1962 Malcolm Clark
Very nice to see picture of our school. Brings back lots of memories, mostly good. I would love to get in touch with some of my school friends, Bernard Smith plus others.
Very nice to see picture of our school. Brings back lots of memories, mostly good. I would love to get in touch with some of my school friends, Bernard Smith plus others.
Hi Malcolm
While browsing Mayfield Memories, I was pleased to read that you would like to contact me. Immediate thoughts were ‘from school days to old age pensioners’ it doesn’t seem that long ago. I would very much like to know what you have been doing with your life and I will try not to bore you with my activities, which I’ll keep as short as possible.
I married Carol Stennings in 1972 and we moved into a bedsit in Mawney Road, Romford. I had taken my Swimming Teacher exams and worked as a Pool Attendant and Swimming Instructor for Havering Council at Mawney Road baths. I applied for a full time teaching job at Basildon, but had to refuse it because we could not manage on the salary offered. We then worked for my parents until they retired, when we moved to a house in Rush Green and our first daughter was born. I was still good friends with Chris Trueman who was a greengrocer and I had taken a job as a milkman, the only job I have ever disliked. Then I decided I wanted to be a greengrocer. I sold the house, got a bank loan, and made my biggest mistake because there was no trade and we were losing money every week. That shop went up for sale, Chris decided he wanted to go back in to the newsagent business and I borrowed more money. So I now had two shops no house and a large loan.
Fortunately I managed to sell the Rush Green shop which changed into a Chinese take-away. Our second daughter was born in 1975, the Elm Park shop helped us recover and we moved into a house in Elm Park. We had 18 good years at Elm Park, the only major drama was while our eldest daughter was having major spinal surgery, I was run over by a lorry and was in a full length leg plaster for 18 weeks.
I sold the shop in 1990, just before the emergence of the giant supermarkets that ruined many High Streets. I then proceeded to sell wholesale fruit and veg to restaurants. This was good, but then our youngest daughter decided to emigrate to Perth, Australia, during 1998. So we had a daughter in Billericay and one in Australia. To enable for us to see them both I passed the wholesale business on and from then on have spent the UK winters in Australia and the UK summers here. During this period our daughters both had two children – two girls in the UK and a boy and a girl in Australia.
While in the UK I worked as a mini-cab driver, a job I enjoyed very much. Obviously I travelled around the area but if you have moved away you would not recognise Seven Kings or Ilford. Ilford Baths are closed, the shops and population are virtually all Asian origin.
I became divorced during 2009 and my ex-wife stayed in Australia. I have a new ‘lady partner’ and fortunately still spend most of the UK winter in Perth. As for health, at the age of 67 I do not feel I have anything seriously wrong, although I have had heart problems. But as long as that keeps ticking away, I shall be ok. With regard to sport I did play golf three times a week. But now the only sport I do on a regular basis is in Perth and consists of social swimming in the ocean, lawn bowls and fishing.
I hope I have not banged on too much and sent you to sleep before you read all of my post, but putting a lifetime in to print, there is much to record and much to leave out. I look forward to hearing what you have been up to, please put in as much detail as possible.
Hello Malcolm
I think I have written to you before asking whether you are Margaret Clark’s brother. I would love to hear from you as to whether you are on not.