My first memory is of pedaling my tricycle around the ground floor circuit of 122, my first race track, but Dad was not impressed with my driving skills
Happy holidays were spent in Newquay or Scarborough where our treat on the last day was a Knickerbocker Glory at Jaconelli’s on the sea front
Dad’s first car was a black 1946 Austin 10, GRR 763, in which he taught Mum to drive. The nearside semaphore indicator was an early casualty
Dad was very tolerant of bad behaviour. I remember playing along to the Dave Clark Five on Top of The Pops using a makeshift drum kit of biscuit tins
Dad taught us the value of waiting for something you really want and, in my case, it was a proper Raleigh bicycle for miraculously passing the 11-plus
Dad was fond of sweet treats, such as a Mars Bar on a Friday evening, cut into thin slices so everyone could enjoy the taste without getting too fat
Dad was very traditional in his dietary preferences. “No foreign muck” meant that he was in his 40s before he tasted his first pizza. He hated onions and fish
Dad never smoked and during the war he sent his cigarette rations home to his Dad who put money away which helped to buy his first house in Basford
Dad embraced new gadgets and appliances with 122 being one of the first houses in Moore Road with a red, Bakelite telephone on a party line. Sadly, the GPO took the red phone away when they brought a new, modern one. When England reached the final of the World Cup in 1966, Dad went out and bought a Bush colour TV which the cat, Fluff, used to sleep on top of. As soon as a domestic dishwasher was available in Jessops, Dad was keen to save Mum washing up. A Bendix automatic washer/dryer soon followed
I remember Dad and I rigging up our first stereo system with a big speaker in one corner and a transistor radio in the other corner. Dad wanted to hear Bert Kaempfert and his orchestra but he got Pinball Wizard instead
Dad loved to listen to Two-Way Family Favourites on the Light Programme on Sunday afternoons, which later became known as “Dad’s Crap”. Dad also loved The Marx Brothers films and The Goons on the wireless who Mum said were “too daft to laugh at”. Al Read was another of Dad’s favourites
Dad encouraged my love of music but watching The Old Grey Whistle Test late at night, all you could hear was Dad’s legendary snoring upstairs
Dad was very good at making life easier for others but he did not suffer fools gladly and was always suspicious of anyone who was “an expert”
Dad was a great believer and practitioner in DIY, preferring to do things himself rather than be overcharged for someone else to do it badly
Dad was also a great teacher and an inspiration to this daft lad who has been given the skills and confidence to tackle almost any practical task
I remember the Last of the Summer Wine Thora Hird look that Mum gave us when she came home from the shops one Saturday to find Dad and I grinding in the valves of the Mini cylinder head on the Lounge coffee table
When I had passed my driving test, Dad gave me his 1961 Vauxhall Victor with holes in the floor with which I terrorised the Nottinghamshire roads
Dad started his own business with Dennis in his forties which inspired me to do the same 10 years ago. Dad inspired confidence and courage
It is no coincidence that two of Dad’s children have designed and self-built their own homes, inspired by his ‘can-do’ attitude to life and to work
It is not very PC nowadays but back in the day, behind a successful man, if he was lucky, was a loving and supportive woman and that was Mum
Mum & Dad were a great team, encouraging us to work hard at school, be kind to others and always have some money saved “for a rainy day”
Like Polonius, Dad tried to convince his irresponsible son (and his more sensible daughters) to “neither a borrower nor a lender be”. Sorry Dad, but I never did get the hang of saving money and I remain in debt to this day
Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Ron a few months ago as dementia robbed him of his wits and wisdom. Now his body has followed and he is at peace
I would like to say a special thank you to Louise, Jo and their team for looking after Dad (and Mum) at 122 and to everyone at Alder House for making Dad’s last couple of years there as comfortable as possible
Thank you Dad, for everything
I will close with the first and last verses of a poem by Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night
Old age should burn and rave at close of day
Rage, rage against the dying of the light
And you, my father, there on that sad height
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray
Do not go gentle into that good night
Rage, rage against the dying of the light