About Rick Adlam

Rick Adlam was born in Thorncliffe, near Leek, in Staffordshire, England. When he was two years old his parents bought a home in Leek, Staffordshire and he lived there till his family emigrated to Adelaide South Australia in late 1960 when he was nine years old.

Rick Adlam's Home Town

"I still have vivid memories of Leek and the surrounding countryside, the canals, the streams and brooks, the deep earthy woods with glades of bluebells, the towering Horse chestnut trees, and oak tree woods, and wind swept moors and The Roaches which had wild Australian Wallabies, Himalayan Yaks and Deer. [yes you read right]. People with big houses on the canals had monkeys in the back yards from there time of living in the African Colonies. There were still wild parts of the UK in those days and I walked them as a child from sun up till sunset. Leek by the way is also famous for its double sunset just before Solstice.

Old Leek, Staffordshire, England, with the Roaches above.

We never planned our excursions into the countryside and instead of going home for lunch we often ate what we could find [raspberries, currents, blackberries, apples, chestnuts, barley and potatoes, bilberries on Roaches, or what we could catch in the river Dane [great for salmon], The Manifold and the Churnet, and the countless streams and brooks that ran into these rivers, and we became very proficient at catching river trout with our bare hands, making fires without matches and cooking the fish for lunch." I used to love walking around Rudyard Lake, [Rudyard Kipling was named after this beautiful lake] and up to Mooridge and the Leek Moorlands, and parts of the Peak District. By the way, for other Top Gear fans out there, Rudyard was where the show's heroes tested their homemade amphibious craft.

Leek was used as a prisoner of war internment centre in the Napoleonic wars [French] and in the First World War [Germans], and so has a lot of inter marriages from those periods. It was also used as an allied troop garrison centre in the Second World War and nearby Blackshaw Moor was where the Free Polish Army was camped for many years after the second world war.

Rick Adlam was born in a Log Cabin

 So I have something in common with George Washington! Well, I was born in a Hospital actually in Newcastle under Lyme because the Leek Hospital was closed for refurbishments. But I was taken home by Mum and Dad who were given a "bungalow" in Thorncliffe to live in till we moved to Leek when I was two years old.

The cabin was a two bedroom duplex built by my Canadian Grandfather, who had moved to Thorncliffe in 1928. The duplex had creosoted planks and a timber sheeted low pitched roof with bitumen sheeting covering. OK so it wasn't actually a log cabin, but it did not have inside toilets, nor running water or electricity! [We were also the first in the street in Leek to get a TV, [1952], get commercial reception 1954, a fridge, and had a bedroom converted to a bathroom. When Fury and the Cisco Kid were on we had about 30 kids in our lounge to watch it.

The reason I recall all this is because when we moved to Leek, where we had a cellar, a plumbed [outside toilet], a coal shed, two storey home with an attic!] I used to walk to Thorncliffe most weekends to visit my cousins who were then living in the cabin. I used to love the gas lamps as it got dark in winter and the wood fire and the feeling of cosiness that home had, and I would help get the water from the brook outside the back door to make a cup of tea! If I tried to explain that to kids today they would think I was making it up. But its true!

"That's probably how I developed a self reliant and independent streak that still runs through me. I felt that I ruled the World in those days. Leek was a very English Country farming market kind of of a Town that had had a lot of history and a waning but once World leading textile industry, its share of World Changers and its own view of the World. It was tiny but at the same time complete. When I speak to other English people and say "I'm from Leek," most know exactly where it is or know of it even though its so tucked away."

"Its also why I have always loved England, and always will. You can take the boy out of England, but you can never take England out of the boy."

The move to Australia:

"We came out to Australia when I was nine years old. The Ocean voyage was a real adventure. The ship was the SS Orontes and she was an elegant old ship built in 1929 that had a mezzanine deck where the orchestra played every afternoon, and solid timber banisters."

"About two days into the voyage we hit a gale right in the Bay of Biscay. We were the only family who turned up for breakfast on the third day, and I was the only one of use who never got sea sick. I recall that Mum ordered sausage a eggs for breakfast and the table was fitted with edging to stop plates from siding off the table. Well we got hit by a massive wave and the whole ship groaned and lurched to one side. The furniture slide down to the lower side  and I still recall Mum's sausages rolling off her plate and spilling onto the floor. Well, we never did find this sausages."

"We would go out on deck, [as the entire ship wreaked of vomit the smell of which has never left me] even though it was forbidden and watch the waves crash over the front of the ship. We would hold out our arms bird like and let the wind blow us along the soaking decks."

"I also recall a red headed school boy in his uniform black blazer and black cap with red piping come out on deck when the weather a calmed a little. Well the wind caught his cap, took it off his head, and it spiraled ever upwards and out to sea. I watch that cap for as long as it was visible and that was may be a mile or more and for five minutes or more, and it never went near the sea. The cap had a life of its own. I often thought that it might have made landfall in the Azores."

