Chapter 18
The Atomic Flyer.
Finbar's eleventh birthday came which meant two things. He would be able to join the Boy Scouts and he would leave his junior school and go to the seniors. He had heard a lot about the senior school, he heard it was a rough school. The new boys had to have 'the bars.' This frightened him and he wondered what were The Bars – were they some kind of torture; they were supposed to be an initiation ceremony to the big school. When he asked he was told that as the school was surrounded vertical bars – green, of course – the idea was to place a new boy with his back to the bars and push his arms between each bar and squeeze. It didn't sound very enticing but from the day he started the school, the dreaded subject of the bars was not brought up.
When he was asked what secondary school he was going to he told people whch school it was, but If he was with his parents, when asked, they would say The Oratory. He knew that the Oratory School was in Ladywood, the same district as the Children's' Hospital, and he knew it would be a bus ride each day, so he let the subject drop; in any case, he didn't know they'd applied for him to go there. They had failed to get him into a Catholic School, primary and junior school, which meant him falling in love with most of the nuns at Saint John's Convent. He knew them all by name, but he didn't fall in love with the Mother Superior as she was too old and the sisters were mysterious. They all wore things over their hair and he wondered if they were shaved bald and if they prayed all day. One of the boys he was attending Saturday class with, was the boy from the piano lessons, who said one day “I couldn't remember all the ruddy Catechism' he said and the nun said 'Daniel, we don't use such words here.'
The senior school was a longer walk than his junior school and it was next to Ladypool Road Park, which some people called, Balsall Heath Park. This confused Finbar as he lived in Balsall Heath and the park was in Sparbrook. Strange old days when some people called the place Sparkhill and others Sparkbrook, when they were two different places, so he started calling Sparkhill, Spark Mountain and his pals asked where is the mountain to which he replied 'where is the brook?'
The first thing he learned was that the school had a tuck shop where he was introduced to wagon wheels, which was chocolate shaped like a wheel, and a chocolate bar called a Penguin but why it was called that he never knew.
The first year, at the new school, he was in the 'A' stream, 1A, and introduced to a Welsh teacher, who would grab him by his little sideburns, but called them sideboards – his daddy called them side locks which seemed better description and as his name was Finbar John Timothy Joseph Callaghan that's what the teacher would say as he pulled on his side locks if he got or did something wrong.
He was lucky to get into the 'A' stream as he was nearly bottom of the class in the juniors The junior school was more, or less, the same as the infants apart that he was in the 'A' stream but nearly bottom of the class.. There were forty five children in the class, because it was the age of the 'baby boomer' and the schools couldn't afford teaching assistants and of the forty five, Finbar finished the year forty third; not his finest moment so he was surprised at his 'A' stream status at the new school.
One day the class room door opened and Mr. Bill came in - he was the school secretary 'Is there a Finbar John Timothy Joseph Callaghan here?'
Finbar put his hand up and Mr. Bill said 'You're supposed to be at the Oratory.'
“Well he's here' said his teacher; he looked at Finbar 'are you happy?'
Finbar nodded his head.
“He's here' he said to Mr. Bill.
“Okay.' and off he went.
That was the start for the teacher to say at every opportunity Finbar John Timothy Joseph Callaghan. He looked out of the window and could see the outside buildings, as his class was in an annex on the other side of the street from the main school. It was a balmy September morning, am I happy, he thought, my friends are here and the bars are on the other side of the street in any case.
He didn't tell his parents about the Oratory confusion but at play time his pals were saying Finbar John Timothy Joseph Callaghan, and it made them laugh which he liked.
Across the street from the school was a sweet shop on the corner, where the boys crowded into at breaks, and the man in there would send boys outside to form a queue “come in one at a time – I've had enough stuff nicked so take your time – AND have the right money ready.'
Finbar didn't bring toast to the new school as he liked the tuck shop. His mother Carmel, had taken a job in the city centre at Lyons Tea Shop in New Street. It was where she and Patrick would go before going to The Forum Picture House.
One evening she asked a waitress, who were nick named 'Nippies' at Lyons, about working there and took it from there. She had to wear a neat little waitress outfit which was a blackish dress with a white collar and a white apron. The money she earned, with tips added, helped with the budget as Patrick's wages as a milkman were not that great.
