Month: December 2017

bute st station

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The last Dunstable Dasher (left) to Leighton Buzzard in June 1962 and the last Skimpot Flyer from Luton Bute Street to Dunstable in April 1965. The historic borough of Dunstable actually never had a railway within its borders. A dispute between George and Robert Stephenson and the local Ecclesiastical authorities meant railways were not allowed to go within the boundaries of the small ancient borough. The railway was forced to skirt the town centre, and two stations that were created were some distance outside, in the then parish of Houghton Regis. The stations only formally became part of Dunstable following the town’s enlargement in the 1930s.

Tin Town Boys.

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This story is fictitious,but I was brought up in Dovehouse Hill, (tin town) and like a few others I can associate with this story…

As a boy in England I was a loner, at school I was slow to pick things up and was always in trouble with the teachers who saw my problem as an act of laziness, or I was just plain stupid, either way I hated school, and teachers were not overly fond of me, but weekends now that was a different story, I would go to the pictures on a Saturday morning, it was there I would get away from the rain, and teachers, nobody cared if I was Irish or stupid, I couldn’t wait for  Saturday to come, so I could escape, I met Mickey and Joey Farr outside in the queue, I was thinking about the show, excited to see the Lone Ranger and Tonto fight the bad guys. It was great, When the bad guys would appear every kid in the house would boo, or if the bad guys were sneaking up behind the Lone Ranger to jump him, every kid in the cinema was screaming, LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU, WATCH OUT, HE`S BEHIND YOU.  And when the Lone Ranger would whip around and clobber the bad guy everyone would howl and scream with delight. We even had our own song, “we are the boys and girls of the ABC” and I would sing along at the top of my voice, it was in those brief moments I would dare to believe that I did belong.

 

On one sat morning I was standing in line with all the other kids and two boys were standing in front of me, unlike most kids who always looked kind of mean to me, they were relaxed and smiling, they both said hello to me and I said a hello back, Mickey was eating from a bag of sweets and held out the bag to me, want one he said, kids offering other kid sweets now that I had never heard of, in shock I just stared, well do you want one or not, I nodded and took one. We started talking, I found out they came from Burnham rd right in the middle of Tin Town, A place I was to stay away from, Mum would always say “keep away from that Tin town there is nothing but trouble comes out of there, no good bowseys the lot of them”.

Tin Town were emergency prefab houses put up after the war, temporary houses for the over spill of people from London, the top half of the houses were made of tin siding, hence the name Tin Town,

When we went into the cinema I wandered off to find a seat and Joey called after me, hey, do you want to sit with us, so we all went upstairs to the balcony. It was the first time I had sat with people I knew, I felt very excited to be with these two lads, before this I had always gone to the pictures on my own, and this was a new experience laughing       and joking at the antics going on, At the interval Mickey and Joey went down to buy more sweets, there were a group of boys in front of me talking and laughing and I made the mistake of laughing with them even though I didn’t know what they were laughing about, one of them said something to me, I nodded although I didn’t hear him.

The next thing I knew my head hit the back of my seat and stars exploded behind my eyes, I had no idea what had happened for a second or two, then realized one of them had hit me and my nose was now bleeding, the boy who hit me just stood there smiling, when Mickey and Joey came back they asked what had happened, I said nothing had happened, my nose had just started bleeding, I didn’t want Mickey and Joey getting into trouble with these other boys,

After the show was over we were all racing down the exit stairs, laughing and screaming and that was when I told them what had happened, what? Said Joey, Mickey said why didn’t you say,

Because I didn’t want any trouble I said,

Fuck that, they both said, we love trouble, quick let’s get them,

And with that we walked around to the front of the cinema and right enough there were the boys who had been sitting in front of us, they were standing in a group of five or six, and the boy who had hit me was laughing and talking like he was holding court,

Which one hit you said Mickey,

Mickey there is a lot of them, I said, they’ll kill us.