"Mum later spoke to the Captain about the storm, and he told her that in his thirty years at sea, it was the worst and longest storm he had ever sailed in. He also confided that he was to sail the ship just a few more runs after this voyage to Australia before it was to be scrapped. [The SS Orontes was in fact scrapped in 1962 in Valencia Spain.] On the first night he stayed on the bridge because he expected that the ship being so old, would break up in the heavy seas. He had tried to get into Lisbon but was denied as it was crammed full of ships sheltering from the storm, so he had to sail into wind for two days to give the ship the best chance of riding out the storm."

"Another place I will never forget is Barcelona, the cobbled streets behind the ship terminal and the tiny cobblers shops selling the most beautiful men's shoes I have ever seen."

The same can be said for Naples and Rome, Port Said, and Colombo. They were all places that had a their own cultural differences then, that have been diluted since.

Adelaide Suburbs looked so Unfinished

"The first thing I noticed about Australia was how dry and barren the country side was, and how unfinished everything looked. that is saying something when it comes from a boy who was born in a log cabin I know, but I wanted to go back the first week. To me It was hot, dry, fly blown and the north winds blew in red sand storms. Then when it rained all the spiders and ants headed for indoors. Give me the lush meadows of buttercups, filled with gossamer and dew, the drizzling rain and foggy mornings any day. But as soon as I started school I adapted immediately and soon got to love Adelaide too."

To & From:

The move left Mum so home-sick she would cry herself to sleep. How Any adult could go from a life in verdant England to the edge of a desert I will never know. People that came from the grim of industrial Britain may not have felt the same.

Her remedy was work and she went out selling door to door, selling water softeners. She did so well that she was soon making more than my Dad, who was a welder at the time. The water in Adelaide in those days was terrible. It came unfiltered from the River Murray, and it stank and was often a dirty brown, [unlike that crystal clear brook water we used to draw from out back door], so selling something that made the water clear and where it could hold a lather was a boon. She was always a great salesperson and remained friends with her sales girl friends for life.

"Within three years we had moved back to the UK because Mum missed her family and Leek so much, but three years later we were back in Australia, just as I had finished High School. Mum never lost that urge to travel and was always moving between Adelaide and Leek till she died in Leek in 1996. I think she knew she was going to die and knew where she wanted to die in her beloved Leek. I cast her ashes over the grounds that she used to walk to meet my dad. I was a beautiful resting pace sheltered between two oaks, on a grass covered knoll with a stream below. As I looked up I could see the town of Leek between the branches of the trees, about two miles away. I knew she would be happy there, and be free."

First Job at John Martins:

"My first job in Australia was in 1966 as a sales assistant at John Martins in the paint department on the North Terrace side of the Great Department Store. At that time this was a better store than Myers or David Jones in Adelaide. I absolutely loved that job. I could see myself working my way up from the basement to the executive suites many floors above. But my parents insisted that I should get a trade, or work for the Government. They had both been through the Great Depression and wanted me to have something to fall back on if I ever lost my job." When I went to the cafeteria for afternoon tea I would always sit near a customer and strike up a conversation. One day I sat down with this old guy and heard his twang. I asked him what part of the UK he was from. Would you believe it. He was 70 years old and was born in Leek too!

Working for ETSA

"So I applied for and was accepted as an apprentice electrical fitter with the Electricity Trust of South Australia. I got the trade and the government job in one. Everyone thought it was wonderful, even though I had to take a pay cut. I got $15.90 at Jonnies and a straight $15.00 at ETSA. That is $15.00 a week, not an hour."

"The first Day at ETSA was the shock of my life. You see I didn't actually know what an electrical fitter did, and what it was going to be like. I went from going to work wearing a tie and a tweed jacket, to wearing a boiler suit. I felt I had come down a few pegs and the pay cut was clear proof in my eyes."

"The other downer was that I left working in the heart of Adelaide which was swarming with gorgeous young women in those days, to working at the apprentice training centre in the middle of an industrial estate with 60 other 16 and 17 year olds." A lot of guys never completed the initial 12 week trial, and I figured I would be one that dropped out too. A lot did, including one with that same familiar accent. He was on his way back to Rudyard, a hamlet by the Lake that I walked around as a child. In those days life in Australia was in my view harder than it was in England, and there was still that unfinished look to Adelaide, and the starkness of the country side. So a lot of people pined for home and many went back.

If that wasn't a lot of pressure I then had to go to Kilkenny technical College and I was clueless. All my wiring have short circuits in them and would have blown the school down had power been applied before the instructors checked it. They would roll their eyes and walk way shaking their heads after seeing my work. I was a miserable failure, and it hurt after being an outstanding scholar and sportsman in School in England, and getting praises in my role at Jonnies."

"I had just two things standing in my way in 1967. No interest and no aptitude in anything electrical."

The easy thing to do was to pull the pin and go back to Jonnies. I could get into their marketing certificate course and do what I was naturally gifted to do, but my parents would not have it, so back I went. In any case they had to pay a $50 bond in those days to have ETSA accept me as an apprentice. That was about a tradesman's weekly wage in those days, so I felt guilty about even thinking about going back to Jonnies.

