As soon as I turned 17 I filled in my application form to take my driving test. My dad had changed his car for a Morris 8, I think it was a 1935/6 model. When I got a letter giving me a date and time to take the test at Southport I was feeling a bit nervous. By the time the date arrived, I was feeling much better. My dad, driving with L’s on the front and back of the car drove to the seaside resort and we parked in the street that was named on my letter, just off the promenade. We waited a few minutes and then a car pulled up behind us with two chaps inside, so we guessed this would be the test examiner with another chap who had just been through the test. The examiner sat in the passenger seat, he asked me a few questions and I read a couple of number plates on cars parked nearby and then we were off. The test drive took about 15 minutes and then we were back to the starting point, and I was overjoyed when he passed me on my first attempt. I immediately disposed of the L’s and drove the car home.

I was still working at Atkinson and Kirby’s when a short time later, a new 25cwt van arrived. The body had been altered on the inside to accommodate packs of toilet assemblies. One day the boss Mr Kerr said to me, "Now you have passed your driving test, how would you like to drive this van and deliver toilet packs? There’s only a couple of big firms that we deliver to, Twyfords in Stoke on Trent and Shanks in Newcastle on Tyne, it will be a permanent job with more money." I decided to give it a go. Thinking back, I think the wage was either 35 shillings (£1.75) or 2 pounds a week, anyway it was better than being stuck in the factory all the time.
As there were no motorways then so it was along the old winding roads to Warrington - Knutsford - Macclesfield and to Twyfords in Stoke. One particular day the men were loading the van for another run to Stoke. I started to get a little worried, because this particular order was larger than I’d ever taken before and the van was weighted down at the back end and I wasn’t very happy, so I went to see Mr Kerr and asked him to come and have a look. He agreed that it was over loaded but as this order was urgent I was to carry on and just to take it easy. Soon after starting out I could see that I had no option but to take it easy because of the way the van was behaving on the road. I had got about halfway to my destination when ahead of me about 50-75 yards was a crossroad. Two cars and a van were stopped at the junction and so I immediately applied the brakes but nothing happened. In those days vehicles had cable brakes, which at the best of times were not very good and less so, if you were overloaded like me. Even though there was enough stopping space in front of me, the inefficiency of the brakes combined with the heavy load were too much and I finally hit the stationary van in front of me and in turn damaged the front end of my van. Luckily he didn’t seem too upset with the damage I had caused to his van and we exchanged details. I told him what happened and he agreed that my van was over loaded and said "I would have refused to drive that van in that state, if I had been you."
Eventually I was able to carry on but I crawled along till I got to Twyfords and was able to get rid of the load. When I finally got back to the depot, they saw the damage to the front bodywork and the chaps wanted to know what had happened. When Mr Kerr came out and I told him what had occurred, I made a point of reminding him that I had told him before I had started out that it was over loaded. He didn’t say much except to say we will get it to the garage and get it sorted and not to worry about it.

This little incident eventually got me a new job, as while the van was in dock I got talking to an old fellow who drove a small lorry. He was a very friendly chap who went by the name of Bill Shacklady, I guessed he would be in his late 50’s. He was always cracking jokes and he had come to pick up some timber. I was impressed with his attitude and he seemed a genuine old fellow. During the conversation he asked me what job I did and when I told him he asked me if I would like a job driving his lorry.
"I’ll give you 2 pounds 10 shillings a week", when I heard this I was really interested because that was more than I was getting at Atkinson & Kirby. I didn’t hesitate.
"Right Bill, you’re on, I’ll give my notice in and contact you. Where do you live?" I said. He told me he lived in Yew Tree Road, Ormskirk. When I asked him what sort of work was involved he replied that he went round all the farms in the district picking up spuds, cauliflowers, cabbages etc, in fact anything that he had a market for. He said he knew all the farmers and got a lot of business from them.

As soon as I had served my notice I went along to his house and we had a chat. He asked if I could start the very next morning at about 9 o’clock. I really enjoyed my time with him, he knew all the landlords as well as the farmers. On the way to pick up a load he always made sure we stopped at a pub first. He would say to me "Stop here Jack, I’ll just go in for a wee drop and have a chat - It’s good for business you know." I would wait in the lorry and after about half an hour he would come out and say something like "Right now we’ll go and see old Tom and pick up the load and then deliver it."
This was a similar routine every day. Bill had contacts all over the Ormskirk district and he seemed to know everybody. We visited farms all over the place, picking up and then dropping off, but he always made sure he stopped at a pub on the way ‘for a chat and a wee drop or two’. It didn’t take me long to understand why he wanted a driver with the amount of pubs he stopped at, but I got on well with him and I was quite happy in my job.

I didn’t have much manual work to do because the lads at the various farms would load the lorry on the way out and the only time I needed to help was when we were off loading, even then there was usually somebody there to give a hand. When we were picking up at the farms Bill used to nod to the farmer "Look after my lad", so I used to get lots of perks and would arrive home loaded down with vegetables etc.
During one conversation with Bill he mentioned that he had a silver plate in the side of his body due to a wound he had sustained in the First World War, he never told me the details and I never got round to asking him but I know it troubled him a bit. He was a great chap, there was no hassle and no rushing around. It was a pleasant time for me.

I was still courting with Edna and we used to go to Billy Shaw’s Empire picture house every Saturday night - 2nd house. We would book seats in the balcony so that we didn’t have to queue. The pictures we saw were mostly black and white, but colour films were just starting to come through from America and we got to see one every now and again. There were some great films and some great stars, my favourites being Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Fred Astaire, Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney and lots more I could mention. There were not many other alternatives regarding entertainment on a Saturday night in Skelmersdale, except the occasional local dance on at the Co-op Hall or at the Market Hall behind the Skelmersdale Arms pub. On occasions I would take my dad’s car and pick up Edna and we would go for a run in the country, this was done mainly when dad, mother and brother Joe were away from the house! Of course there were plenty of pubs in Skem, (more than there are at this present time), and they were always fully occupied, but Edna and I were not really into sitting in smokey pubs. Summers always seemed to be good in those days, long spells of hot weather. We would often go for a walk on Elm Bank (known locally as th’ell Bonk) by the River Tawd. I never knew why the word bank was substituted by ‘bonk’ but it was probably appropriate. It seems to me looking back that the summers then were much warmer and longer than they are now but also that the winters were much harsher then than they are now. Lots of snow and ice and it got bitter cold with the snow often 5 or 6ft high in drifts, blocking roads.

I was spending lots of time with Edna so I wasn’t seeing much of my mate Jimmy. He had never been interested going on the ‘monkey run’ with me, so he spent more time with my other friend Peter. On a Sunday there was always a card or domino session going on in Peter’s mother’s house. Sometimes I would join them, when I used to take my mother to see her mother and sister in Whalley Street. Usually there would be around 5 or 6 of us playing cards or dominoes. Apart from going fishing this was the only other time that I got to see my mates as ‘courting’ was taking up most of my spare time.