I Am Bipolar Manic

iUniverse, Inc.

Chapter One

My name is Kenneth Watson and this is my life story. I was born in Burnley Lancashire, England in 1930. I was born to a poor family, but there was lots of love in the home. My Father was a painter of houses and I think his wage when I was 5 was about $6. With that money my Mother had to feed us all and pay all the usual expenses, including a mortgage. I don't know how they did it, I was never hungry. We had gas for lights, and there was no T.V. Things were a bit depressed in the North of England, so my Father moved south to Watford where there was more work. Looking back, I think that was pretty amazing. My Father was not an ambitious man so I wonder who gave him the courage to move 200 miles south. He bought a brand new house 3 bedroom 1 bath $1,200 on a mortgage of course, but what a price. We also had a car, it was a standard 8 and he loved that car.

Almost new and only $200 I don't know how he did it. He might have got a little extra money with the move, but not that much. The only thing I can remember when I was 3 years old, was playing board games with all the relations, this was at Burnley. My Mother had a sister and 2 brothers and we were always getting together with her Mum and Dad and we played lots of games, probably to keep me happy. At that time I was the only child and everybody used to spoil me, But I could hold my own with the games. One of the games I remember was snakes and ladders. (I wonder if they still make it). Another incident I can remember, I think it was Blackpool beach. We were playing cricket and I got too close to the person wielding the bat. I was only 5 and I still have the scar on my mouth. It must have hurt. We didn't mix too much with my Dad's relations except for Albert who lived a couple of streets away, strangely enough in Watford who was married to Edith. Albert was a radio tecknition, eventually to become a T.V. man. My Father's other two brothers, Edwin and Harry who was the youngest and there was Pop the Father. I didn't see much of him either. I think he lived to 91 years. I was 5 and I settled in at the local school, which was Garston. I wasn't there too long and then they moved me to a brand new school called Kingswood. It was much closer to home and I remember having some good times there. We had a lot of kids the same age living round us. We played a lot of street games after school. When my Mother wanted me she would wail like Tarzan of the jungle. The kids used to-laugh, but it didn't worry me. I had to go in to shut up the noise. People probably thought we were getting attacked. In his spare time my Father used to paint pictures in oil. He would copy from a small photograph. He was very good. He should have gone to night school to learn more about art. I still have 3 of his paintings to this day. My brother Chris has the rest. I also did some painting and attended night school later on in life. I can't remember where my paintings went to. Another hobby of my Fathers, was to try and pick 8 draws from the English soccer teams. If he had been lucky he would have been very rich. The most he ever won over a lot of years was about $500 Smoking was his other vice, my Mother too. Of course they had never heard of second hand smoke affecting the kids. My Father had no ambition, he was just content to work for somebody else, I can't ever remember them going out dancing or to a restaurant or a pub. Only when the relations got together. He probably couldn't afford it anyway on his wages. The age of 9 soon came around and of course the war broke out and my Mother shipped me off to Burnley which was a safer place to be when the bombs are dropping. I had to enroll in a school. But it was close to where Grandma lived. You see Watford was only 20 miles from London and they were getting some of the left over bombs from the German bombers on their way home.

Chapter Two

Burnley was about 200 miles away and not on the flight path. So it was pretty safe. Eventually my Father got called up in the army and they had him guarding the Italian prisoners of war. He was stationed about 25 miles away but didn't get home much' Long enough to get his wife pregnant. Something he didn't think would happen as I was almost 13 lb. when I was born and did a lot of damage and the Doctor said that my Mother would not be able to have any more children. There is I3 and half years between my brother and I. The early bombardment of London eventually died off and I went back home to stay with my Mother She was alone and probably glad of the company. We would have onion sandwiches for supper and then go to bed. I don't think I have had an onion sandwich since. We had a rationing system which didn't give us much. They even rationed candy. I know the British Army didn't pay much anyway, not like the American Army. I used to love baked potatoes, but my Mother stopped making them. She said I would put a whole weeks supply of butter on one potato. We had a bomb shelter in the garden and we used to go down when the air raid warning siren sounded. The school had a big shelter too, and we all had to go down when the siren sounded, In both of the shelters we would play games to pass away the time. I remember at the school we had one of the old gramophone that you had to wind up. We had the big old records too. It passed the time away when you were down the shelter. It was pretty quiet, you wouldn't think there was a war on. It must have been about I94I and the bombing started again. I think that was the time that they had come up with their pilotless bombs, could have been a little later. We didn't go down the shelters at home again. We just got under the bed. We figured that if we got a direct hit, it wouldn't make any difference anyway.

