Biography, Autobiography, Old Steve of Scarborough, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom

1. All interesting work and a great challenge and I learnt a lot, especially working with many other trades and observing them closely. But the inevitable happened. Less and less work came our way from the old firm. The joiner we worked with decided that he preferred to stick to jobbing work and not take-on the bigger contracts. The undertaker took on less, allowing work, a part of which would have come our way, to pass on to other funeral directors and we were two skilled men, trying to earn a skilled wage in a declining market for hand made furniture and where the alternatives were not good or very lucrative.

2. So it was mutually agreed that I would look for work elsewhere but until I found a job that I wanted, we would struggle on for as long as possible. I followed up on an advertisement for a Foreman in a small manufacturing firm near Leeds, that semi-mass produced furniture for Hospitals and School Laboratories but that came to nothing when it became obvious to them and to me that I did not understand the complexities of their machine shops and that I had no proven management skills. One thing did come out of it however and that was the determination to study for those management skills and so the next phase of Night School began. Management in theory and no practice, to begin with. Another advert led me to a firm between Leeds and Bradford that manufactured Fair Ground Equipment. The pay was not over exciting but the work was fascinating. This small firm not only manufacture but also repaired all types of Fair Ground equipment that the Travelling Community brought in. They were a strange bunch and I have seen them offload a vanload of pennies and other small denomination cash and coins to pay for the jobs and then state that they hoped the invoice was correct because it was obvious that often they could not read it. But they could count and knew exactly what they wanted. After a few weeks I was put in with a team that specialised in the building of circular stalls and it was there that I moved into a different world. A travelling customer would turn up, in the yard, with one of their enormous trucks and everyone, on the team, would be shown where and how the stall was to be stored. Having assessed this the 'boss' who knew every family design, only needed to know what the stall was going to be used for and what the base diameter had to be. Back in the workshop all the drawings would be produced from the archive. Whilst I was there several of these stalls were at different stages of construction and the work to make the curved panels and all the simple, yet ingenious, metal fittings that are used for maximum efficiency in assembly and break down, was incredible. Also the way in which they were designed to pack away so as to occupy the minimum of space and the various parts to fit in that space so that the artwork on them suffered minimum damage. Coupled with all that was the principal of assembly and storage where the last piece stored was the first piece out, at the next stop, and where everything picked up must not be put aside but had to immediately fit in its rightful place. On completion the travellers would turn up, the word having gone out through other travellers passing through, that the work was complete and the first thing they would do is get their team to strip and pack the whole stall into their wagon. Then if they were satisfied and after any minor modifications, they would take all the individual parts and often at that stage pay for the work done with unbelievable wads of dirty notes and large bags of loose change, into a large empty shed close to the works and set aside for the purpose. I would spend most of my lunch times in that shed watching, as often a whole family, themselves at different stages of learning, would set about the painting and decorating of each individual piece. Whilst chatting away among themselves in a language that only they understood and which I was told was a mixture of many mid-European, ancient languages and which made up the true Romany dialect, they would paint, rub down and paint again and repeat the process until the original, mainly beech wood pieces shone like glass. Then the artwork would commence on the uprights, roof supports and surrounds and above all else on the outsides of the actual circular panels and the end product had to be seen to be believed. The mix of colours and the way they were applied, with small brushes and paint mixed on a spare piece of wood from dozens of small pots and from a design that resided in the head of the painter and all done free hand and which I was told was unique to that family and from it, any other genuine traveller could immediately tell to whom an individual stall belonged. I even saw gold leaf applied and to this day I still visit Fair Grounds and Travelling Shows and look at all the stalls, in my own special knowing way, and still have yet to see one that I recognise.

3. I also worked and did one or two minor repairs to the large, towed caravans that they live in and they, again, have to be seen to be believed. To describe them as mini-palaces on wheels would be an understatement. The ones I saw where mainly furnished and panelled in polished mahogany, with cut glass windows and everything else you can imagine and you can guess my surprise when one day a panel, in an area where I was going to work was removed to reveal just one of the places where cash is stored. As every panel held a similar secret it is no wonder they never leave their vans unattended and there are always some pretty wild dogs about.

4. So why did it not last? Because one day the 'boss' called me and another two, into his little office and told us that for the foreseeable future he had little work and that he had no alternative but to pay us off. Later he told me that he didn't want to loose me and so if I would stay, I could do so as a Labourer until things 'picked up'. I left that Friday with a weeks pay in lieu of notice.

5. I was still in touch with my old boss; indeed we still mixed socially and did so for many years. He had accepted and gone back to work for the old firm, as an odd job man, which suited him and which he pursued until he tragically died. He told me that the boss of a local firm of Joiners and Undertakers, that we had often come into contact with in the past, had enquired after me and wondered if I was still looking for work. I was and went to see him. The money was slightly better.

6. I was now a Joiner with all that that entailed. The big and heavy stuff with lots of overtime and the opportunity to earn and be in direct contact with all the other trades that I could exploit as I continued to refurbish my house. I would do their woodwork jobs and they would attend to my plumbing, electrical, plastering, roofing and anything else that I needed and couldn't do myself at that time.

FAVOURITES.