I saw the light

"Then at college orientation night which was about three weeks after we started for some reason, I saw a short film which set the course of my life. It was a German industrial film about FAG bearings. It showed a day in the life of a FAG bearing sales rep. A Mercedes limo turned up and a driver let this sales guy in, whose was wearing a black suit, black tie, and a homburg hat, and wait for it, white gloves, carrying a black attaché case. The driver drove this Sales Engineer round to see several clients. Well I was sold. Not on the bearings, but on the job description of the Sales Rep. How long has this being going on I thought, and I then and there decided I was going to be in technical sales."

First Love, Wendy Smith

"The second reason I forgot about going back to work for Jonnies was Wendy Smith."

"The other problem I had working for ETSA was that I had to take two buses to work. One from Athol Park where we lived to the city. Then the second one to Marleston. That meant getting up at 5.30am every morning. It was pitch black at that time in Adelaide in Winter. Then do the same all over again to go home after a hard days work."

"Then one day I found myself flirting with a school girl from Vermont Girls Technical High School on the bus home, and things were wonderful. The job was great, and the lightness of traveling was no problem at all."

"Wendy was nearly as tall as me, with Straight Black Hair. She also had a fringe at the time. She also had big brown eyes set wide on her beautiful face. In my eyes, Wendy was the most the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, but she was 14 going on 15 and I was 16 going on 17 and I thought her too young to date, even though we had a mad crush on each other at the time. She then started dating a fellow apprentice, Kevin Walters and that broke my heart."

I had other girlfriends for three years before at Godfrey Ermin's Memorial School and Northfleet Street Secondary Modern in the UK, and all were older than me. This was true of girls after Wendy, and with Lorraine, my wife. But it was Wendy that touched me most deeply up till Lorraine.

A Faint heart never won a fair lady

"Well as things turned out Kevin Walters came to see me soon afterwards at my work bench and told me that Wendy wanted me only, and that he had had no joy with Wendy after all. She probably did this to spur me into to asking her out, but I could not get over the age difference. Yes I know it was dumb, but I didn't get it. I soon had a motorbike to fix the travel problem and alleviate my heartache and confusion of mind over love.
I didn't see Wendy again till a year later in 1968 on my brand new BSA 650cc spitfire. [that was my girl substitute I guess, though I didn't see it that way at the time]
People in Adelaide may recall the days when Rundle Mall was Rundle Street and you could drive up and down all night to impress the girls?
Well I had just parked my shining new pose machine with all the other boy racers and I could feel someone staring at me."
I looked over and there she was. Wendy was standing directly opposite me on the other side of that narrow Rundle Street. How did that happen?
"I will never forget the feeling engaging her wonderful smile. I could not move. I felt as if I was steeped in a warm bath. We must have stared at each other for 15 minutes and I was about to go over and ask her out and her boyfriend got her his bike and drove off in a hurry."
"Wendy turned smiled and waved at me, and that is the last vision I have of her." I understand that Wendy married that guy whilst young, and was soon divorced.

"That week end I woke up in hospital after a bike accident with half my face scrapped away, and the day I got back on my bike two weeks later a drunk drove out of the Finsbury Hotel car park on Hanson Road, and drove right over the top of me on my bike."

"Talk about a rotten streak of bad luck!"
I spent the next 8 weeks in hospital fighting to keep my right leg, [they eventually got an Old Scot out of retirement as no other surgeon would operate, and I would not consent to having the leg amputated. I then had another 8 months in Rehab. That was the pivotal point of my journey in life as this is where I met Lorraine [nee] Mitchell in 1968 [40 years ago as I write this, who has stayed by me through thick and thin.
Life swept me a new direction, and I never did get to ask Wendy out, feel her caress or even kiss her.
But here's the thing. I have never forgotten Wendy Smith and I still hold an emotional attachment to her.
Lorraine will always be the one for me, but it shows that fate has has hand in who we meet along the way.

 

 

From Success to Failure to Success without really trying.

"All the other guys had gone to Technical High schools and had done the basic electrical theory and practice. They actually all wanted to be a sparky, unlike me who was just following my parents misguided advise. [They had done physics at School whereas I had chosen Chemistry, so the rest of the pack had a flying start]. I had to settle in at the back of the pack and gradually work my way upwards. I took me three years of not really trying to succeed.

"At the end of my first year ETSA training school I got more "A"s for my projects that anyone else. I saw that many of my faster mates had there efforts thrown in the bin, by the instructors and had to start again. To some that was two or three projects in the bin before one was accepted. I shouldn't say this but this made me feel good, because they seemed to be so far ahead, and then suddenly they were back of me. And some of the tools I made as projects are still being used!" That year I developed hand and eye skills that have never left me. I was expert at fitting turning, milling, lathe-work and sheet-metal work. Hand filing, hand scraping surfaces perfectly flat, I could do that.

"In my Third year I got a credit Trade Certificate and won a Commonwealth scholarship to do future studies."

"Then I applied myself. I was most outstanding Apprentice of the year two years running in my fourth and fifth year [1970 and 1971], so I guess I learned that:

To be continued......