The cheapness of...

One of those on the 'front line' was a young chap who, god forgive me, I cannot remember his name, went home that Christmas with a spring in his step knowing that the worst excesses of Northern Ireland were behind him. I will never forget that he lived in a town that I thought was a figment of my Glaswegian imagination, Auchtermuchty.
He, like most of us those days, would think nothing about thumbing a lift and give no thought to mad axe murderers or pedophiles, people were thoughtful and would decide if picking up a passenger was a wrong move and most of the time it was not.


My friend, after serving 4 months in Northern Ireland, was walking along a big stretch of road on his way to Christmas merryment when a car ran into him and, the spineless bastard, drove off leaving him for dead, he was around my age then, 19 FFS! The driver that killed him was never found. I was one of the coffin bearers at his funeral and it was one of the most painful days of my life!
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At 19 years of age I was a very nieve young man, newly married and had a stint in NI during the 'troubles' under my belt, troubles that I had a bit of resonance with as my mother is Northern Irish and I had many relatives there. I stupidly wrote to one of those relatives and asked If I could come visit when I had a few days off...I was sternly told to keep away!

I never joined the army to fight a dirty war in a country that was supposed to be part of the UK, I joined up after being turned down by the merchant navy (I was 16 at the time) and then seeing a poster for the army, a poster that showed soldiers enjoying a skiing trip in some far flung country that I would not normally go to if I had the chance, the poster just looked enticing!


I turned twenty in December 1971 but became no wiser!


We, me and Beryl, had a blinding Christmas, as you would expect, then I got the call that I was being sent to Munster, in Germany.


Beryl was still working at the GEC as a bank wirerer and saving the pennies for a deposit on our first home.

Once we soldiers got to Munster, and after we unpacked, we went to the NAFFI that very first night and quaffed many beers. One of the things I remember most was, due to the cheapness of cigarettes there, that everyone that smoked lit one up and promptly stuck it into an unused glass of beer, they were so cheap that we could not believe how cheap they were compared to the UK's inflated, and much taxed, prices were. And they [in Germany] allowed you to watch porn on the tv??? I thought I was in heaven!


While the drink, and cigarettes, flow, brains go out of the window!


During our merryment one of the older, married, soldiers laid a flee in my ear."you should bring your wife over here, the army gives cheap housing you know and it is her duty to follow her husband!" The other married men around me agreed and I was sent on a course that was to change our lives.

To be continued...