Hello Bigbadbob and all. I, like you, know most of the scaffolders you mentioned there in your blog. I worked with Freddie Reynolds on LMS, he is a great bloke and a great friend of mine. Fred was a true legend back in those days. Tessie Baker, now there's a name from my very distant past. I met Tessie working with a bloke name Davey (Bonky) Jones in 1967, when I had been in the game about two months; I was working with a mate of mine named David (Sully) Jaques, we went to work for a firm called Robel's down in Balham (one of the few firms that did frames as well as tube & fittings). The first thing Tessie said to me as he limped over to me was, "can I lend your poker thingey mate (podger)?"
Me mate Sully said to me, they must be a couple of Cowboy's. They went round the back of the site and we started at the front. By breakfast we had adapted about 100-ft run on a brikie's scaffold, we went round the back and these two geezers had done about 300-ft run from scratch. They smiled and said, ere mate, ere's ya poker back, it's getting a bit warm. We all had a good laugh and went down the cafe for a nice breakfast. Typical old scaffs at the wind-up. Love those days. Worked with Johnny Hurley too, on Modern's. Since I'm from Stepney, know Kenny Lumley too. I worked with another cradle legend named Dennis Wu, he was another great friend and workmate. RIP Dennis, Johhny Hurley and Tessie Baber.
Cheers,
Terry (Micky) Marks
---------- Post added at 11:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:22 AM ----------
Sorry for the typo, that was RIP to Dennis Wu, Johhny Hurley and Tessie Baker (not Baber)