I was born in December 1962, to an unassuming mining family, I lived there with my Mother, Father, older Brother and a dog and a cat. A typical ordinary working class family. We were no different to any other mining family, we were all poor but happy in a funny sort of way. The old adage that says you don't miss what you didn't have is very true. We never knew the things that wealthier families had such as a colour TV, telephone, etc. We made our own entertainment and as kids in the school holidays we would be outside playing with all the other kids from dawn until dusk, in fact my Mother could not get us in the house at evening even after dark. There were no worries then of child abductions, rapists Paedophiles and the like, just good honest folk. From my recollections and from talking g to my older Brother Robert we regarded our childhood as happy days by and large, we had nothing and we wanted for nothing in a way. We took very different paths even from School, Rob went to Markland School in Creswell and I went to Boughton Lane in Clowne. Rob never went to the pit and never showed signs of wanting to. I went to the pit and always wanted to. We were close as brothers go, he was there for me then and has been there for me ever since. I could rely on him to help me today should I need it and vice versa. My life was very unnoticeable up until going down the coal mine and with the start of the miner's strike in 1984 my life would change dramatically and very much in the public eye.
