The Daveys - Part 2 - Skegness and 3 little boys

We left the last post in the mid-1960s. Mum and dad were married and living in Skegness. 

It was there that they decided that they decided to start a family and so we 3 kids came into being. 

We know it wasn't all easy going though - We know that mum had more than just 3 pregnancies and there were definitely a couple of miscarriages along the way. But they kept trying and after Gareth was born in 1967, Chris followed 2 years later in 1969 and then I made my first appearance in 1970. 

Update - I got more information from Chris with more details about what happened with mum's pregnancies and of the first one in particular. Mum and Chris talked about this after Dad's death in 2014 and shortly before mum died. I am so glad they did as it's an important part of our family history. Mum was pregnant a total of six times in Skegness - Mum explained the order of the pregnancies as she remembered them to Chris - It looked like this: 1. Stillborn (Leo), 2. Gareth, 3. Miscarry, 4. Chris, 5. Rick, 6. Miscarry. After the 2nd miscarry mum was told not to try for any more kids. 

Leo is the saddest story. I only found out the detail today in Chris' emails and until now had only heard hearsay and rumour about what happened.

'That morning, sometime in 1965 or 1966, we aren't really sure, a heavily pregnant mum had walked with dad to work in Skegness along the beach and had stopped for a paddle in the sea on the way home. This was the last time mum could remember Leo moving. 

Later that day she became worried and took the short walk to the hospital, where she was induced and Leo was stillborn. She nor dad ever saw or got to hold him. She never explained why that happened.  Leo was buried shortly afterwards at the feet of an elderly woman who had died around the same time. Mum said that she hadn't ever got over it and after dad died she took Chris to the cemetery at St Clement Church in Skegness, which is where the elderly woman and Leo are buried. But mum couldn't remember the name of the woman whose grave Leo shares. ' 

After Gareth was born Mum's pregnancy ended in a miscarriage - she told Chris that one of the nurses accused her of having a backstreet abortion, which must have been such a traumatising thing to go through. She carried on though, having Chris and me, before one more miscarriage.

Mum also told Chris that she bled a lot when she was first pregnant with him and mum suspected that Chris was one of twins, one of which failed. But this was Mum's theory only and never proved. 

As well as all the drama there were funny moments with the pregnancies - Chris told me that when mum was pregnant with Gareth, a trainee nurse was doing a check-up around the 8-month mark, and the nurser screamed 'He's got no head!'. This obviously upset mum, until an older Irish Nurse, came in to re-check and said 'It's ok, he is just engaged in the birth canal, head down. Mum giggled when she told this to Chris. 

End of update.

We were all born in the tiny Skegness Hospital. Just half a mile away and a 2-minute drive from the house where mum and dad lived!

Mum and dad didn't just work and have kids though-  they had already made some additions to the house in Skegness - if you look at a couple of photos - mum with the motorbike and then one with  Dad sitting with Gareth and Chris and you can see that addition they put onto the back of the house. This is significant because when mum and dad moved back to Skegness to retire in the 1990's they put a new conservatory onto their little bungalow too - so it seems they really liked the extra room that an addition/extension gives!

Before the addition

and after with Chris and Gareth in what looks like snow in Skegness!

Dad was still working hard and working his way up for the Ordnance Survey. He had been posted to Skegness to survey the East Coat and he loved it. Mum meanwhile, was at home giving birth to and looking after us kids. 

Dad at work in the 60s

We had a good childhood in Skegness - Gareth would be able to tell you more about it as I was too little to remember, but there are plenty of photos of us having fun when we were little there.

One really 'family famous' photo was when we turned over the bin in the back garden and rolled it away tipping all the rubbish all over the place. Mum and dad seemed to see the funny side though as they took time to take a photo.....

We seemed to spend a lot of our childhood ruining dad's gardens. In later posts, you will see the mess we managed to make of the dad's garden in Manchester. He always loved gardening and this was just as true back in Skegness as you can see from this photo I found of a young dad (and tiny the dog) working in the back garden.

Holidays always had a big part in our lives - we were always going somewhere whether for a day out or for a holiday - there are so many car photos! The first car I remember was 'Puggy' a white ford escort, but before that, there was what looked like an old Ford Cortina - with a very young threesome looking on...

With the old ford cortina

  

From Gareth...The gearbox fell out of the Cortina on the Prom in Blackpool when we went to see the illuminations from Manchester (We were visiting Gran at her new house in Norwich Road) We had to abandon the car and come home on the train. That's when we bought the Escort (Puggy!)  

Puggy! (This photo might have been later than Skeg)

While mum and dad were dragging us kids up in Skegness, mum looked after us most of the time and dad worked. He was also helping out a friend who loved nearby and became a bit of a legend in Skegness and through the family history - Ken Scrimshaw. 

Now Ken was and probably still is a bit dodgy - Not in the way that drug dealers are dodgy  - But in the way that he always had a scheme going to make some money - sometimes these schemes worked out well and he made a pile of cash - other times - well not so much! He always seems to know someone who knows someone who can get the thing you want - you know the kind of bloke. Heart of gold, and a house and car full of stuff!

In the late 60s Ken was in the Amusement arcade business - I think he worked his own arcade, but definitely moved arcade machines and equipment around between arcades on the Lincolnshire coast. Dad at the time owned a Minivan - which looked something like this...

Not the actual minivan!

 ..(From Gareth) - Dad's minivan was bright Orange, so it would have actually looked like this..

.

I could only find two photos with this minivan in... here they are ...The first one is relevant because Gareth is sitting in the back of it

The second one is one of the only two photos showing the outside and is definitely taken in some dodgy caravan park. Probably at the same time as the first photo!

Here is one more - showing just the front corner of the minivan -But it is a cool photo of Dad and Gareth. How good does dad look here!!!!

