My Fathers Adventure ( Part One)

My Father was a fearsome man, I remember the day he shot my younger brother for walking on the lawn, still, it was his own fault father had warned him about it once before. It was only a flesh wound but young Tom never walked on the lawn again, in fact he never walked anywhere normaly again because of the shratnell!

Father was a tall man, well over 6 feet, with a big black droopy moustache. Jet black hair around his ears, yet bald on top. Allways wore black.

I suppose it was because of his childhood that had made him this way. His father ( Grandad Joe), has sent him off to see the world when he was only 14.He had caught a steamer out of Southampton back in 1927, with only the clothes that he wore and a bag that contained a spare pair of underpants for emergencies.His father had given him 2 shiny shillings for the journey. "Dont come back until you,ve made your fortune and turned those two coins into 1000 pounds" he had said.

The steamer was bound for the far east.

The journey was hard, he worked as a cabin boy during the day and in the evenings he sang songs for the older sailors who would give him a few pennys for his time. He also performed some special favours for them from time to time but thats for another book entirely!

He arrived in Singapore 3 months later, he had saved all the money from his cabin cleaning and also every penny from his singing.

He stepped off the boat on a sunny, humid day in July, he had just passed his 15th birthday three days earlier, his fathers words ringing in his ears " dont come back till you,ve made your fortune".

He stopped at a small cafe, just a few hundred yards from the quayside. He met a small asian looking man called Trevor. Trevor asked him what he could do. "I sing" said my father.

"Wovly" said Trevor, "You shall sing in my club".

My Father had no idea what we to happen over the next few months or indeed what sort of club this was!

TBC...............