8. The Effects at Work and Leisure Activities.

 How a Victim of Intimidation Became a Source of Power.

The social structure of Britain in the 1960s was quite different to what it is at present. The class structure was more rigid, and corporal punishment existed in homes and schools. In turn, there was a respect for authority to the point that some school students were terrified of male teachers who wielded the cane. No pupil would dare answer back to a teacher. At home, it was Dad who gave me my share of whacks, mainly for answering back when rebuked. To him, this was not cruelty. It was part of growing up and learning respect for others.

However, at secondary school, I was wise enough to avoid physical chastisement, even if I received my share at the joint infants/junior school. During physical education classes at our secondary school, the boys were split from the girls and combined with boys from another class. From time to time, someone would forget what day of the week it was and forget their gym kit at home. Without an appropriate excuse, such as a doctor's note, the boy was subjected to several strokes, administered with full strength, with the sole of a plimsole across his buttocks in front and in full view of us all. Each boy's reaction differed. I knew two who just screwed their faces and took the punishment without showing any emotion or tears. But one in particular burst into tears midway through, and pleaded loudly to stop. But the master didn't until the appropriate number was delivered. 

It was this type of scene which stuck with me for life, as well as reminded me what day of the week it was, and I remembered my gym kit. Yet throughout secondary education, I just managed to avoid corporal punishment altogether.

With such an upbringing and what I had seen, I entered the world of work with very low self-esteem. Hence, pushing a broom across the floor each morning wasn't shocking or humiliating at all. Rather, this was something to be expected. In addition to that, I absorbed teasing and smut without any reaction. And the culture in that all-male environment revealed much. That is, with only around twenty employees in the entire furniture factory, many were suffering from low self-esteem, including post-War trauma. I became a pawn or a footstool on whom others used to lift their own egos. I was still working there when, as Christmas 1972 was approaching, I was converted to Christ through the meeting of the Children of God cult in London.

All the other employees were taken aback by my new faith, as I was open about it and never kept it hidden or a secret. With one employee, war veteran Alf Earl, my testimony brought out the worst in him, denying his existence due to a vulgar lack of bodily evidence. Other employees showed respect, albeit grudgingly. I was no longer the helpless pawn. Rather, I seemed to have some power residing within me.

However, in 1968, a few months after leaving school and working at the furniture factory, I joined Bracknell Athletic Club and took part in track running in the summer, and cross-country foot races in the winter. However, this didn't erase any of the mockery I had to endure at work. Rather, participation in the sport only added to it. I remained a member of the club for two years, from 1968 to 1970. After 1970, I "returned to the world", as my coach, the late Mike Marlow, puts it.

At 16, (centre), I was a member of BAC in 1969.

However, in 1972, shortly after arriving home from Spain, my first holiday abroad without my parents, I became a member of the Reading Life-Saving Club, based at Arthur Hill Pool in Reading, a large town eleven miles from Bracknell. I attended until the spring of 1973. What we did was exactly what it said on the tin: rescuing a distressed person in deep water by various methods of towing, according to a given situation. This included the extended-arm tow for calm and cooperative victims, the cross-chess tow in rough water, and the chin tow for the violently panicking individual. We also learned the Silvester-Broch method of resuscitation, along with mouth-to-mouth (both of these are now obsolete). Alongside in-water rescue exercises and dry land resuscitation, we also learned A Level human anatomy, especially of the respiratory and circulatory systems.

During these Wednesday evening sessions in 1973, I never kept my faith in Jesus Christ a secret, but I was quite open about it. Through this, I discovered two or three other believing members who have linked their life-saving sessions with their faith. Here, the atmosphere was very different from the furniture factory I was working in. No teasing, no smut, I was treated equally to other members, and there was little or no low self-esteem that had a hold at the factory. By Christmas of 1992, the same time I met the COG movement, I took the Bronze Medallion qualifying award exam, consisting of all three: an in-water rescue demonstration, a demonstration in resuscitation, and my knowledge of human anatomy. I passed the threefold exam, and I was awarded a bronze medallion.

