from all the old dears and I made the most of it. I was told to keep a smile on my face no matter what happened and to take all the ribbing and fun in my stride. They loved to ruffle my hair for some reason. It was all harmless fun and I enjoyed seeing all the smiles on their faces.
Christmas time in the pub was always busy as the local firms would come along for Christmas dinners during the week before. Dad would only open the pub on Christmas lunch time only so we could have the rest of the day for the family. The pub would be decorated for the whole of December with paper streamers and lights. It really was a time for the pub to make lots on money. Dad said we needed to make lots over Christmas and New Year because there would not be a lot of trade during the winter until the spring when the coach trips and the bowling started again. On the morning of Christmas day he would give all the regulars a tot of rum or whisky as a present to them and a thank you for their custom over the year. They did not get the regular optics, he had his own bottles behind the bar so that he knew it was not coming out of the pub stock.
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