The Davey's Part 8. The end and the beginning.

This is the final part of the Davey story.  We have covered a lot of ground in the last few months and I only wish I was a better writer and had more memories - But I am pretty pleased with the outcome, I think it gave a good insight into our little family and how we became who we are today. 

This final instalment will look into the 5 of us and how we eventually left (or not in Chris' case) Manchester and how our family of 2 adults and 3 kids became dispersed around Europe and then the world!

As I am writing and I am my own favourite, I will begin with myself.

Rick.

As the youngest of 3 boys, I was the last to leave school. I spent the final year doing as little as I could - which was pretty much what I did my entire school life after I had been promoted a year in Primary school, because I was so clever, only to have to repeat that year again as I was too young to be accepted to the secondary school. I spent a lot of that last year at St Hughes kicking a ball around the playground on my own as I had already completed everything I needed to do a year earlier. So my attitude waned and that continued right up to I left school - But only at school - when I am left to my own devices and to get on with stuff I want or feel the need to do  I do it. So out of school, I was working on all my paper rounds still and also in the supermarkets. I earned all my own money and was the only kid in school to ride there on a moped - most walked and others had bikes - but I was the only one in my entire year who had a motorbike. It was a crap one, but it was paid for by me and I was proud to do it myself. 

This was it - My red BSA easy rider. Gareth had a blue one the same a few years earlier ( see later) and Dad got this for me and I paid him for it in cash. Admittedly the helmet was more expensive than the bike, and that was a birthday present. But I loved this thing!

I even did my paper round on this for a year or so. 

I have never told this story before.....One morning I left the helmet on the back of the bike like it is in the photo above while I went into the paper shop to collect the papers for my round. When I came out the helmet had gone. I was gutted. I looked around but there was no one about so I had to start the round with no helmet and explain my stupidity to dad when I got home and that the helmet had been stolen. 

A few minutes into my round I rode past a local school and in the distance, across the playing fields I could see someone sitting in a doorway, with a red bike helmet. I had to get it back so I locked up my bike and walked straight towards the person. When I go there it was a fully grown man, much bigger than me and he looked like he had been sleeping rough for a few days at least, I strode up, shitting myself and said  - 'That's my helmet, I am taking it back'. For some reason I will never understand, he stood up looked down at me and said' OK', handing the helmet back. I took it and walked calmly away, got on my bike and rode off as quick as I can.  I never told mum and dad and made sure to never leave it lying around again! 

In my final year at St Pauls, I took 8 CSEs and 5 GCE (O-levels) I was actually the last person to ever take an O level at that school as they were replaced by GCSE the next year and I was the only person to take O level Geography, which was the last O level of that year! A little bit of history! 

I used to skive off school quite a lot and do my own thing. I don't know if mum and dad ever found out, but I did get caught on the day that prefects were to be chosen. I wasn't there to hear but apparently, my name was called out in assembly to be a prefect, but I was skiving off THAT DAY and got caught because I wasn't in assembly. Needless to say, I didn't get chosen as a prefect after that! (If you don't know what a prefect is, look up Prefect school UK, on google)

I already had a job lined up when I sat my exams, as I had been accepted into the Royal Corps of Signals in the British Army. I never imagined where this job would take me and that it would last just over 23 years, but at the time I had nothing else planned, so it was just what I did.

I left school after my exams and continued to work in Gateway supermarket and even on my paper round until a week or so before I joined up on September 2nd 1987. I should leave myself there and maybe talk about what happened at home before all that, 

Gareth. 

Gareth was 3 years ahead of me at school and even though I sometimes saw him with friends at home I don't really have any memories of what he did in the last year at school. I do believe that he was actually chosen as deputy head boy - I am sure he will correct me if I am wrong! (Gareth - Not very much really, I’d discovered Girls and beer by then hence me having to Join the army lol) Gareth definitely had mates who were into bikes and I remember his BSA easy rider and another motorbike too, which I believe he rebuilt - (Gareth - That bike came up from London… Uncle Tony had it in his shed. The idea was to get it on the road but by the time I could afford the Insurance, I'd joined up. I sold it to a middle-aged fella who about a week later had an accident on it and died.) - Rebuilding the bike was at least good practice for his life as a vehicle mechanic. 

