Ankara's Gare Casino 1950 ish

Would you believe it, this is a DEC(k)CHAIR that I got as one of my leaving presents. You can tell that my comrades really thought that all I was good for was to retire to a nice spot in Spain and spend all my time lazing in the chair.
As a matter of interest my eldest daughter does actually live in Spain and I could have done just that.
Next month I will be going to Spain for a few days as my grand daughter is at last getting married. Wish me luck. I'll probably Yam Sing with her and her new husband. Yam Sing? Keep reading my blogs and you'll discover what it means. It could be Chinese, couldn't it.













Today is the 16th of June 2011.





Oops.. Yesterday I intended to start a completely new Blog, but I noticed that the profile shown was the profile of my other Blog; at : http://btsankara.blogspot.com/ where you saw the description of the photograph that I had included in the first blog under Decies where are you?





I have just edited the photograph so it may make a bit more sense. If it turns out as it should you will be seeing my retirement. The guys around me are the guys that I worked with in training at DEC.





Life is more about memories now than getting out and about and doing things. I'd better qualify that statement. I am aware that there are ladies (mostly) out there who are dashing about with their 'bus pass, a camera and little else and managing to see and photograph most of the country. I travelled by 'bus up to Lincolnshire to see daughter who happens to live there. On the 'bus I got chatting to my neighbour and found that she was one of about 10 others on the 'bus who were, shall I say Hitch-hiking'. At each major town stop they got off the bus and dashed to where they could pick up 'bus timetables. They told me where the good 'starting points' were.





My cycling has been abruptly ended. My cycling companion got knocked off his bike by a car rushing out of a Supermarket carpark and hospitalized. Bad luck. I don't think I'll go cycling for a while now.





So why have I mentioned 'memories' and titled this blog Ankara's Gare Casino? Have you ever dreamed of winning some money that would change your life style? Actually I hadn't yet I had the good luck to come into a small fortune when I was the treasurer of a combined forces club in Ankara in the 50's. No, I didn't run off with the safe. On Saturday evenings the entertainment people used to organize events while I prepared the buffet for the interval. You've guessed it, I was not a social animal, always in the backroom or looking after the bottles of beer in the bath's ice water, etc. This evening they played Housey-Housey or Tombola (or Bingo or whatever it is called). The point of this is that they were one person short for the Big Prize. They knew that I was on the premises and called "Ginger, Ginger come out we need you." After a while I took off my pinny washed my hands and joined the players. I bought my card and borrowed a marker. Out came the numbers from the hat and I got a line; then I got the 'house' with the minimum number of calls to win the big prize. I don't think the other players were too happy about that when I went up and got my prize money.


There was a new guy arrived in Ankara at that evening called Gordon Revell. I'll never forget him because he came up to me and said something like "Let's go to town and blow it." It was really a small fortune for a young soldier to have won but I agreed and off we went to the Gare Casino. At that time the Casino had a good reputation for serving marvellous meals with a show. It was my first time at such a show. I did know that similar shows happen in Paris but this was Ankara, Turkey.


I don't remember the actual date but it was after Christmas. I know that because there were Christmas decorations all around the place. In the other Night Clubs in Ankara, after a show people were invited to invite the stars to dance and then to their table and spend some money on drinks for them. That seemed to be part of the contract for the entertainers.


Gordon and I had finished our meal and the Ballet was over so we did what any young man with a lot of money would do. We invited the whole troupe to our table and they came. They didn't want to dance - thank goodness because I can't dance. They were English and from a well known Ballet company and were touring Europe with their troupe.


It was a lovely evening; they and we were enjoying ourselves when a gas filled balloon came drifting by. I grabbed it, lit a match and pretended to light the balloon. The girls all leaned forward and tried to blow out the match when suddenly there was a ball of flame. The girls had singed hair and eyebrows and ran off. Gordon and I sat there frightened of what would happen next. To our surprise the girls came back smiling and wearing new wigs, their make-up restored and we continued as if nothing had happened. We invited them to our home for a good English Sunday Dinner and they came. After that we tried to see as much of them as we could but not in the Casino. We escorted them around Ankara and the environs until they had to move on to Cyprus where they had been booked to appear in Famasgusta. I actually followed them there by taking a short holiday with my Commanding Officer and his wife. One of the dancers was my age and she told me that she lived in Earl's Court behind the Advertising hoardings. I often wonder if she still lives there. It would be so nice to know what happened to those girls especially her. You often read about people like that in magazines like 'Yours' or SAGA.


