In 1938 I, along with five other men, went to Leyland Motors Spares Depot at Glasgow. Our job was to stocktake the depot before it closed down. It was quite an experience and I think gave my mother a surprise because I had never worked away from home before. Also she was thinking in terms of money as we received an amount of cash from the wages department. The length of our stay was a fortnight and should have been longer, but one of the men who was with us and also brother to our manager had to return back to Leyland as his father had passed away so James Walmsley and myself had to accompany him for the return journey. Whilst we were at Glasgow we were paid for to go to watch the tattoo which was very impressive. Our manager also paid us a visit and paid for us to have a sail down the River Clyde. There we saw on the stocks at John Brown’s shipyard what was to become the Queen Elizabeth I. It was still in building and on completion it became wery well known as a troopship during the war. I still have a snap taken from the boat we were sailing in of the ship being erected on the stocks. I also have a snap of some of the lads and myself outside the Glasgow Depot. We were fed extremely well by the landlady where we were billeted and all in all enjoyed the experience. We would go out into the city and explore. We also had our first experience of an underground railway. The railway went in a full circle coming back to its starting point. The fare was one old penny for as long as you liked to stay on the train. We were billeted in an area of Glasgow called Pollock Shields. We slept two per bed, which those days nothing was thought of it. Jimmy and I had one bed. When we got back to Preston we caught the bus for Whittle and Alice’s mother and dad were on the same bus. They were coming back from Penwortham and my future mother-in-law said “Does she (Alice) know you are coming?” which of course she didn’t as we could only correspond by letter, and the arrangement for our return had been made hurriedly. Mr and Mrs Pearson had been to the funeral of their nephew. He was the son of Mr Pearson’s brother George. He had earlier an accident with his motorcycle and had a damaged leg. He was found dead in bed and was not very old and unmarried.
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