I do have some photos of Gareth with his bikes. He looks way cooler on his BSA than I ever did  - except for when he has a Golliwog stuffed down his jumper! Also in that photo look at how good dads garden got after us kids grew up and stopped ruining it for him!

Incidentally, Gareth now has a super new motorbike which he rides around the wonderful roads of Sydney Australia with Tracey on the back!

I seem to remember Gareth having a pretty hard-looking Leather Jacket for his bike, and at roughly the same time I believe he started to try to play the guitar, but maybe that's just a bad memory of mine! He still worked in the supermarket until he joined the Army as a vehicle mechanic in the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers in January 1984. 

I remember the day that Gareth went for his army interview, which would have been in the summer of 1983. Mum came home from shopping and found a suitcase on the front step and thought Gareth had been accepted and was leaving the same day! It turns out that wasn't the case, because inside the suitcase mum discovered our video recorder. It turned out that mum had just happened to get home and come in the back door as the burglar stealing the video was leaving the front door. Luckily he dropped the suitcase and ran off to leave mum to drag the case back in and wonder what the hell was going on! (Gareth - They also poisoned poor Rassie and he was never the same after that)

Gareth was accepted into the army though and left home in January 1984.   During his time in training, he met and fell in love with Tracey, with whom they had two brilliant kids. Michael and James, who to this day are still both crazy and amazing and great people! One of my biggest regrets is going on a school trip to the Lake District instead of attending Gareth and Tracey's wedding. I was a silly young teenager and shouldn't have been so stupid. If you look back at photos of their wedding now I can't believe I didn't go. What a selfish little prick I can be sometimes. 

Here's a photo of Gareth and Chris with Tracey and her little sister Keri. A photo I really should have been in!

There was another wedding in the family in which Gareth had a major role to play too - one that I actually made it to this time. Aunty Catherine married Andrew in Old Trafford and Gareth played the role of Chauffeur - driving dads Ford Cortina and playing the role whilst dressed in his No2 Dress. It was a great wedding day and one that saw all arms of the family meet together in Manchester. 

I wish I still had photos of that day but I couldn't find any, unfortunately! I wonder if Gareth, Chris or of course Catherine and Andrew have any.

Anyway, that is the story of how Gareth and I both left Manchester to join the army - next up is Chris!

Chris.

Chris still actually lives in Manchester, a fact that I am jealous of as I still love the city even though it's pretty much unrecognisable from when we were kids. 

Chris continued to work in Urmston Market till he left school.  After Gareth and I had left Chris remained living in Manchester although I believe he actually moved out of 90 Moss Vale Road for a while. Chris's best mate, still to this day is Paul Davidson. I actually went to school with Paul's little brother Pete Phil (I had to be corrected on this by both Gareth and Chris - Sorry Phil I got you mixed up with the old Dr Who - Peter Davidson. Sorry mate!) and both brothers are pretty close to us all. We all keep in touch and often when I came home in the 90s I would hang about with them if Chris was working. Paul even let me and Buffy stay in his house for the week of Chris' wedding!

Now I am not sure of all the facts here, but this is how I remember things. I hope Chris will correct any errors I make.

Chris also thought seriously about joining the army. He attended a weekend introduction at an army base under the Severn bridge, but he didn't like it and decided against joining. 

If I remember right Chris and Paul rented a house on the outskirts of Sale for a while around the time I joined the army in 1987, and Paul and Chris enjoyed the life of free and easy 20-somethings with money to spend and places to go!  Chris had been working for Trafford Leisure as a lifeguard in sports centres on the Youth Training Scheme (YTS) and I believe they offered him a full-time job on his 17th birthday, mistakenly thinking it was his 18th birthday. He took the job and worked his way up through the management levels over the next few years. 

Chris's story from about then weaves in with Mum and Dad's own departure from Manchester. So Il will now introduce mum and dad to the story.

Mum and Dad. The house and the Bungalow.

Mum and dad were at this point empty nesters in a big house in a big city and when dad was offered early retirement, (Chris - he retired on his 50th Birthday) he decided to take it. Mum and dad had always loved Skegness and decided to move back there permanently around 1992/93 (Chris  - actually July 1991). They found a Bungalow that they liked and attempted to sell the house in Manchester. But selling houses in the UK is completely different from selling houses here in Canada. In Canada houses normally sell within a couple of weeks of being put up for sale, but in the UK it takes a lot lot longer. Mum and dad had a few low offers that they turned down and eventually, needing the money to buy the bungalow in Skegness, came to a deal with Chris to sell it to him to live in with his future wife Julie, while mum and dad moved, Then Chris and Julie would sell it for a realistic asking price and pay the remainder back to mum and dad. Everyone wins. 