This all led to one of dad's and the family's favourite 'Dadanory stories'

At this point in time, Dad was moving some stuff for Ken in the minivan and was driving along a famous road in Skeggy called,  Roman Bank, with a little Gareth in the van beside him. 

(My mistake - Gareth says....As far as I remember this was in a Normal 4 door mini. When we wrote this off he bought the van instead. I remember us heading home in a Landrover with a phone in the front.. I assume an AA or police Landrover)

Now Roman Bank is exactly what the name suggests - It's a Roman-built Bank, which has been built on and improved over hundreds of years now has one of the main roads in Skegness built onto it. 

Parts of the road are still 8 to 10 feet above the pathways and houses built alongside it. 

Dad was driving along and at a bend in the road somehow he lost control and flew off Roman Bank, (From Big bro Gareth..It was wet and slushy snow and dad went straight on at the corner - heading south just before the crossing)   landing a few feet below in the front garden of one of the houses. Amazingly no one was injured and the car seemed to be fine. Dad's favourite part of the story comes next - He had landed next to the front door of the house (If I remember right, it was the house of someone he knew) He was so close to the front door he couldn't open the car door to get out, so he casually would down his driver door window and rang the doorbell of the house - 'Hello'!

Haahaa I love that story and even more so when we went back to Skegness later in life  - dad would always point out the bend in the road and the garden he supposedly landed in!

This is a view of the houses and road from about 2011.....I seem to remember the house was just before or just after the tree!

There were many other stories about the adventures of Dad and Scrim - Sometimes it's hard to believe them, but they were all good ones and it wouldn't have been surprised if someone had made a TV show about scrim - 'Only fools and Horses' would have been close!

There were times when dad didn't even get paid cash for helping Scrim out - We have a Penny Mchine from the 1950's that my kids play with here in Canada after I brought it over from England. This was one of Dad's paydays  - when Ken gave it to him in lieu of cash and was always a firm favourite for us kids to play with. This is what it looks like today, probably 50 years after we were first given it!

Dad and ken always had a story and the absolute favourite and most probable bullshit story was the 'Penney Falls' story. 

Penny falls are those machines you see in arcades when you put a coin in the top and it drops onto moving shelves - which push the coins over the edge onto another moving shelf - over and over until the movement of the coins makes one or more fall giving you a win! 

This kind of thing...

Well, dad and Ken were adamant that they were the original inventors of these machines. 

Dad always told a story about using a windscreen wiper motor off a car to make the draw of the original penny falls move back and forth. It sounds really possible and we really don't know if it is true or not - what we do know is that dad claimed the original machine was in an arcade in Mablethorpe still and he knew which one it was because 'Penny', was spelt wrong! I remember a couple of occasions when we were older kids, that dad somehow ended up in the arcade and there in front of us was the original  'PENNEY FALLS'. That part I know really happened, but as the original makers - we shall never know whether that was true or just 'Dadanory'!

I think mum and dad really loved their time in Skegness with us as little kids. Being a dad to two little ones now, I know the joy of being outside with them and just playing. I guess Skegness in the late 60s and early 70s would have been the ideal place to bring us all up. Quiet, but always something to do - open sandy beaches and not very many too cold days in winter. It sounds like bliss. Most of the photos I found from Skegness are outside in the garden. Here's a quick selection of them. 

and one inside of Chris and Gareth!

We also had family visits. Here's a great photo of Bryan, Eleanor and Brenda, I think with Gareth although it could really be any one of us three!

We had plenty of holidays when we would visit cool castles. beaches and lots of trains - dad was always into his trains, but I guess having kids meant he couldn't spend much time with trains, so when we went away, quite often we would ride a steam train, or visit a train museum. We didn't mind as we loved (and still love ) trains too. 

As I already said, Mum would have spent most of her time looking after us 3 kids - she did a great job as we are now fully-fledged adults - In those days there was no kids TV and no games to play on phones, so she would have been busy washing cloth nappies and cleaning us up all day. I hope we were good for her and not a pain in the arse! She looks amazing in some of the old photos and obviously spent plenty of time on the beach! 

Here is one of mum and Eleanor enjoying the sea!

Dad also looks pretty great in his sunglasses!

One member of the family I haven't really mentioned yet is Tiny. 

Tiny was a little Yorkshire terrier and the first dog we had in the family. 

I am a little sad I can't remember him as I was too young, but I know he would have made mum and dad happy and would have been a plaything for us kids. he looks like he was a fun dog to hang around with! (Gareth really liked him, here's what Gareth said   He was awesome and very protective, very much like Rascal in Manchester. He used to run off exploring but as soon as you called him, he'd come back. Good as gold and my first best mate xxx..)

Gareth went to his first school in Skegness as a 4 or 5-year-old, but Chris and I were still too young for school. Then around 1973 dad had to move with work to the Harlow office, in Essex. Where his job was to survey the new M11 motorway. (More from Gareth here, including a great dad story..  Correct - another b'shit dadanory story was that when I (Gareth) went to work with hin ( I did a lot during school holidays) we were the forst to do 70 MPH down the newly resurfaced and unopened motorway...but it was on teh wrong side ) Haahaa brilliant! I know he also spent time working at Ordnance Survey Head office in Southampton, (Gareth Says ...he did a course at Southampton to be a pioneer of Helicopter mapmaking to map the Lake District) so we had to move from Skegness and mum and dad bought a little house at 91 Cherry Garden Lane in a village called Newport in Essex and that is where I will continue the story in the next instalment. 

I think I will end this post with, what I think are cool photos of the 3 of us kids. 

So here is a scan from the old photo albums, where all the photos I am posting come from - 

This one is 3 little boys, playing in the back garden in Skeg.