Yours Truly.
Myself, my dad, my brother John and my stepmother circa 1950.
To complete this family history, it's necessary to tell you about the family of John Norcop born 1904. When dad's first wife, Eva Gilman, up and left, she took with her, both my sister Barbara and my younger brother David. The less I say about David, the better. [He was mixed up with the Krays.] Barbara met and married Maurice Wakefield and they remained childless and now live in Nottingham. I never see her.
My brother John lives in Mablethorpe with his wife Betty who is an absolutely lovely person and I love both of them dearly. The only child they had was Rosemarie who was born in 1980. She and I have a very special relationship. I adore her as if she were my own and I am her 'favourite uncle Mick.' She and I come from the same mould! At the moment, she is living in Holland with Sanders, her partner, and they plan to get married next year [2003]. I miss her a lot and we both have tears in our eyes whenever we meet or part. Dad would have loved her to bits.
And then there's me.
My life has been a roller-coaster of a ride from the year zero. My earliest memories are of life in Sandyford, Stoke, which was where we moved sometime after I was born. I was a ragamuffin from the word go. Brother John and I were close and we were always together doing things we aught not do. Not for us the luxury of a stable homelife, we were the flotsam that roamed the streets and generally made a nuisance of ourselves. That flotsam was left sitting on the doorstep one day when mother decided to bugger off with the lodger. No warning. No provision made. Just abandoned like two cast off dogs.
It's a good job we were streetwise!
Eventually, John and I were taken in by a relative until dad arrived home from the war. We hardly knew him but his love for us soon altered that. Despite the hardships he endured, he never once let us down in his life. He was always there for us and his future was formed by our presence. Anyhow, he carted us off to The Meir to live with his sister, Sally, and that's really where our life began.
After a while, dad met and married our stepmother and we moved to the other side of The Meir to a terraced house in Weston Road. I'm quite sure the only reason he married was to get us a semi-stable environment. Unfortunately, our stepmother was also a victim of unhappiness and her marriage to dad was not a successful one, but it did last. I don't blame her for all the problems but she was not a proper wife or mother. Dad didn't help...he took to drink.
Which brings me to the demon drink and family violence. If you can't take your ale, then don't drink. If you have young children, then think ten times before you raise your voices against each other while they are in the house. Only those children who have lay in bed at night and listened, terrified, at the awful rows that grown-ups have, can understand the gravity of the situation. It is horrible and better a one parent family any day than two who don't get on. Please take my advise if ever you find yourself in that situation. Lesson over.
Despite all the jetsam of my upbringing, I was a bright child and passed my 11 plus and went to Longton High School. It didn't last! Within 2 years, I threw it all away with my refusal to conform to the class system which existed in those days. My parents were very poor and it showed in my dress. It didn't take long for the highbrow teachers at that school to single me out and my reaction was predictable given that I knew more about life when I was 12 than they knew despite their years. To cut a long story short, they told me to bugger off and I gave them a two finger salute as I walked away with a grin on my face. How do you tell a 13 year old rebel that his future lay in non-resistance.
Do I regret my rebelliousness? Not one iota! I'm a non-conformist and a better education would probably have meant that I would become a clever non-conformist. I don't think I was cut out for school.
Eventually, I left school and because I was a bright pupil, instead of the careers officer directing me into a skilled manual trade, [which I had asked for...a bricklayer same as my dad] they decided that I would become an apprentice Works Chemist at Creda. Another grave mistake in the long chapter of mistakes. I spent more time experimenting with various chemicals than doing any serious work. The end came when I mixed two chemicals together and blew half the lab up.
It was cards and coppers and up the road. Abandoned again! [This time, it was my own fault.]
By the time I reached 21, I had gone through 19 jobs. I was an experienced JCB Driver, could handle a 22RB, a Caterpillar D6, pack pots in crates, drive heavy goods vehicles and multiple other tasks including a bit of army life, put cream on cakes in a bakery, work a lathe and I could even lay bricks. Life was a doddle and the money was good too. I earned more than most young lads and had a string of fast cars and motorbikes but that came to a halt when I was banned from driving for getting too pissed up one night and crashed my beautiful Sunbeam Talbot mark 3a into another car coming out of the Three Horseshoes at Blackshamoor.
I had also left home by this time too and I was now a semi-itinerant. I lived in a caravan at Checkley on the land of a farmer named Barry Milner and his wife Edna.