The school still made us go down. The bombs that flew themselves were very scarey. You would hear the engine and all of a sudden the engine would stop, then you had better watch out, because its coming down, and they make big damage. We used to call them doodle bugs I think the real name was VI and V2s. One of these monsters demolished a house completely less than I00 yards away from us and killing everybody inside. Another V2 demolished a whole block of houses. A couple of miles away. We used to keep chickens for the eggs. I killed one once for us to have a meal. I had to strangle it, I don't want to do that again. My Mother used to feed them potato peelings. It seemed to work. We had fat hens and good eggs. Before the war I can remember the good meals we used to have. Steak and kidney pudding and steak and kidney pie, which I loved. Fried fish on Saturday which was kippers or herring. A meat joint on Sunday and we had to have cold meat on Monday Until chicken got popular and then we had the chicken on Sunday. Another day we would have steak and onions but it was only a cheap cut of steak. Sausage and mashed potatoes was good. It wasn't until I met Doreen, my second wife that I tasted Fillet Mignons for the first time. Her father was a butcher and I was 31 years old.

Chapter Three

We did eat pretty good although the cuts of meat and fish were the cheap cuts. I used to make toy lead soldiers from molds, just to make extra money. I also used to go chopping down trees for firewood. That would earn me about a dime, but it seemed a lot back then. When the war ended, I remember the big parties in the street. Everybody was happy, and all the wives were looking forward to the return of their husbands. I was very enterprising at a young age and always looking for ways to make money. I also did a paper round, not too keen on that. I had to get up too early in the morning. Then I did a bread and milk round. One woman gave me the equivalent of a quarter for a tip. I went back the following day to see if she had made a mistake. After all it was more than my days pay check. She said it was no mistake and that was my tip. The next job was the best. I got a job at a chemist shop. Doing odds and ends, filling empty bottles with shampoo and other stuff. Being amongst all the chemicals it made me want to play around with them at home, and do all kinds of experiments at home. I would do experiments with some of the acids, being very careful of course. I always made our vinegar at home. I stayed at that job until I left school at I4. I was I2 when I started my last job. At I2 years old the boys get together and start talking about girls and how they get pregnant and that their Peneus has other uses than to pee out of. Having sex at that age was unthinkable. Of course in the 21st century they even start younger than that. All I wanted to do was to kiss them. I was about 7 when I had my first kiss. She was a pretty little blonde and when I kissed her I noticed her nose was running. Put me right off, As she lived locally I watched her grow up and she married a black man and soon had a couple of kids. At 11 it was time to change schools. I went to Leggats Way, there were 3 grades A.B.C. I managed to stay in the A. Grade while I was there I didn't make it to college. I don't think my parents realized how important it was. I certainly didn't.

My brother Chris was about 6 months old at this time. The best and highest paid job at this time was the printing trade. So that is what I wanted, But how to get it, that was the question. My Father had no connections with anybody, let alone the printing trade. I had an idea, I had been going to church, singing in the choir and all that good stuff. I talked to the Priest and asked him to get me into Odhams Watford. Now this place was the most fantastic place one would ever want to work. In the machine room it was filled with these German Goss Printing machines that went from floor to ceiling and they were printing magazines 3,000,0004,000,000 run on each machine. These machines cost $2,000,000 each in the I950s So when I got in I was overjoyed. I was only the general office boy, but then it was up to me. I needed a bike so my Father bought me one for a dollar. I needed it to run and get stamps, mail letters and get stuff for the office staff. My wage as an office boy was only $2 per week. It was a very interesting place to work. So many departments to check out on my rounds. There were 2 nice girls in the office, but at my age I was too scared to approach them. They were older than me anyway, but that doesn't stop you from wishing. After I had been there a year, I managed to talk myself into a job in the process department. I didn't think I was going to make it, as they said there were no vacancies but there was an opening in the foundry. This was good and the work was interesting, However at the last moment a vacancy was available in the process department, and I took it. This is where they prepared the cylinders for the big Goss printing machines. I got into the studio, which is what I wanted. I had always been interested in taking pictures with my 35mm and I was pretty good at it. We don't start our apprenticeship until we are 16 but they let us do certain jobs `The wages were the pits, but after 5 years the money was the best in town. There was a girl in the neighborhood where I lived that used to hang around with us boys. Nice body and fair face. I knew she played around, I was too scared but I used my imagination.

