John Edward Cooper’s Notes
Trevor and Jones
Early Days  Perhaps Spring 19631. Jones used to call Trevor “The Ancient Mariner” for some reason. He would be striding along, briefcase in hand, catch sight of Trevor, and call out: “Ah, The Ancient Mariner!” Perhaps it was because Trevor was older than anyone else of Jones’s acquaintance, that he called him this. (Jones did have the tendency to nickname people, and it was not always welcome. In the initial days of our friendship, he would often call me “Fish Face”, “Haddock Face” or “Plaice Face”. Why this was so, is not clear. Perhaps it was because I don’t have very prominent cheek bones—my face is quite flat in profile, apart from the nose, so perhaps that was the reason. I realised that it was just Jones’s idea of humour. I thought it was a bit daft of Jones to be saying such things—childish almost, for one so sophisticated as Jones—but I didn’t complain. And he used to call me “Tish Tosh” from time to time. Now that did irritate me—“Ah, Tish Tosh!”—and I started to object whenever he said it: “No, Jonesy, I don’t like that!”) 2. Trevor made very few appearances at Jones’s house. He only managed to get into his bedroom once (when Jones lived on Victoria Road), and on one visit he got into the lounge (after Jones had moved to Park Road). The reason why he didn’t get admitted more was that by this time I was in the habit of making fun of Jones, and Trevor was a pal of mine, so he was suspect. Trevor, in fact, thought that it was a good joke, just to go round on “wrecking” expeditions and make fun of Jones. 3. Trevor used to get the train to and from Kirkham, for he was a pupil at Kirkham Grammar School. So, getting off the train, he would walk from Thornton station, passing Jones’s house on Victoria Road just beyond Mayfair Drive, then he would go down Hawthorne Road to his home in Laurel Drive. That is how he used to meet Jones a lot. Initially he met him through us, through just following us. And once Trevor knew him, Jones used to speak to him, say “Hello” to him, and various other things. Trevor might meet him in the street when they were walking home, Jones from his bus stop and Trevor from the station. If Jones was late home and Trevor was early home, if Trevor caught the early train and Jones caught the late bus, then they would meet: “Ah, The Ancient Mariner!” At some time after Jones started at Fleetwood Grammar School, the bus company Ribble introduced a new schools service, the S3; and when Jones started catching this bus, he used to get off it at Thornton station. So sometimes Trevor used to run into him, and they used to walk down from the station together as far as Jones’s house.[1] [1] When Jones started catching [the S3], he used to get off it at Thornton station. So sometimes Trevor used to run into him, and they used to walk down from the station together as far as Jones’s house: I do not know when Ribble introduced the S3. Trevor initially said, “I used to meet him in the street. And he’d be walking home.” Chris added: “…from the bus stop; and Trevor would walk from the station, perhaps.” Trevor later asked, “Did the bus sometimes come to the station?” We replied that there was a bus, the S3; and Trevor then said, “Well, he used to get off it at the station, and sometimes I would run into him, so we used to walk down from the station to his house.” If initially Jones had to get the 162, that would tie in with Trevor’s first statement because the 162 would set Jones down at Four Lane Ends and he would have to walk home along Victoria Road, in the direction of the station. If this indeed was the case when Trevor first used to meet Jones, there was a short distance, between the corner of Mayfair Drive and the top of Hawthorne Road, where their paths could meet. Then when the S3 was introduced, Jones got off at the station, which ties in with Trevor’s second statement.4. Once, Jones invited Trevor to his house for a game of chess. It probably happened that Trevor mentioned that he could play chess. He was good at chess at school; he was in the school chess team eventually. Or perhaps Jones, being keen on the game, asked Trevor if he played chess. In whatever way it came about, Trevor went round there one Saturday afternoon. 5. He went round to Jones’s house, and there was someone already there in his bedroom. And Trevor’s arriving caused some embarrassment, because Jones had invited this one round and forgotten that Trevor was coming. Jones solved the problem quite simply: he kicked his first guest out. He dealt with him quite abruptly, and the boy left. (One imagines Jones being quite dramatic when he answers the door and realises that he has an appointment with Trevor, slapping his forehead in a show of surprised dismay. Jones’s guest, Trevor remembers, was a guy who wore glasses, and we surmise that it may have been David Doyle. If Chris’s and my experience is anything to go by, Jones might just have gone upstairs with the words: “Oh, that’s all right: Doyly was just leaving—weren’t you, Doyly?” Now whether Jones got hold of him to eject him, or whether Trevor only has that impression because we told him that Jones got hold of people, is not certain. But suddenly this boy disappeared.) 6. And Jones got his chess set out. Now he had a pocket-sized one, which he would use on the bus to and from school,[2] but this wasn’t the one he used today: it was a full-sized one that Jones set up on a little table in his bedroom, in “Davelyshome”. And Trevor and Jones sat at it, and they played for a bit; and it was quite apparent that Trevor was winning, when Jones decided it was time for him to go. Trevor was several pieces up on Jones and was about to annihilate him, when Jones decided it was time for his tea, or something, and Trevor had to go. So that was the end of that, and Trevor left. (They didn’t play chess immediately, so Trevor was there about an hour, or an hour and a half. Jones didn’t actually get to the point where he was beaten. There was some excuse that he had; and Trevor found that he was no longer welcome. And seeing as he used to have tea early anyway, Trevor did not insist that the game be carried to its conclusion; he decided just to go.) [2] He had a pocket-sized chess set, which he would use on the bus to and from school: Jones showed Chris this pocket chess set once; and Chris must have asked him, “Well, when do you play with that, David?”, for he said, “Oh, it’s quite a handy little chess set, Chris. I use it when I go on the bus to school. I’ll have a game of chess with somebody during the journey, and while ‘little Edwina’ and all the other girls are talking about their homework I can be thrashing somebody at chess.” |
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]