Sweet Caroline

Sweet Caroline

In 1983 my friend at the time Scotty (so nicknamed because he lived in Glasgow for a while) told me of a vacancy at the factory that he worked in.

It wasn’t a great job it was a warehouse man in a clothing factory. The pay at the time was £70 per week before tax £53 after deductions. As I was on the dole at the time and only getting about £15 there was no hesitation. Going to Spurs every week and pubbing it at the weekend was a struggle on £15!

The company was called Carfax gowns and was split in to two sections. In one building there was section for designing the clothing, a section for cutting out the patterns and then a section for the tagging and bagging (for transporting) of the finished item.

Along the road there was a second factory where the cuttings were actually stitched together into the clothes.

The east end of London was once known for its part in the rag trade, there were hundreds of factories as I have described. However by the 1980s these factories had almost all died out. It was a very competitive trade. Carfax was in Cambridge heath road in Bethnal Green The building is still there today although not as a factory.

 

The guys who owned the business were very good, they kept the business coming in and at the time we were working for the big clothing store of the era C&A. (long since gone)

Not long after I started Scotty left he was a bit of a character and a law unto himself to be fair, I could probably write a whole story just about him.

Anyway I digress, as he left a new guy started named Les. We got on well and became friends.

Essentially our role was a general dogs body, we would unload roles of fabric, load up orders, put tags on , add the size toggles on the hangers and so on.

We also had to take the cut patterns over to the machinist factory and bring back the finished items.

Going over to the machinist factory was a bit of a treat as this factory was where the younger women worked. When I say younger they were all much older than us we were only 17 but younger than the old hags at our factory.

People always think men are letches who make women feel uncomfortable, well try being a young lad going into a factory full of women! Some of these women can make a young boy feel very embarrassed.

Very early on before she knew it I had noticed a young machinist she was very shy and very quiet. Her hair was fairly short but it had a long fringe that fell over her left eye. She would sit with her head down so her hair hid her face so she could not see you looking at her. Her name was Caroline!

We didn’t speak, she had a boyfriend at the time and I was aware of this.

 

I was unaware when her boyfriend broke up with her, and oblivious to how upset she was about it. We did eventually start to speak but it was more the three of us as friends. She would come to our factory a lunch times some days and Les and I would dive bomb her onto the roles of fabric!

Some days when Les and I were going to the pub we would pass her on the way to the post office to buy a stamp!

I never thought about why she needed so many stamps, who was she sending letters to?

She used to wear these tracksuits, not like nowadays chav tracksuits these were classy and typical 80s fashion leg warmers and pixie boots. I used to ogle he bottom once she was passed me, she had a lovely figure.

I think we both realised at the same time that there was an attraction going on. She later told me she only went to the post office to buy stamps just in case she would see me. (bless)

 

One day she invited me and Les to a party at her house, apparently her parents were having a moving party as they were leaving where they lived in Dagenham to go to Billericay.

Me I had never heard of Billericay I thought it was in Ireland somewhere. Even when she said it was in Essex it just struck me as somewhere far away.

The fact that she lived in Dagenham threw me as even there seemed a bit of a trek from Hackney!

We agreed to go to the party and Caroline arranged for us to be able to sleep in her little brother’s room.

On the day of the party I went out to the west end to the Benetton shop and bought some new green cords and matching coloured jumper (it was the fashion at the time trust me).

At this period in time I was right into the football scene, and going off to Dagenham did have its issues. Dagenham and the areas you go through to get there were well know West Ham United (or wet spam as we Spurs fans like to call it) areas. Having a bit of notoriety around football meant you had to be a little careful.

 

Les and I took the underground from Bethnal Green to Stratford where you changed to an over ground train. Not having been to Dagenham before I wasn’t sure where to get off, the required station wasn’t even Dagenham it was Chadwell Heath, so it’s no surprise when we didn’t notice the train go straight past.

It only dawned on me when the train pulled into Billericay station that we had got on the wrong train.

“I thought Billericay was further than Dagenham” I said to Les? “Wrong train” so off we jumped and over to the other platform to head back where we had come from.

We sat on a deserted platform for what seemed like ages before a train came going back the other way, Caroline thought we were going to let her down.

We finally made it to Chadwell Heath and called Caroline from the phone box. Yes phone box there was no mobile phones then! No texting Facebooking or tweeting just a 10p in the box after the Pips.

Within 10 minutes or so Caroline appeared she had walked around with some friends one of whom was an ex-boyfriend!

He seemed OK to be honest think he just came to check me out make sure I wasn’t someone a bit dodgy so fair play to him for looking out for her.

We arrived at the house which was full with all of Caroline’s family; Caroline has a big family and they are very close.  I must say it was a little intimidating. Because we turned up late (and I don’t think anyone actually expected us to turn up) we drew a fair bit of attention as we came in. I am not sure being all dressed in green (like Robin Hood) helped much.

I don’t recall actually spending much time talking to anyone else during the party; It was just Caroline and I for the rest of the night. We got on really well. We had never really spent anytime just us on our own. We had always had Les with us as we had just been mates.

But I think we both knew that there was a connection an attraction.

After the party Les and I slept in Caroline’s brother’s room in their bunk beds. It was really strange because where they lived back onto a field. It felt so quiet; on top of this her dad had aviaries in the garden. I didn’t even know you could do that keep birds at your house. In the early hours of the morning those birds were chirping like mad. What a fucking racket I thought to myself.

If this was country life you could stick it up your arse! Imagine it though this was Dagenham it wasn’t out in the sticks, this wasn’t the country side. I didn’t have a clue, to me if I didn’t know where it was it must be in the country.

We were up fairly early the next day, and to be honest it was a bit uncomfortable. Caroline’s mum was not very welcoming and we were probably in the way. So we decided to make a move. Anyway Spurs were playing Nottingham Forest on the Sunday at White Hart Lane; it was the first live televised match. It was my ritual weekends were for football and beer whichever way around it came. Anyway I didn’t want to miss the chance of being on the telly!

Caroline walked us to the station and we parted not really talking about the night before and our attraction. But by then I had made up my mind, Caroline was the one for me.

At the party Caroline’s Nan asked someone if I was Caroline’s new boyfriend? “That will never last” she was heard to comment.

That moving party was 30 years ago in October this year (2013) and in May Caroline and I will be celebrating our silver wedding anniversary! We have been through a lot in those years (some of which you will have seen in other stories on my blog) but somehow we have managed to fight to stay together.

Caroline will hate the title I have given this story because she hates the song but to me she is my “sweet Caroline”!