It’s a strange combination;
Beer, Bombs and a dog called BoyBoy.
Many people are aware of the Blitz that I posted about
earlier but not many people realise that while the German air force was doing
its best to wipe out London, any bombs they had to spare they were dropping on
Coventry. Why Coventry?
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| Coventry - November 14th 1940 |
Coventry is thought of as a Cathedral city, but in war time
it was an important manufacturing city.
Its factories played an important part in supplying military arms for
the war effort. Many of its workforce
lived near the factories they worked at.
So, when “Operation Moonlight Sonata” headed out from Germany and
attacked Coventry with 400 bombers on the night of November 14th
1940, not only did they demolish the factories but most of the nearby homes as
well.
At that time, we as a family had no direct connection with
Coventry. That was to come later.
Meanwhile, bombs may fall, houses may collapse but the
Englishman must have his beer and Dad was doing his bit in that regard. He had been discharged from the army because
of hearing loss, and was working as a drayman for Watney’s Brewery.
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| This shows a "Trumans" cart - The Watneys' cart would have been very similar. |
Lifting barrels of beer and loading them into
pub cellars was hard work and deserving of the “thank you pint” that the
publicans provided. So when dad got home
of an evening he smelt like a brewery both inside and out.
One particular evening, that smell must have attracted and had
some significance to a rather handsome looking purebred Airedale Terrier dog.
http://www.animalplanet.com/breed-selector/dog-breeds/terrier/airedale-terrier.html
No matter what Dad did, the dog followed him home from
work. A trip involved not only
walking but also travelling on a London tram.
Dad, a confirmed dog lover, would
not leave this creature sitting outside our house so it was invited in for
watering and warmth. It was then that he
took a look at the tag hanging from the dog’s collar. I don’t
remember the tag, but apparently it showed evidence of being registered in
Coventry. Could it have travelled from
Coventry?
Was it in London visiting
with its owner from Coventry and got lost?
Anything was possible. There’s
nothing strange about a dog travelling from Coventry to London, a distant of
about 100 miles. I’ve just read about a
travelling cat:
(Just a little aside: Don't you think it's strange that the name of the cat and the dog differs only by one letter??)
If you’re thinking that having the dog tag would lead to its
owner, then think again.
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This was war time.
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No one had phones.
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No email, no internet, no T.V.
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Places with records probably obliterated.
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Owner maybe obliterated.
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Animals were not a high priority.
If this animal was to live then it needed to be cared
for. We cared for him. He cared for us!
Now that he was part of the family he needed a name. I can’t ever remember any formal discussion
in that regard. There had been no name
on the tag. His name more or less
evolved. You know how when you are talking to a nameless male dog you say:
“Here boy, good boy.” And there are
times when you’re desperate for the dog’s attention and so repeat the
name. Hence he became: “BoyBoy”.
BoyBoy fit into our family like Bread
and Cheese or perhaps I should say Adam and Eve (that’s cockney for “Believe”).
In a previous post I’ve diagrammed
the downstairs rental flat that we lived in.
There was an almost identical flat above, where we had once lived. No one lived above us for all the time that I
recall living at that address. When you
think about it that’s very strange! Surely
places to live must have been in short supply.
Houses were being demolished nightly, yet here was a perfectly livable
empty flat.
I have absolutely no evidence at
all of the following statement, but I do remember my Mother vividly, and so
must agree that it was probably true.
The story goes that if the landlord sent anyone to view the flat then
Mum would guide them around whilst telling them what a great and marvellous
place it was to live in. She would
always add that, of course, as a family we’d got used to the rats that prowled
nightly and they hardly bothered us at all.
They weren’t that big, just regular sized. Needless to say that was the last we’d hear
from prospective tenants. But those
non-existent rats were a ready part of Mum’s arsenal.
All the same, we couldn’t let this
wonderful space go to waste. It was
never taken over with furniture or any signs that we used it. The front room was more like an empty
gymnasium. BoyBoy loved it! And so did
the boys! BoyBoy would race around the
room in a circle like a horse at a circus with either LB of LLB on his
back. LS was getting too big for the dog
to carry so she became more or less the Ringmaster.
Owning a dog for us at that time, was
nothing like owning a dog today. We
never took him for walks. He was let out
and sometimes he’d be gone for hours or days. We
didn’t have dog food. There was no
canned or package food for dogs. He ate
whatever we fed him and I can’t imagine that there were many leftovers. But he earned his keep. I always felt secure when he was around. Mum loved him because he provided a special
service for her. Rent on our flat was
due weekly and was paid cash to the “Rent Collector” who came to the door. He took the money and acknowledged doing so
by signing our rent book. Unfortunately, Mum didn’t always have the few
“bob” necessary to complete the transaction when the rent collector came a
calling. That’s where BoyBoy helped her
out. She would tell him to: “Get him!” Upon which order BoyBoy would spring from
the kitchen along the hall to the front door, throw his huge frame against the
door and let out an ungodly bark the like of which would have scared Superman. The rent collector would inevitably decide to
come back another day.
Yes, he certainly earned his keep
in so many ways.
We all loved BoyBoy. But we don’t live forever and neither do
dogs. My first experience with grief was
in a later year when Dad and I took this loved member of our family to the Battersea
Dogs Home.
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| Showing the belching Battersea Power Station behind. |
BoyBoy had “Distemper” and
was due to be euthanized. It was a sad,
sad day for me and all my siblings.
One of us for sure never forgot BoyBoy. Just ask LB about all the future
Airedale Terriers he has shared his life with.