That's it for now.


You are invited to make comments especially if you are Gordon or a DECie or one of the Ballet girls.


Bye,


Hugh

Dec Training at Fountain House and Shire Hall

The above photograph shows Dorothy Bastick labelling me with a Retired scarf during party.

Today is the 15 June 2011. It is the day that I am happy to remember those days in 1978 and onwards when DEC had training centres at Fountain House and Shire Hall in Reading in the UK.

I was an instructor during ten of those years and have happy memories of those times.

The TESCO run on a Friday afternoon after courses had finished for the week and we could relax over a glass of wine come to mind as do some of the names of the other instuctors and techies. I wonder if you were one of those people.

I am in contact with John Wolton who lives in Spain now and he asked me if I knew anybody who may well remember him. Living in Reading I am also lucky enough to meet some of our old buddies in the street. When I relate to John he is sad as he doesn't have that luxury.

I was Googled the other day - well not me, but the fact that I had entered DEC into another Blog was found by somebody Googling DEC and that led to me. He had been a student of mine and wanted to be remembered. Also this week I have had a telephone call from another ex-Dec student.

If by not other means I may well be remembered by this: "hugh.bin". We used to encourage our students to write 'noddy' programs to help with troubleshooting mini-computers and I often wrote very simple noddies (in machine code) and ended them with "hugh.bin" as a kind of trademark.

About ten years ago I visited DECPark as it was called when a big chunk of DEC was housed there. I was already retired and had to wait at reception to be identified. I was. A guy broke off his meeting with another guy from the US to come out and invite me into the conference. The US guy had his first taste of the Culture of us guys of DEC UK.

As you can imagine lots of the students that passed through our portals have moved on and up in the Computer World and achieved pretty high ranking in that world. My son Guy is a Sales Manager in the IT industry and visits people in all kinds of industries and meets people who remember me from their days with DEC.

This is only an introduction to me.

For one heck of a long time I taught New Hire courses that lasted about 6 weeks. It was rather strange because I had long before joining DEC been a Design Tech with IBM, working on the 360/40 computer, a Field Service Engineer with UNIVAC and the Engineering manager of a company in the Far East where I ran the FS department and training. I got so used to that role that I could walk into a classroom and teach without reference to any notes and finish my lesson exactly on time. I never got bored because the guys who passed through were all also very interesting. I felt that I could tell the guys who would succeed in the company as it grew.

I am retired and have been for 20 years. That is unbelievable isn't it? Of course I am telling Porkies. Officially I did retire in about 1990 but was pulled out of retirement for a little while to give hand in the DECDIRECT part of DEC where I helped customers decide what to buy from our catalogue. That was hairy! I hadn't realized that the second I put down my phone the next customer would be passed through to me. I had not learned yet to do the paperwork at the same time as I was with the customer.

My buddies asked me what I would do when I retired. I remember my old grand dad who had been a traction engine driver, etc. in Suffolk. When he retired he just sat in a chair in his garden and watched the world go by until the pub opened. Then he would go in with his concetina and knock out a few tuned and have a pint before going home. Well I can't play any musical instrument but I did also want to sit around and do nothing. Some hope! I discovered that I couldn't do that. I told them that I would be working in a few days and I was. TESCO needed a man to fill shelves and supervise the Drinks aisle. I got that job. After a while I left. That is a story in its self. I was witness to fraud and reported it. Made it impossible for me to continue working there. I was able to get a job the day I left and worked for a Wine Importer. I worked in the morning from about 5:00 am in the Post room. That gave me time for another job. When I was in the army in 1944 - 1956 I was trained in Teleprinters and also instructed in Teleprinters. A job came up to teach Touch-typing. I applied for that and secured it. The trouble was that it wasn't in a school, but very much on the road, so as to speak. It was fun.

Eventually I did stop working for money and began to work in a charity shop. I enjoyed the time that I did work there. Again that could be a story in itself.

Now the only work I do is to try to ride my bike and sometimes go for walks.

Getting back to the original idea of creating this blog it was to ask if there were any Ex-DEC people who would like to remember John Wolton or myself or any of the old trainers. If this proves to be successful, there is no reason why we couldn't get together and have a bit of a reunion and do the TESCO run again. I notice that there is a TESCO right opposite the Butts Centre. It isn't called the Butts Centre any more, but you'd find it.

That's it for now. I'll blog some more if and when I get the strenght.

Bye for now.....