When I was an apprentice at BIP Tool in Birmingham the UK around 1960 there was a another lad two years younger (I was eighteen) his name was Ken Stallard and he was one of the clumsiest people I have ever met but with what I thought was a very strong upper body.
If he walked from one part of the factory to another he walked through things rather than around them.
I left and never saw him for fifty years until there was a BIP reunion at a local club and a man came up to me and said hello Dave It was Ken but how he had changed he moved across the floor like an athlete.
‘You look so different you were so clumsy when I first met you (you will notice that I have no finesse with words or people ) ‘That’s because I started dancing lessons’ he replied, ‘and found out that I was really good at it, I have lots of cups and medals at home and all the girls loved me.’
Its obvious that I would never be any good as a talent Scout.
Len Gab started on the same section of die milling machine that I was serving my apprenticeship on and while I was twenty he was around forty five, a well built man with dark hair that was receding.
He was a nice person and quite outgoing but nothing unusual until one day he started singing and everone stopped and looked at him.
He had the most amazing voice and would sing all the great classic operatic songs.
Allen Ranking was not good in the mornings, he could be charming but not if he was in a bad mood.
One day Ken Stallard said the wrong thing to him and Allen put one hand under his neck and lifted him up in the air and held him against a brick wall,
Surprising because Allen was not as tall as Ken.
When Allen was forty and he walked into the factory no one said happy birthday to him. He never wanted to get old, and they all wanted to live.
Sometimes people aren’t what they appear to be and most can tell some very unusual stories, but you just have to ask and then listen
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