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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,
.................................................
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
..............................................................................
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,
......................................................
.
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
...................................................................................
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
