Page 15 - It's a Rum Life Book 3 "Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984"

It was when Ruth began working on night duty as senior staff nurse on the orthopaedic
ward that we became far more aware of the increasing noise level from the huge timber
yard behind our estate. They had built a new saw shed and circular saw noise can be
particularly penetrating.

During the day, she could not sleep and things became so bad she went across the road
to sleep at the old Sanders family home now lived in by Grandma Munford, my
grandmother on my mother’s side of the family.

FIRESTONE AT LINCOLN
Firestone my employers for the previous four years, were being more demanding with
inroads being made by American (parent company) management and the day they sent
me a telegram (while Ruth was trying to sleep) to tell me to “get off my arse and sell x
number of tyres before the end of the week”, she saw ‘scarlet’.
They did not try that again!

So I have set the scene and we were not happy at “Woodside” any more. At the same
time, Firestone UK’s new American management team were beginning to destroy the 40
years or so of well established business here in Britain and I had begun to look elsewhere
to earn my living in the future. Boats were the ‘family’ hobby, I knew as much about boats
of all kinds as I did about tyres doing my everyday job.

ECYB was created and managed to obtain several boat transport jobs, a regular boat
delivery contract was my next objective.

Meanwhile, each Friday my Firestone boss Fred Popham continued to insist that we
maintain our weekly ‘habit’ while we could. This was that I complete all my business calls
in the Lincoln area by lunch time; then, arriving in the District office (something our ‘new’
American bosses had distinctly stipulated lowly salesmen should never do), so we could
have lunch together and ‘officially’ discuss the weekly sales figures. Before this pleasure I
was always given the task of “earning my bread” by selling something he thought was too
long in stock!

Lunch we did enjoy, normally at the Eastgate Hotel quite close to Lincoln Cathedral. Sales
figures we did not discuss at great length but the main subject close to our hearts was
‘how to defeat’ the American Management team that had begun to ‘invade’ our previously
very successful and very English branch of their American owned worldwide
conglomerate.

JOURNEY HOME
I travelled home each Friday by way of Horncastle, my journey concluding by enjoying the
beautiful rural scene to be found on the ‘seven mile straight’ road, between Revesby and
Frithville just north of Boston.

This one particular Friday I had been following ‘KEN45’ once again, an orange coloured
MG Midget and another regular user of the same road. My car now, was an 1100cc, Mk1
Ford Escort ‘CGJ 18 H’.

Company cars were normally kept for just three years and then changed; this had been my

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