And that is where I began to rebuild my life.
From this lovely family, for the first time in my life, I experienced stability. Barry was to become my teacher, my mentor, my beginning. Barry is dead now and has been for many years, but every Christmas eve, even during all the years of my marriage, that is where I go. Ann went with me too. That is my home.
And it was in the Red Lion at Checkley where I met my dear late wife Ann.
Ann was the rock on which I built my life. Everything which went before was cast aside and I became a different person.
We had two children, Lorraine born 28th December 1966 and Anthony John born 27th May 1970. Two finer children could not exist. Both hard working, conscientious, loving and loyal. They are my pride and joy, my everything and all that I am. No father ever loved his children more I do mine. And what ye reap....so shall ye sow.
Lorraine is married to Mark Dennis, a hard working lad who takes care of his family and I could ask no more from him. They have 3 children and live 3 minutes drive away from me. The first born was our very precious Katie Rebecca who still makes my heart jump every time I see her. She was born 29th July 1998. I remember distinctly the first moment I looked into her deep blue eyes when she was less than 2 hours old....it was inspirational and an immediate bonding of souls.
Tony, who lives 3 doors away from me, met and married our very precious daughter-in-law, Sharon, and they had our grandson Samuel Lee who was born on the 13th November 2000. Here was the grandson I had always wanted. We had been blessed with a boy and girl child and now we had grandchildren of either sex. Samuel is different than Katie. He's a boy very much like his grandfather. I'm not sure whether that's a good or bad thing but I do know that no-one will tame this spirit! He is adored by his parents and the bond between them is wonderful to watch. No child could be loved more than this one. I am hoping against hope that his spirit can be moulded into a stable setting and that the ways of his grandfather are not too deeply rooted in him. He is far too precious to me to consider that his life will echo mine as it was during the early years. I think he will be ok. His parents are different than mine were and they are devoted to his welfare. Time will tell. [Fingers crossed.] When I die, I will be his guide if I have a choice. I'll probably eat him because that's what I want to do now every time I see him.
Now you would think that there's not much else in life that a person can have eh! Wrong!
We'd been blessed with a boy and girl, had a granddaughter and grandson....so what else could we possibly have? That question was answered on 19th February 2002. Our daughter gave birth to identical twin boys, Mathew and Scott.....or 'Bubble and Squeak' as they are affectionately know in the family. They are just like Katie so they are going to be blessed with good looks too. And, like both of my other grandchildren, they have grandad's blue eyes. Heheheh. They are now 4 months old and will have a major part to play in the life of OldStokie. Hopefully!
And that is the life of OldStokie, warts and all. Oh, there is one more thing to tell you about and that is the woman who changed his life.....Ann Brunt as was.
As I said, she was the rock on which I built my life. She was the catalyst of change, the instrument which brought about a metamorphosis in the person who was Mick Norcop and became OldStokie.
Ann was a determined girl. I didn't think much of her at first. As a matter of fact, she was a pain in the arse to me when all I wanted to do was still be the jack-the-lad I had always been. She was just a good looking girl who happened to come in my drinking hole. She was persistent though! She finally, despite my better judgment, managed to get me to marry her.
Things weren't easy at first because I was like a caged animal, but she tamed me and we had a wonderful life together even though it didn't always run smooth. Of course there were the hard times, but we survived them together and that bonded us even closer. That bond was strengthened when she contracted rheumatoid arthritis.
I really don't want to go into all the details of her illness because it's painful to me to recall her suffering. She had seven of her major joints replaced, both knees, both hips, both shoulders and one elbow. During the last 15 years of her life she was confined to a wheelchair and I had to give up work to care for her. That caring has taken its toll on me and my health has suffered because of it. The stress of caring for the person you love most in the world and watching, day after day, the awful pain that this disease inflicts upon its victims is debilitating. It saps the spirit. It breaks most but it has never broken mine because the metamorphosis was never complete. Somewhere hidden away was that spirit which has carried me through all the difficulties in my life and you can't douse that.
The end for Ann was swift. She contracted septicemia and died two days later on October 13th 2001. I was with her to the end. Her death was a blessing for she no longer had to suffer the awful pain that even many ampoules of morphine could not control.
I loved her deeply and still do even though she's passed away on that long journey of serenity. Her body may have died but her spirit still drives me on. And, I know she has not left me either! You see, I still have her ashes in the wardrobe.