At Nineteen the fifth year started out good enough , had a good wage , still only 5 day a week ,only had the Bowden shop to work at , another apprentice was doing the deliveries etc , and had a Norton motor cycle for transport was also trotting out my future wife Colleen .
Nothing the female customers threw at me put me off as I was past the blushing stage , have heard all the yarns about what the milkman did , us young butchers copped it too . better still those that used to wait for Pop my boss allowed me to serve them , Jock the owner had 4 stores by now scattered around the town and I would only see him once a week to collect the money for banking .
Another happening i'll never forget , as the Bowden shop was really old, it had a wooden floor with a cellar that we never used , one part of the floor broke when I stepped on it and my leg went through , as I fell a knife was dislodged from my pouch, it was lying flat when I fell over it , poor Pop nearly panicked for all he could see was a knife handle sticking out from my side , as I fell I knocked over a tin of rabbit pieces and blood , he thought it was from me , gave me a shock as well I tell you.
One Friday late in the year we were serving when Pop said he had to sit down , finished serving a customer and went out to him in the lunch room , I made him a cuppa , he said I had better ring John his son at another store as he thought he was having a bad turn , John arrived pretty smartly and took his father home .
The store was left to me to finish the days work ( there always was only the 2 of us ) to clean up and handle the days takings . Pop had always done the book work but by seeing him do it that was easy , just lock up and take the money home with me.
Monday morning I went to work, opened the shop no sign of Pop, or even jock , about ten am jock turned up told me the pop had had a heart attack and he would send over Garry another apprentice , collected the money checked the till and left me to it .
MR Carolan for that was Pops name was at home, so I visited one lunch time and he seemed to me to be okay , was his old self, had a smile on his dial when he saw me, and a cheerio when I left.
and that’s how I will always remember him for he died next day, he was 66 years of age and many a story of his butchering days I can remember him telling me .