Monday, September 23, 2013

My Four Sisters





Jean :- the baby of the family, sadly we lost Jean & her lovely husband Rab Archibald, as I said before I left Gibshill long before, so I really missed her growing up as well, I know she lived in Cobham St. & I think Poplar St. but I never visited her there, it wasn't till she got to Port Glasgow, that I started to visit when up from London, Jean had 2 children Wendy & Andrew, Wendy is a lovely girl but sadly I never knew Andrew, what a terrible thing to say,
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ANN :- Ann is the same age as Cindy, and the only sister left alive, her name on my Facebook friends list is Ann Gorbould, Ann spent years in South Africa, and Benidorm, now settled in Dereham, married to a brilliant bloke Ben,, as luck would have it, we are 40 minutes drive from each other and visit each other on a regular basis, I call her " Daft Ann " a loving term. or maybe it's because she does daft things, in other words she always makes me and the family laugh, Loves ya Sister XXX
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RAY ( Mary ).:- Ray was the rebel of the family, always in trouble with my parents, but we always got on, she stood up for all of us against our parents, stopped me from getting many a hiding, I remember she had 3 jobs, not at the same time of course,1. was Drummonds, 2. was Mitchell's at the Smillie St. shops in the post office, and 3. a conductress out of Ladyburn, that would have been in the late 40's, I was always good for 2d or3d out of her float money she kept in her leather bag they used
On one of my visits to Gibshill, I brought a couple of friends with me, we had a party at Ray's in Cobham St. I think it was number 2, we had loads of Wine, Beer, & Whisky, Big Del, as her husband was known, he was a giant of a man, worked as a Navy deep sea diver, fit as a fiddle, during the early hours of the morning, Big Del collapsed whilst up dancing, we thought he had enough to drink, but he started turning blue, someone ran down to Irwin St and got my father Wullie Sinclair, Dad pulled his socks off and felt his toes, " He's Dead " nobody knew what to do, in those day's there were no mobile phones, so someone ran down to the phone box and dialed 999, the ambulance came and pronounced him dead, BUT !!! were not allowed to move him until the police checked all was OK, so we picked Big Del off the floor and laid him on the settee, covered him with a white sheet, and as we were all drunk already, we carried on with the party, Police didn't come till 9:00am, all was checked and the ambulance came back and took him away, when I was leaving for London on the Monday Morning, Ray gave me his Diver fur lined boots, " Del would have liked you to have these " Size 12 I don't think so,
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Ray ( Sister ) :- Ray ended up down the " Isle of Dogs " in London, now called classy Docklands, she had severe breathing problems, couldn't go to bed, as she couldn't lie down, so she slept in her big easy chair, she constantly wore a face mask connected to an oxygen bottle, the folk who know best, thought it would be a good idea to put a oxygen bottle in every room, including bathroom & toilet, so all she had to do was unplug the mask and plug into which ever room she wanted to go into, Great !!!! BUT """ what they didn't bank on was that Ray started the day around 5:00am with a Pint of Lager and a roll-up of Wacky Baccy
Unknown to Ray one of the bottles had a small leak, nobody know how long it was leaking for, early next morning, she lit her ciggie, which started a series of explosions, one bottle exploding the next one, the whole house exploded, the old boy upstairs was blown out of bed and was months in intensive care, there was nothing left of Ray, the only thing that survived was a photo of me which I had sent her a few weeks beforehand, a comic one with my Wee Jimmy hat on, she thought was funny, but nothing else in the house survived
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JESSIE :- Jessie was my oldest sister, but thought she was my cousin in the 40's, Jessie didn't stay with us, she was brought up by my uncle Bertie ( Mothers brother ) and aunt Annie of 11 Ann St. Greenock, apparently they couldn't have children,
Jessie married Jimmy Neil, and had 5 kids, Alan, Billy, Ann, Jean & Janet, all great kids, but I'm afraid I didn't see them grow up, in Cobham Street, Gibshill, I came to Greenock once a year from London.
Jimmy Neil was a typical shipyard worker, he was a Copper-Smith in Scotts, Greenock, worked very hard, and depended on his " 2 Nights & a Sunday overtime " just to live, people worked to live and never live to work, it was hard, that's why most yard workers drank so much at week-ends, enjoyed Friday night through till Sunday morning, then back to work
Jimmy Neil was responsible for the success of the continuous week-end parties in the Sinclair household at 2 Irwin St, we had a piano in the kitchen ( Front Room ) which jimmy was a master plus his accordion, he didn't like the latest chart music, if I wanted him to play a particular song, I would buy the sheet music, he was brilliant