I did sometimes get homesick for my family back in Liverpool.  I particularly missed my little sister, Esther, with her blonde curly hair and pretty blue eyes.  This picture of Esther and me was taken after I went back home to England.

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After  the evacuation the students, teachers, and headmaster all returned to Andfield Road School.  I was assigned to an A Classroom, so I guess I had learned what I should during my evacuation upheaval.  I don’t remember anything significant about those years at school.

I was still pretty free wheeling; my parents let me go about as I wished.  A buddy and I biked into Wales one year;  we went about 150 miles from Liverpool.  I did see the Prichards again, but I don’t remember whether it was this occasion or not.

In Liverpool I started my own window cleaning business.  Made quite a bit of money, at least enough to buy a motorcycle which very few guys my age at that time could afford.  I used to take May on motorcycle rides through the Mersey Tunnel to Morton, a seaside resort.  We had quite a bit of fun.

I had a friend who worked at a tobacco shop; I liked to stop and talk with her on my way home from school.  She objected to my motorcycle riding, so she wrote and dedicated this poem to me.

SAMMY AND HIS MOTOR BIKE

You should see Sammy on his motor bike,

He’d be quicker on a hike.

Crash, bang, whallop around the bend;

Hey, Mr. Mechanic, here’s a bike to mend.

If there’s a dreadful sight you wish to see, 

Just visit Sammy in the cemetery.

I had a Triumph motor bike, about ‘38 or ‘39.   It had been stored during the war years because it belonged to a soldier.  After the war was over, I bought it from his parents.  I don’t know what happened to him.  Perhaps he had been killed; I don’t know. 

The last I saw that motorcycle and also a three wheel car that I had bought, was when I went away to sea.  My brother sold them.  I didn’t get the money!  I didn’t even ask him about it!  😀

In 1946 I was expected to be drafted into the army, go down in the coal mines, or join the Merchant Navy.  I chose the Navy!