The best friend a man could have.
Created by CHARLES 2 years agoI first met the man who was to become my best friend at about 11 pm on a dark night in March 1973. As a member of White watch at Pilgrim Fire Station I was attending a basement fire at Fosters Electricals, on Pink Lane, near central railway station in Newcastle. Leading Fireman Joseph Clapperton and I were ordered to take a hose line down into the basement, to say the least I was rather busy. I followed close behind Joe as we proceeded to drag the hose down a stair way into the basement.
As we moved in to the basement, we could see a glow through the thick black smoke.
We moved toward the glow at the far end and as we advanced a few yards more towards the glow my right ear started to burn. I looked to my right and saw the fire was burning through the cardboard boxes on the storage rack on our right hand side and spreading behind us. I told Joe and we back tracked and went down along the next rack to the right and quickly found that racking on both sides of that aisle were well alight and set about extinguishing it.
I was pretty Knackered and was sent for a breather, replacing someone on the cordon which had been put around the area to keep the public safe and out of the way. I was not there long before I saw a drunk man with a table lamp. He kept on coming and I asked him where he was going. He said he was going down Pink Lane to the Central Station to get the bus home. I told him to go the long way round as he could not come down this way it wasn’t safe and enquired about the table lamp. He claimed to have won it at his bachelor do and staggered off.
About seven or perhaps eight years later I was in a club one Sunday lunch time with a few friends having a pint or three when the topic of bachelor parties came up. My good friend David Harrison mentioned the table lamp he had won and said that one of my mates had rudely chased him away from Pink Lane that night. I had to admit my guilt but we had a good laugh at the coincidence. I cannot forget that night, we had a close shave in that basement and for the first time I met the man who was my best friend for over forty years, although I did not know it at the time. The table lamp is quite memorable and I have yet to see another drunk man carry a table lamp around Newcastle or anywhere else for that matter. I will miss David Harrison; he leaves a massive hole in the lives of the people who knew him and I for one will never forget him.
RIP Dave it was an honour to know you, Charlie Hall.
As we moved in to the basement, we could see a glow through the thick black smoke.
We moved toward the glow at the far end and as we advanced a few yards more towards the glow my right ear started to burn. I looked to my right and saw the fire was burning through the cardboard boxes on the storage rack on our right hand side and spreading behind us. I told Joe and we back tracked and went down along the next rack to the right and quickly found that racking on both sides of that aisle were well alight and set about extinguishing it.
I was pretty Knackered and was sent for a breather, replacing someone on the cordon which had been put around the area to keep the public safe and out of the way. I was not there long before I saw a drunk man with a table lamp. He kept on coming and I asked him where he was going. He said he was going down Pink Lane to the Central Station to get the bus home. I told him to go the long way round as he could not come down this way it wasn’t safe and enquired about the table lamp. He claimed to have won it at his bachelor do and staggered off.
About seven or perhaps eight years later I was in a club one Sunday lunch time with a few friends having a pint or three when the topic of bachelor parties came up. My good friend David Harrison mentioned the table lamp he had won and said that one of my mates had rudely chased him away from Pink Lane that night. I had to admit my guilt but we had a good laugh at the coincidence. I cannot forget that night, we had a close shave in that basement and for the first time I met the man who was my best friend for over forty years, although I did not know it at the time. The table lamp is quite memorable and I have yet to see another drunk man carry a table lamp around Newcastle or anywhere else for that matter. I will miss David Harrison; he leaves a massive hole in the lives of the people who knew him and I for one will never forget him.
RIP Dave it was an honour to know you, Charlie Hall.
Pictures
Man with lamp