Happy Jack

R Oliver Martin

Description

Happy Jack: Reflections of Growing Up During the Sixties – A Decade of Rebellion, Change and Defining Moments are the memories of a young man from a working-class family coming of age during the sixties decade, and the many iconic moments and sometimes humorous events of that period.  
Over fifty years later, people still talk about the Vietnam War, the moon landing, Woodstock, Monty Python, the music of The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones. James Bond movies continue to be popular to this day. There were the Mods and Rockers, The British Invasion, The Hippies, Pirate Radio, The Civil Rights Movement, Che Guevara, and JFK’s assassination.      
The stories portray school, factory, teenage years, family life, and summer holidays, before colour TV was introduced and the internet, email, mobile phones, laptops and gadgets were ever invented.
These stories are for the younger generations to understand the decade that became known as “The Swinging Sixties”, and our youth-driven Cultural Revolution, which saw a surge in freedom of expression, a time when working-class youth challenged authority, a time of creativity in fashion, music, photography, art and technology that went on to change the world.
The stories are also for those that, like myself, grew up or came of age during that tumultuous time, who will relate to my stories and the challenges of the sixties’ generation. My observations may not always be correct and, yes, your recollections might not be the same as mine; maybe I didn’t mention Fleetwood Mac, Elvis Presley and some important events that were important to you, but I make no apologies for that. These are my recollections of that time, which I hope will bring some fond memories and nostalgia.                                  
– Martin R Oliver

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
• Date de parution: 08 janvier 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528992039
• Langue: English

Extrait

H appy J ack
Reflections of Growing Up During the Sixties – A Decade of Rebellion, Change and Defining Moments
Martin R Oliver
Austin Macauley Publishers
2021-01-08
Happy Jack Preface Chapter 1:‘Queen Bee Bar’, Bangkok Chapter 2: Retire or Expire Chapter 3: A Different Generation Chapter 4: The Sixties in Retro Chapter 5: Dubai to Bangkok Chapter 6: The Mods Chapter 7: That Retro Feeling Chapter 8: Root Values and Growing Up Chapter 9: Coventry Days Chapter 10: The Factory Worker Chapter 11: The Music and Those Who Inspired Me Chapter 12: Entertainment Chapter 13: When Our City Turned Sky Blue Chapter 14: Events and Coming of Age Chapter 15: Summer Holidays Chapter 16: Headlines, Iconic Moments Chapter 17: Back to the Future Epilogue
Martin R Oliver grew up in the industrial city of Coventry, England. He left school and worked in a car factory before joining the Merchant Navy. He later immigrated to Brazil but now lives between Dubai and Bangkok. He has previously published two books: a travel book, The Never Lonely Planet , and a book of short stories, Worlds Apart .
Copyright © Martin R Oliver (2021)
The right of Martin R Oliver to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act, in relation to this publication, may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
All of the events in this memoir are true to the best of author’s memory. The views expressed in this memoir are solely those of the author.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528992022 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528992039 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2021)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Preface
Dear Reader,
Happy Jack : Reflections of Growing Up During the Sixties – A Decade of Rebellion, Change and Defining Moments is a collection of my memories of growing up and coming of age, during that period, and those many tumultuous events which transformed the world.
Can anyone truly explain, how it was possible for a country and its people to change so dramatically in just ten years? London, suddenly transformed itself from a conservative capital city to one of the most vibrant, colourful and exciting cities in the world.
On both sides of the Atlantic, a catalyst of a youth cultural revolution spread throughout, creating social change, evident through its music, fashion, literature, art, innovated technologies and a young counterculture which challenged the establishment and questioned authority. A generation that believed that anything was possible.
Some denounced it as a decade of irresponsible excess, flamboyance and decay of social order, others refer to it as the Swinging Sixties.
I grew up in the industrial city of Coventry, which at the time, was being extensively rebuilt in the aftermath of the Second World War and re-establishing itself as the heart of the UK’s car production industry. Jobs were plentiful and wages higher than the national average. Workers came from all over the country to find jobs in the factories and reconstruct the city. It was a time of social levelling, a time when industrial workers found they could earn enough to purchase televisions, refrigerators, motor cars and eventually own their own homes. I was blessed with a loving, caring family and wonderful friends and workmates. The experiences and fond memories of which, have remained with me throughout.
Martin R Oliver
Chapter 1

