Older than my Father

ukbob

I am now officially older than my Father. I looked back to what I remember of him when he was as old as I am now, with lessons learnt and advise not taken.
If I had lived life like he did I would more then likely not have reached to be older than he was.
The earliest I can remember of him was that he owned an electrical store and was the first in our village to sell TV’s. He could not have been that good as for some reason that to this day I do not know, spent 9 months in prison.
He also played in a local band as a drummer and played the piano and organ very well. More than likely to well with his organ as he divorced my mother and married another woman who he met from his electrical store days.

I can never remember love from him or got the feeling that he really cared for us. I grew up more or less doing what I liked as a kid, always out and only getting home when it got dark.

We moved from the village where I grew up to Littlehampton, a Town not to far away. It was there that he brought a seaside Café which my stepmother ran. He also brought a boat and used to take fishing parties out. He was fucking useless as a skipper and I finished up doing all the organising and running the trips.
He soon tired of that and brought a couple of greyhounds from a local bookie Willie Perella. His brother’s daughter was Dame Anita Rodderick, the Body Shop founder.
I was the one who finished up walking and training the dogs. We finished up with 12 of them. While racing them at Brighton is where I became the bookies runner for several of the owners. We also raced at the “illegal tracks” Aldershot, Southall and High Wycombe

Dad was now a fully fledged car dealer. He was the one who supplied a dealer in London with the first Jaguar that the Kray twins owned. My old man was shitting bricks when he found out as cars in those days were not as reliable as they were today.
Through Harry Bloom, the owner of Hove Motors, Dad became interested in Brighton Football Club. Harry was VP of the Seagulls. He got 4 season tickets which a couple of my mates brought two of them. I had previously found out that Dad also had had two season tickets to Old Trafford which my brother had been using.
Through Harry we used to hob knob with the players, managers etc. from Brighton, all a bit of a show I thought at the time

I now look back to when my Dad was 60 and we used to drop him off at the Goldstone entrance about 90 mins before kick off. He had a hard job walking and got out of breath easily. He then had to leave 10 mins before the end to walk to where we parked the car, so slow was his walking. All this was down to smoking all of his life.

All the things I did for him were expected, he never asked for them to be done, he just expected them. He never gave good advise but would poke his nose in and be very critical of things. He didn’t want to be part of your life or family, he wanted to run it.
He cried wolf so many times. He finished up in Hospital after a heart attack and was told to give up smoking. He did for about two days. After two more scares he passed away 32 years ago. The following morning my step mum and me polished off two bottles of Brandy, I didn’t shed a tear until much later in life.

All through his life he had been a wheeler dealer, he was rogue and expected me to follow suit. I nearly did but for the love of my wife. I look back and remember him as an “old man” I don’t want my kids to think that of me, a dirty old man yes, but not an old man
Why am I writing all of this? To get it off my chest and to tell you all to look after yourselves, have fun, enjoy life and most important of all show lots and lots of love to those important to you. Cherish your family.
I have done some very crappy things in my life, dealt with some ugly characters, not the most honest of people but in the end it was all down to love.

Dr. Dwayne

nice piece bob. you made me miss my Dad just there.

bbest

Thank you for sharing it with us, it is very nice.

TheRedFlag

My dad is getting married again next weekend

FlawlessThaw

Cheers Bob, that really was a nice read. Don't really go on the General much but glad I did on this thread.

Marching

Your Dad looks good in a dress Bob


Interesting life you all led.

RedKaos

Great read though.

jgraham

Top post Bob

Scholesgoals

thats a lovely post.

Brophs

Fair play, Bob. I'm more or less certain you're comfortably the coolest person on here, without even trying. Not sure if anything I say would do that piece justice.

Cheers.

Chorley1974

In seriousness Bob a beautiful post.

rimaldo

he is super cool. you can tell some of my e-granddad's genes have filtered down to me.

Brophs

They obviously went through quite a filtration process.

rimaldo

i prefer to think of it as a refinement process rather than a filtration one.

McLovin

Nice on Bob.

VidaRed

i read all of it.

id be happy if i accomplish half the things my dad has done.

Alex

Good one Bob and congrats

KanieKaned

Nice read bob gets ya thinking bout stuff ya aint thought about in a long long time

Plechazunga

Great stuff Bob. he sounds like a right character at any rate.

I'm very lucky that my old man was not only quite possibly the kindest, gentlest, most loving man in the history of the world, but also chose to support United not City... there by the grace of god...

Merman

Great read bob. Nice pics in your photobucket too, especially the lesbo one

Decotron

Nice piece Bob, your making me guilty for not going for a meal with my folks yesterday!

AdZzUtd

This place is human afterall, great piece Bob.

Man Utd Mrs

What a fabulous post!
Thanks for sharing,Bob!