Chapter Four

I joined the youth club at Callow land School. I was probably about I6 at this time. It was a good place to hang out and meet people. I used to go to Kingswood School also in the evenings. I got very competitive at table tennis and they always had leagues running on different nights of the week. I preferred Callow land. They seemed to have a bigger selection of girls. After 6 months they had the election of officers and I was elected chairman. I had to organize the dances, parties and what have you. It was the girls that elected me. When did I get so popular. I had so many girls available I didn't know what to do. I finished up doing nothing. I wasn't going to spoil my life getting a girl pregnant or catching V,D. Don't you wish you could go back sometimes. It was like having a gourmet buffet. I know how these rock stars feel. I had fun, getting the bands in, setting the prices and making sure everybody had a good time. At I6 you don't have too many women. You don't have to think about bills or food. I f you have your health you are lucky and enjoy yourself. I used to go dancing at Watford Town when they had their big dances. I met this girl, her name was Pam Wooster and she was a Coal Merchants daughter from Harrow Wealdstone. We were both 16 and I guess she was my first love although we didn't have sex or anything close. She was so pretty, she was just untouchable. I was just too young, I didn't know how to handle her. I had not acquired that something that I acquired later on in life. So nothing came of the romance I am sad to say. From 16- 18 I dated a few girls but nobody serious. I can't even remember their names. So I didn't have sex, that's for sure. I played a lot of tennis and table tennis during these years. I wish I had started at a young age. Would have been nice to play a sport you love and get paid for it. It was still good fun. Trouble was, all my girl friends were not the sporting kind and I didn't carry on with the tennis after I was 23. I was enjoying my job and I had managed to get into the color studio which was a lot more interesting than black and white. At 16 I had become an apprentice and by this time was using a motorized bike to get around. I did have a spell when I was 15 of touring round the countryside on my new bike which was a Hetchins. It was all chrome and had curly stays. I used to stay at Youth Hostels. It was fun at the time. I will never forget that bike. It was a racing bike and one day I did 120 miles in one day. I used to go with a friend from work as it could be lonely on your own. My Father was getting fed up painting houses and I managed to pull a few strings and get him a job where I worked. It was cleaning up sweeping up etc. It was more money than what he was getting and more benefit and with a Union and no more climbing ladders and he would be working inside. I leamt how to drive in my Fathers car and one day I would have one. I was 18 and waiting to get called up for National Service. I think I was almost I9 when I got them to report to Catterick Camp in Yorkshire. Can you imagine leaving home and going to an Army Barracks where you have to get up at 6am in the morning and get shouted at all day. This was a training camp and expect the worst. I suppose one could say that it was good for you. It makes a man out of you You have heard it all before. The training was interesting. I was trained as a wireless operator and a tank driver, both being rather fun. From what I can remember, the meals were not too bad. We had inspection by our beds every so often. I had forgotten to shine my boots this particular time, so I hid them. The officer said to me. Where are your boots? I said they are in for repair Sir. He checked up on me and found out I was lying. I got 7 days fatigues or extra duties is another name for it. Like peeling spuds and any other stuff they could throw at you. One soon got tired of the drill sergeant, but if you didn't do as he said he would take it out on you. We ran we marched with full packs. They were only trying to get us fit, after all. After 3-4 months I was I was assigned to the 9th Lancers stationed at Pencuik in Scotland near Edinburgh. Life was much better when you were in a regiment. It was a tank regiment but we were issued with long lances. Hence the name. We didn't have to get up so early and we got more leave. I would play cards most nights and would win at poker where I learnt how to play. After my initial training and before going to Scotland I managed to get a pass to go home. I had to hitch hike because I could not afford the train fare. It was a nice change to go home. The food was even better at the new camp. Most of the passes we had after that were not long enough to go home. From what I can remember it was almost 400 miles to home and I didn't have a car. I would go to Barrowland in Glasgow. That was a fun place to go dancing. I picked up a couple of girls on different visits. I was a pretty good dancer from 16 I did a lot of training with a Gold Medalist for ballroom dancing but there was no romance there. We continued our training on the tanks, how to advance without being noticed too much and more training on the radio.

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Excerpted from I Am Bipolar Manicby Kenneth Watson Copyright © 2011 by Kenneth Watson. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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