‘Queen Bee Bar’, Bangkok
People today are still living off the table scraps of the sixties. They are still being passed around – the music and the ideas .
Bob Dylan.
I am sitting in the bar, chatting with a few expats, when a guy leans over the table and asks me in a slow American drawl, “Martin, when you were young, were you a mod ?”
I look at this guy and think to myself, He is not that old, and he is American, did he say ‘ mod ’.
“I am sorry, did you say mod?”
“Yeah, I was looking at your hair style and manners, and it seemed like you would have been a mod when you were young.”
Smiling, “Yes I was, but what the hell do you know about mod’s, they were around in England during the sixties.”
Again, in his drawled American accent, “Well my favourite movie ever, is ’Quadrophenia ’, about the mods and Rockers era, written by the rock band ‘The Who’, and you remind me of those mod guys.”
Being retired and in my sixties, I was flattered.
An elderly English guy, sitting next to me, overheard us, and he got into an excited conversation with the American, describing the various soundtracks and music associated with the Quadrophenia movie.
My mind, in the meantime, drifted back to those days.
As I grow older, the one thing that I appreciate about my life, as much as anything else, is that I grew up in Britain during the sixties.
Chapter 2

Retire or Expire
I mean, some doctor said I had six months to live, and I went to his funeral .
Keith Richards.
There are stages in one’s life that seem so far away – you just don’t see them coming, but they do. It happened to me recently, when I finally retired after nearly fifty continuous years of work, in over three continents.
So, now, I find myself in another continent, ‘ Asia ’, spending time and treading water (as they say) in Bangkok, a city which has become my second home for a number of years now.
Bangkok is an amazing city, where all kinds of people come to visit and decide to stay for many different reasons. It’s a harbour for those that need shelter, for some when they feel they can no longer be loved or can find love, and others that are looking to create a new life for themselves. Elderly men from Europe, Australia and Japan come looking to re-invent their youth and feel like they are eighteen again, or to find a young Thai wife. There are the foreign tourists, looking to explore the temples, tourist sites and shopping malls, the sex tourists, looking to explore the go-go bars, shady massage parlours and nightclubs. Nationalities from all over come for the cheap medical and cosmetic treatments that this city offers. Many of those people become regular visitors, and for different reasons, eventually make Bangkok or Thailand their home.
Due to budgetary purposes, my dream of owning a boat, retiring in a house next to a river, and a golf course at some exotic resort, has instead been replaced by spending my days idling in Bangkok, a city renowned as on average, the hottest city in the world. Here, I pass the days, reading and writing, or exploring and walking the streets, dining on street food on the evenings, before visiting sleazy bars that sell cheap beer. Over the years, I have come to believe that Bangkok has the most interesting, eccentric and extraordinary expat community of any major city, and a lifestyle that is affordable and rich in culture.
My drinking partners, in and around the bars of Bangkok, are tourists looking for love, bargirls looking for lovers’ money, lady boys and gay guys, back packers from all corners, expats like myself, who have settled or retired here, and those shady secretive strangers that one meets, those weird characters that only tell you half of their story, and leave you guessing as to their reasons and their past. Could they be the ones that leave home after faking their own deaths or are involved in some kind of insurance scam, or criminals hiding from the police, or absconding from a prison sentence wherever they may come from? Thailand is a sanctuary for liars and losers, and for the private detectives hired to uncover such characters, not to mention those hired by wives to follow and report on their husbands, who suspiciously find all kinds of reasons or excuses to visit Thailand far too often. It was Jim Morrison, the lead singer with the rock band “Doors” who said “I drink so I can talk to assholes. This includes me!”
For many people, retirement comes as a relief, with the freedom from working every day, time to play golf or do the gardening, and go shopping with the wife. Whereas for me, I am still growing up and learning about life. If I have learned one thing about retirement, it is to stay away from those type of people that complain about everything and nothing, those that wallow in self-pity by talking about health issues and their personal problems and ailments.
Health, rightly or wrongly, is something I never thought about before retirement, it was never an issue with me, but now I am in ‘the zone’, it’s a subject that comes up in conversations all too often. I have learned things lately about aging that one really doesn’t need to know.
Some old guy, sitting at the bar, recently, jubilantly explained to us, ‘his drinking buddies’, that once we have reached the age of 65, statistically we are generally good for another 19.5 years, but during that time we can look forward to a number of common health issues, such as arthritis, heart disease, cancer, respiratory diseases, and Alzheimer’s disease to name a few, do you want me to go on? Well there’s diabetes, pneumonia, depression, substance abuse, and even poverty! It’s a slippery old road ahead, so my alcohol intake habit does not seem so bad, in comparison.
I believe the experience of growing up during the sixties’ decade, together with my working-class upbringing and the simplistic lifestyle of that time, has left me appreciating the simple things in life, without getting sucked in to the materialistic, egoistic, corruptive world we live in today. Our younger years are where the seed of what we are, or what we will become, are sown. Y