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George Spenceley recalls his childhood memories of Middlesbrough and how his large family coped with life in World War II and with the happy and sad events of family life.
My Dad worked on the riverside as a stevedore. His job entailed loading and unloading ships cargoes. On early shift from 6 am to 2 pm he would get up at 4 am and walk two or three miles to the Dock Office.
There a gang or gathering of men seeking employment formed what was known as a pool of labour. They were often told that the ship had not arrived in the river and that there was no work for them at that time.
The Company Representative would stamp their registration card to indicate that they had made themselves available for work. On returning home Dad would tell Mam that he'd been duck-egged, this being the colour and shape of the company stamp.
There were times when he would return to work at 10 am and work just half a shift. During the late morning, before the afternoon shift he would look across to the Smith's Dock Shipyard and if the luffing cranes at Eston Jetty next to the shipyard had their top sections at a certain angle it indicated that there was work there.
They would be off-loading an iron ore vessel and although he was registered at Cargo Fleet sometimes he'd get work at Eston Jetty. This work was very labour intensive.
A team of men would climb into the hold of the ship and shovel the iron ore into tubs, a crane would lift out the full tub and replace it with an empty one, the red dust off the iron ore would be blowing everywhere and this would go on until the hold was empty.
It was akin to hard labour and yet the dockers used to fight for the work. My brother Ron followed in my Father's footsteps and to this day I cannot understand why, if ever I suggested that I'd be interested in getting a job on the river Dad and Ron were both totally against it.
Were they both safeguarding me or just jealously guarding their own jobs?
George Spenceley, 2002
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