Horace, just point him out, I’ll take care of it, so I did,

Joey and Mickey walked straight up to the group. Hey, you hit my mate? Said Mickey,

The boy was still smiling and said,,,, so,

With that Mickey punched him in the face, and he just collapsed onto the path like someone had turned his legs to jelly,

Then Joey kicked the boy next to him, right in the balls, and he knelt down on the path and began to cry,

I stood there with my mouth open, all the boys who were standing around just stood there looking anywhere but at Mickey and Joey,

Anyone for anymore said Joey, no one moved,

With that the three of us walked away,

And that was how I became friends with the, Tin Town Boys,

The tin town boys were a force of nature; I had never seen anything like them before in my life.

 

 

The next week I was to meet them at their house and then go on to the pictures, as I walked down their street I was terrified as all the local boys gave me dirty looks, but I just kept my head down and kept walking, when I got to Mickey and joeys house I went around to the back door as I had been directed, the door was open and in the kitchen was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life  , with blond hair, she was  tall, and moved like her feet weren’t touching the ground, she was singing to herself, and what was really strange was she was singing” love me do, by the Beatles’. Every grown up I knew hated the Beatles, Scruffy yobs, they said, with their dirty long hair,

And here was this beautiful grown up woman singing their song,

She turned and saw me and gave me a big smile, oh Hello,

You must be Horace, my name is Carol, the boys have told me all about you, now come in and have a seat, would you like a cup of tea. This too was a shock, most friends houses I went to you weren’t even let into the house, Irish kids weren’t to be trusted, and here was this grown up telling me her first name, not I’m Mrs.  Farr, and just wait there, and don’t touch anything, no none of that, but have a cup of tea no less.

So I sat down at the table, sugar and milk are on the table love, she said as she put my cup of tea in front of me, It was then I looked into the back garden and saw the biggest man in the world digging around some vegetables, ok he wasn’t the biggest man in the world, but he was very big with no shirt on and muscles everywhere, he put down his shovel and came down to the house, he walked into the kitchen looked at me then at his wife and said, ok Carol I’ve buried those two men I chopped up now I need me a little Irish boy to eat, Hey son do you know any Irish kids , I’m really hungry, I keep my eyes on the table in front of me, terrified, I shook my head,

John Farr I will clock you around the head, said Carol,  your scaring that boy, Horace take no notice of him he is just acting daft, with that the giant man ruffled my hair with his hand, don’t worry son just having a laugh,

Mickey and Joey went to the shops they will be back in a bit, hey I heard some kid bashed you in the face last week and Mickey and Joey helped you out, good for them I say, though the wife don’t like it, but I say never let anyone push you around,

This was news to me, in my house fighting was not allowed my Dad always said just walk away it’s not worth it, and on occasion when  I came home with a black eye, my Mum had a fit,

But Mickey and Joeys Mum and Dad came from the east end of London, and they said sometimes you just had to use your fisticuffs,

Do you like my face Horace, said Carol; I had been staring at her since I had sat down at the table, I could feel my face burning red, I looked away staring at the table again, it’s alright I don’t mind, she said, with a smile, so I summoned up my courage and blurted out that I thought she looked like a Movie star, She laughed, and Mr. Farr said that’s why I married her son,

When Mickey and Joey came back we left and went off on our adventure, after the pictures, the boys said, hey Horace do you want to go roof jumping, I shrugged my shoulders as I had no idea what roof jumping was, So we went up to Castle st where a lot of old factory’s used to be now they were empty shells,

Luton was where we lived and was once famous for making hats and clothes and the Town was thriving, now 15 years or so after the war the need for hats had faded, and the factory’s died; now they were just empty dirty buildings that lined the streets around Luton,

So we went round the back of one of the factory’s that was on Castle Street climbed up a drain pipe and got on the roof, I was so excited, I could see for miles, I could see right down George street to the town hall, and the picture house behind it, I knew I should not have been up there on the roof, but it felt good to be bad,

We started playing tag, one of us would be it, and had to chase the other two until he tagged one of them, and then he was it, Joey was it, and chasing me as I was not as fast as Mickey, Mickey was like a banshee flying across those roofs, now Joey was hot on my heels so I did a quick turn and ran up the peak of this one roof we were on,

And that was when it happened, crash, I went straight through the roof and now I was falling, oh, oh, oh, am I going to die I thought, and then crash, I landed on my back on top of all these cardboard boxes, I was so happy I wasn’t dead I let out a loud yeaaahoo,

