Rockin’ Raymond
Music: Rock Around The Clock
Artist: Bill Haley & His Comets
Shared by: Andrew for his Dad
“... when the right music came on my dad would say to my mum “come on then lass” and they would take to the dance floor, look in to each other’s eyes with knowing smiles and find the same moves and rhythm as they did back in the day. ”
When my dad was 18 he walked past the army recruitment office in Wakefield and decided that was the way to avoid a life ‘down’t pit’ at Sharlston. A young man with optimism and a hope that his life might be different.
He became a Coldstream Guard at Windsor and near there at the dance halls in Slough he met my mum. A whirlwind romance! It was the end of the 50’s, the era of Rock & Roll, and they danced the night away to versions of swing, jitterbug and jive. Such an exciting time to be a young person. Not long in to their relationship my mum fell pregnant and the fun came to an end. My grandad bought him out of the army, they moved north, he got a trade, and there began an ordinary life, raising four children and often struggling to make ends meet.
Dad talked fondly and endlessly about his army days throughout his life - beating on pheasant shoots, being an extra in a film, smuggling contraband into the barracks under his hat, and being best mates with Geordie and Taffy. It was his big adventure and I always thought he felt it ended too soon.
And yet despite the daily grind, at parties and events when the right music came on my dad would say to my mum “come on then lass” and they would take to the dance floor, look in to each other’s eyes with knowing smiles and find the same moves and rhythm as they did back in the day. Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets was always the song that relit that spark in them. I can remember with love and pride watching them at their 50th wedding anniversary party doing just that and wondering how things would have turned out if they had just been a little bit more careful. Dad died a year later, and when I hear that song now that’s how I like to remember him- as Rockin’ Raymond.