But everyone didn't win.....as the house took literally years to sell and I don't believe the real asking price was ever met. There were certainly stresses for everyone involved and when 90 Moss Vale finally sold it was a big relief. 

Chris  - The House was originally valued at £65k – dad was offered £60k the first week it went up for sale but decided not to take it, the 1990 housing crash hit then and they had this issue of being about to retire but unable to sell, I was in Manchester needing a house as I was not moving with them so I offered to buy dad a bungalow until he could sell Moss vale road, but for tax reasons I was then persuaded to buy the house – it then took 6 years to sell as a huge loss against the £60k dad was offered originally

Chris and Julie then bought their own house in Flixton and brought up their kids, Abigail, Peter and Joe there, before eventually splitting up around 2008. 

Chris then met and fell in love with Emma around 2013/14 and they were married in December 2017. Buffy and I were actually staying with Chris in the UK during the formative years of their relationship and we can happily say that we love Emma a whole damn lot!  I am very happy to say that I actually made it to their wedding!!

 Here are a couple of photos from the day itself!

Mum and dad moved permanently to Skegness around 1991 or 1992 and bought the bungalow at 4 Melbourne Drive. 

Then after Chris and Julie sold 90 Moss Vale Road it was been dramatically altered time and time again and at one point looked like it was almost derelict. No one looked after the house like our mum and dad did. Now the old house has been extended and is a huge 7-bed monstrosity with a concrete yard.

But that doesn't matter - what matters is the memories WE all have of our time growing up there and in Newport and Skegness. 

On a different note, 4 Melbourne Drive in Skegness was the perfect little house for mum and dad, and once they had added a conservatory at the back it got even better. They still had some old friends in Skegness from years before and made lots of new friends too with the neighbours and dad's jobs. Dad went through a number of different jobs in the next few years, from running a car spares shop to managing an arcade and finally settling into working at a label company. He always liked to keep himself busy in the evenings and weekends and so in the garden he dug out and built a goldfish pond as well as making the gardens beautiful with flowers and plants all over the front and back gardens. 

Here's a page from their photo album showing what they did in their first few weeks back in Skegness!

Mum and enjoyed chatting with friends and neighbours as well as keeping up with what 'us kids' were doing. For a couple of years, mum and dad's lifelong mate and cousin Tony and his lovely and brilliant wife Joyce move in just across the road and they really enjoyed having them so close. 

All 3 of us kids - Gareth, Chris and me, were lucky enough to meet and marry great strong women. Mum and dad loved Tracey from the moment they met her and they were still alive when I brought Buffy home to the UK and when Chris met Emma. They would be very happy for us all now that we are grown, up settled and happy ourselves. 

They were happy in Skegness and when they both died in the summer of 2014 we spread their ashes on Skegness beach. It is exactly where they wanted to be. I took some photos of the garden just after dad died and it was just beautiful.

That pretty much completes the Davey story - at least the story of mum and dad and their kids, with our journey from Skegness to Newport to Manchester and us three boys becoming proper adults!

There are other Davey stories that are still to be told though. Abigail, James, Joe, Michael, Peter, Hannah and Oliver - I am sure they have tales they would like to share. The 7 cousins range from 35 years old down to just 2 and 1/2 which is crazy!

I  hope one day soon we will all get together again - with Gareth, Tracey, Chris, Emma, Buffy and me alongside the 7 crazy children (most are fully grown adults themselves now) we have. Opportunities are coming and I know that the Canadian branch of the Davey clan is looking forward to getting together with the Dubai, Sydney and Manchester branches. It will happen soon I am sure and then we will be able to sit down, drink in hand and take a new photo of us all. But for now, I think it's right that I end the story with one of my favourite photos ever. 

I don't remember why or how or when we took this photo, but in the old days, you when people could just park their Mini Metro and Peugeot 205s and Mercedes cars right in front of the most famous Football club in the world and take a photo, that's what we did. 

Old Trafford, Manchester, sometime around 1991 or 1992. In sunglasses. 

It doesn't always rain in Manchester.

The Davey Boys.