Finbar was late for school a few times as he had terrible trouble getting out of bed in the mornings, and his teacher would say 'oh look who has decided to come and see us – the one and only Finbar John Timothy Joseph Callaghan.'
Finbar didn't care what he called him, Mr. E.L. Morgan, indeed. He wondered what the 'E' stood for and the 'L' and then he thought, who cares.
There were two classrooms in the Annex and a science lab with a mad looking science teacher where the boys went for their science periods.
When they had to go to the main school, or in the early mornings, a group of women would gather by the school gates after they had delivered their children to school. They were waiting for the other teacher next to Finbar's class who was in his mid twenties and, for that time in the fifties, had long hair and wore tight trousers, almost drain pipes, and a long jacket; yes, a teddy Boy, albeit a smart one. As he passed the women they commented and almost swooned. He was Mr. Forster, who went on to be an actor; his hair was in a Marlon Brando style as Brando had it in the feature film Julius Caesar.
I wonder what he's wearing today, could be heard, and Forster must have heard it too but ignored it.
Patrick came home and told Finbar that he'd found a bike for him at work. Finbar's eyes and ears picked up and if he had tried he would have danced but the knife and fork in his hands stopped him.
“What's it like?'
“It's an ould bike' said Patrick “you could work on it – do it up – and take it to school. How does that sound?'
“It . .it - it sounds great.'
“You can go to the bike shop' said Carmel “get the bits you need. Your father'll help you.'
Finbar went to the dairy, where Patrick worked, to see the bike.
There it was leaning against a wall, Finbar could see it hadn't been moved for years as cobwebs were attaching it to the wall; the whole thing was very rusty and it didn't have dropped handlebars or even straight ones; it didn't even have cable brakes. A very old bike with 'sit up and beg' handlebars but he was delighted with it.
A few few days later, Patrick stopped the milk cart with his horse and brought the bike down the lane. Finbar rushed out of the house when he saw his father – there it was, the Bike!!
He did think about buying a lock and chain but as he looked at it he could see it was the kind of bike that nobody would steal.
Lots of kids at the school had bikes; some with dropped handlebars, some with straight handlebars and some that were a very strange shape; like the shape of some of the Harley Davidson motor bikes seen now and again at the cinema.
A lot of those bikes would have their handlebars taped with a kind of white sticky tape; this would cover up various imperfections such as rust and that's what Finbar had in mind.
Finbar looked at the bikes in the bike shed and the saddles were almost taller than Finbar; just how did they ride them, let alone get on to them?
So he went to the bike shop and bought brake blocks, white tape and other odds and ends. It really was a big job and kept it in what used to be his 'sheriff's office at the end of the lane.
Patrick helped him with the brake pads and he tried to clean the rust from the wheels. They bought new tyres, and inner tubes and a bicycle repair outfit in a little tin.
After working on it over the weekend he proudly rode it to school on Monday morning. At school he told his pals he had a bike and heard one of them answer back 'you should see it!'
All came out at play time and laughed at it; to a man – or a boy – they stood there and laughed and then one of them saw the sticker Atomic Flier!
That was the cue for everybody to laugh; including Finbar; suddenly he thought it was hilarious too.
The senior school was not as frightening as Finbar had envisaged, in fact he really liked it. His school pals got used to his bike, they looked at it with a mixture of mirth and love as they could see the work he and his dad had put into it, and there were lots of new boys from other junior schools in the general area. The girls from the junior school had been transferred to a school over the other side of the from where he lived and he missed them especially Carol Balmond and Winifred Ecclestone. He never ever saw them again and after a little while the marriage to one of them had gone out of his head and since he had the bike, and would wander miles from home, sometimes, and in any case, he had fallen in love with Sofia Taboné.
She was the one who pinned his shoulders to the floor after the Saturday matinee – but they never really spoke after that; she just smiled sweetly when he passed her in the street. Sometimes that would be very near Brighton Road, which, he remembered, was where she lived.
She attended a girls' school somewhere else but because he now had a bike he could get to Brighton Road, on the way to school, or back, to gaze upon her beauty and be the recipient of her radiant smile as she walked along.
The difference between wrestling with her, and the time he started at the senior school, was spectacular: she had blossomed into a very beautiful thirteen year old, too old for Finbar but he lived in hope.
Once in a while she saw him pass on the Atomic Flyer.
Chapter 19
Football
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