Looking up I could see Mickey and Joeys faces looking down at me from the hole I had fallen through, Are you alright called Mickey, Yes I said, I’ve landed on some boxes there’s hundreds of them, I think there full of clothes, Geronimo, I heard Mickey shout, and the next instant he landed beside me, then I heard Joey say, ah shit, under his breath, because if Mickey jumped he would have to jump, If I die Mickey ill never talk to you again said Joey, then screamed his war cry and  landed next to us,

Wow, look at this place said Mickey, and with that we started to investigate, there were boxes of coats, and posh dinner jackets, and hats everywhere, Mickey and Joey had found top hats and were walking around talking posh like country gentlemen, oh hello old chap, I see you’ve wandered on to my land, I’m afraid I’m going to have to poke you in the eye, said Mickey, and he did owww, I said, then Joey said he too had to poke me in the eye, cause whatever Mickey did, Joey had to do the same, ok I said but do the same eye as Mickey did, so at least ill have one good eye, so he did and. Sshhh what’s that, someone was coming, a policeman with some old watchman, shining his light all over the place, we dived into the boxes and hid ourselves, Joey had climbed on top of the boxes, me and Mickey had just squeezed behind  the boxes on the floor, At one point they were standing less than two feet away, my heart beating like a drum, Joey kept making little squeaking sounds, just to annoy them, Where are they Bill, said one of them, oh there close Fred, won’t be long before we have them, and all the time Me and Joey and Mickey  were watching them, Joey did some more squeaky noises, and this made them really mad,

You little fuckers better come out or you’ll be for it, mark my words,

To which Mickey whispered in my ear, fuck off you old cunt, and I nearly pissed in my pants laughing.

After a good while they went off, and we came out,

God this was the most fun I had ever had in my life, we were all talking at once, Mickey said you know we could be actors like those fellas on the pictures, I mean we jumped down through the roof to rescue Horace and the bad guys couldn’t find us and they had a flashlight,

It was there and then we all decided we were going to be Actors, I even told my English teacher Miss Langley I was going to be an Actor, she laughed, and said you may be a lot of things Martin but an actor is not one of them, I hated miss Langley, It got so bad with her, and her asking me things I didn’t know, then she would laugh and say something like, I didn’t think so Martin, and all the class would laugh and I would sit there going red with embarrassment, so I refused  to do anything in her class, I would walk in sit down and cross my arms and stare at her, she would try and get me to rise to her questions, but I would just sit and stare at her,

Twice she sent me to the headmasters office were I would receive a couple of strokes of the cane, but even he gave up and said, Miss Langley I cannot keep canning a boy for literally doing nothing, But headmaster its defiance he is defying the rules, surely this cannot be allowed, Yes Miss Langley I understand but until he does something wrong we have to let him be, and after that I would stare extra hard at miss Langley.

A few weeks ago I was wearing a cowboy hat sitting on a tractor, I would then drive the tractor up to a barn, then someone would shout cut, and I would drive the tractor back again, then I would drive the tractor back up to the barn and someone would shout cut, and, well you get the idea,

For some reason that day in that old ware house came to mind and I had to laugh, not quite the actor’s life I had envisioned, but a long way from tin town, Last year I was back in England and heard that Mickey was now married and has two grown boys and still lives in tin town, Joey didn’t fare so well and died of a drug over dose  years ago,

But I will always be grateful to those to nutcases from tin town, they gave me courage,  taught me how to fight, and showed me it was alright to be a crazy, and most of all they made me feel like I really did belong,

 

HORACE MARTIN

This story is fictitious, the boys mentioned in the story Micky and Joey Farr, are actually several different boys I put together, as far as I know neither of the actual Farr brothers have ever taken drugs let alone died from them. We did get into old hat factors and run amok. There Was an Miss Langley a horrible woman who did try to undermine and embarrass me in school. I am an actor in Los Angeles. And I did do over thirty takes of driving that bloody tractor up to the barn and back again. This story is meant to be a bit of fun, I hope you enjoyed it. H.