Possessing the medalion has opened the door to becoming a pool lifeguard anywhere in the UK. In May 1973, I left the furniture factory after I was offered a post at the Central Pool in Reading as one of the four patrolling lifeguards during the weekends, and with just one other person during the school term week. It was at the Central Pool that I had to go through in-water rescue exercises under a tall, muscular and bearded duty manager, Mr Birch, whose height dwarfed all of us. A few weeks later, I was transferred to Arthur Hill, where I first trained, and I was the sole attendant of the pool during the working week.

From the post of a lifeguard, by the Autumn of 1973, I switched jobs again. I accepted a job offer at Bardens, a precision engineering factory specialising in ball bearing races. These are the two rings where the solid steel balls roll. I was there from the Autumn of 1973 to the Autumn of 1977, four years in all. The workforce was of both men and women, and a very different atmosphere from that of A.G. Clarke's Furniture. There was no smut, no dirty language, and teasing was light and occasional. Also, a hot drinks vending machine was installed on the shop floor. Attached and facing the street, the management office housed male employees dressed in their business suits, a contrast to our white overalls and a visible manifestation of our class-divided society.

As I learned to use the micrometer gauge, I quickly became known throughout the company for my Christian faith, as I insisted that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that salvation is found by believing in him. During lunch breaks, I made my way upstairs to the open-plan office and testified there, too.

It was while I was at Bardens that I first attended St Jude's in Brixton. Meanwhile, my knowledge of the Bible grew, both the Old and New Testaments. And one location of note was Jerusalem, a location with which Jesus was familiar. He credited the city as that of the Great King. He was crucified there, buried nearby, and on the third day, he was resurrected, proof that he was God, and that he paid for all our sins, opening Heaven to us. 

Having done some backpacking across Europe, especially Italy, I wanted to visit Jerusalem and see the city for myself. By then, I had moved from St Jude's to Bracknell Baptist Church in the late spring of 1975. This was the result of the 1974 Greenbelt Festival, where some friends in St Jude's met some from the Baptist Church, and even in my absence, I was the subject of their discussion.

Bracknell Baptist Church in the 1970s.

Returning to Bardens, by 1976, I was ready to take off to the Holy Land for a three-week holiday. However, the knowledge that I was travelling to the Middle East on my own has stirred astonishment throughout the workforce, both on the shop floor and in the offices. I became "the talk of the town".

However, a year earlier, in 1975, I had changed churches. Under the recommendation of my friends in St Jude's, I walked into this odd-looking building next door to the college in late spring of that year. At the time, the Reverend Ben Davies, a super extrovert, short in height, bearded, and slightly plump in his body build, was regarded as the senior pastor. Under him were four deacons: Dave Prior, Bob Wilson, Alan Lloyd, and Sidney Stevens. As I write this, all four have passed away, although Ben is still alive and has moved back to his homeland, Wales. For the first time, I noticed an adult baptistry built into the church, surrounded by columns which also held up the marquee-like roof. After watching several baptisms taking place there, I too asked to be baptised.

Before the ceremony, Ben wanted me to be approached by three of the four deacons. For the following month, I was to have lunch in the homes of Dave, Sidney, and Bob. This was for each to independently assess whether I was truly converted to Christ and qualified for baptism. All three separately gave their verdict. I was genuine.

That summer of 1975, I stood on the platform to give a brief testimony to the watching congregation. Then, fully clothed, I lowered myself, along with Ben, and he dunked me underwater. Splash! And the symbol of a new life begins.

A year later, in 1976, marked another major turning point. Since the end of 1972, my conversion to Christ has started a rift forming between my parents and me. It accumulated with my father tearing up his own KJV Bible into shreds and binning it in front of me. That Bible sat in his bookcase, untouched since around 1954 or 1955. When I took it out to study and became familiar with it, this nominal Catholic and agnostic was clearly annoyed. And also, I was an embarrassment to his mates, especially on the Creation/Evolution debate.

And so, the time arrived for me to fly the nest and set up home for myself. I was 23 at the time, and two years too young to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Bracknell. But I was just old enough to rent a bedsit at a newly built estate of Birch Hill. I accepted their offer after submitting my work reference. This bedsit was to be my residence for the next 26 years, the launching pad for self-employment, for world travel, our wedding, and also the birth of our first daughter.

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Next Week, Details of Christian growth at Worship, Work, and Leisure.