Roy Noble - Noble Ways: Lay-Bys in My Life

Noble Ways

Lay-bys In My Life

Noble Ways

Lay-bys In My Life

Roy Noble

Published by Accent Press 2010

ISBN 9781907726248

Copyright Roy Noble 2010

The right of Roy Noble to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers: Accent Press Ltd, The Old School, Upper High St, Bedlinog, Mid Glamorgan, CF46 6RY.

Printed and bound in the UK

Cover design by Red Dot Design

Quotation from The Collier by Vernon Watkins reproduced by kind permission of Mrs Gwen Watkins

DEDICATED TO

Elaine, in love and the certain thought that I could not function without her.
And to Richard, our Number 1 in all ways, who now holds the Noble line.

WITH SPECIAL AND GRATEFUL THANKS TO:

Charlotte Evans for the title, Catrin Collier, author and novelist, Phil Carradice, author, and Sophie Thomas, BBC Wales Producer, who drew the short straw and kindly agreed to read this Noble, or ignoble, effort and made invaluable suggestions and observations along many kinks and corners.

My sincere gratitude also to Eleri Jones, ex-BBC producer, who did sterling work on the editing front and added thanks to Natalie James, word processor and typist, who, incredibly, deciphered my scrawl.

PROLOGUE

SHE CAME STRAIGHT FOR me out of the crowd at the Royal Welsh Show. There was no avoiding her, as she looked me in the eye. She was clearly a Romany, a gypsy; Id met women like her many times selling pegs around the houses.

Can I read your palm for a pound? she asked. Being a rather insecure kind of fellow, I gave her two quid just to make sure.

I see three things, she said. I dont believe you will win anything, like the football pools or the lottery, but youll be fine.

Secondly, I think, in years to come, youll die near a mountain or a river. Now in Wales, youve a fair chance of doing that. The third vision I see, is of you having three careers. She was a wee bit misty as to what the third career was. A hint would have been handy.

Well, Im in my sixties so, unless the government wants us to work for ever, the third career had better raise its head sooner rather than later. I wait with bated breath for a clue from the far horizon.

If the third career is, in any way, as fulfilling as the first two, then Ill have no complaints. For my benefit, the Good Lord has always worked a full week. Hes never been reduced to short time.

Education and broadcasting have been fertile fields for me and some of the more telling experiences are related in this book but as I still work for the BBC, tales continue to unfold and will be shelved for another time, another place, another book. The spine of this publication draws on early life and the ingredients that made this broth of a boy a Nobleman in Wales, if only by name.

Everyone is born with definite qualities, weaknesses, strengths, abilities and ineptitudes. Its life that hones the original product and I firmly believe that each of us is sculpted by two influences, people and places. Our forebears have moulded us and, in turn, as we get older, we become the sculptors, influencing and shaping those who follow.

Never have thoughts that your children or your grandchildren lack respect or never listen to a word you say. Thirty years down the trail, they will be saying and doing things because they saw you do them and say them. You will go on, be reassured.

My early moulding was in Brynaman and my story takes in the people and places that shaped me. The village, the infants and junior school, all left their mark upon me, thankfully never a scar.

The grammar school at Ammanford in my formative years threw me headlong towards College in Cardiff, and then to a map of teaching lay-bys and lifes stopovers.

Aberdare became my home, by lust and love, and Ive been well content in the Heads of the Valleys for over 40 years. I had the better deal on the relationship front, for Elaine is very attractive and must have first met me on a dark or stormy night when she was totally disorientated.

Richard is our only child. I think we would have liked more but it wasnt to be. My wife Elaine is one of three, her mother was one of three and her sister had three, so three was a figure that came to mind for ourselves. Number one in each of those trios was a girl so, psychologically, we must have been expecting a girl. In fact, when Richard was born, I had been sent to another room, because of complications, it was that era, and when they informed me that we had a fine son, my response was, Are you sure its a boy? The reply was succinct, Mr Noble. Ive been in midwifery for thirty years so Im pretty positive about this one hes a boy! When a nurse handed me our brand new Noble it was magical and I can still feel his weight and warmth to this day.

I was an only child, so the Noble re-production number was what prevailed on the conveyor belt in our house. Richard is Number 1 son, and were proud of him.

The move from education to broadcasting was a chasm-covering leap. After all, I had a good job; I was a primary school headmaster. In the end, fate took a hand, and my intellect was brought into question, as will be revealed, an insult turned to incentive.

They say the world can be divided into two kinds of people, those who do and those who get the credit for it. I think the world can be divided into three kinds of people, those who make things happen those who watch things happen and, those who merely ask, Whats happening then?

Ive never been a decisive person. If I was an army general wed still be on some hill debating where the attack should be. I believe though, that fate can help.

It was once suggested that fate is what happens to you and destiny is what you do with what happens to you, but, now and again, you have to put your head above the parapet, so that destiny can see you.

Well, at vital moments of my life, I was pushed by some hidden force, director or angel, so I have been fortunate in my life-support team.

Everyone has the right to be the hero in their own novel, even if others believe it to be only a booklet, or even a pamphlet.

Everyone has a right to make his mark, a sign to show I was here!

None of the experiences, stories or events unfolded here are heroic, but it is a Noble tale, honestly remembered and related.

Each tale has its place and, in the list of communities listed in the book, something happened there that moved it in my mind, to a memory beyond its mere geographical spot in Wales.

If society is a quilt, then I place my little patch before you in a free-range, random design. In my mind, you cannot have the foresight to know where youre going without having the insight of knowing where you are and the hindsight of where youve been and what brought you here.

For the Nobleman in Wales, its a journey Back to the Future.

A MATTER OF PEDIGREE

I WAS ONCE TOLD that if you know where your great-great-grandmother, on your mothers side, was from, then thats your true ancestral patch on the planet.

I dont know if that has a grain of truth in it, probably not, bearing in mind most family backgrounds are not so much trees, but thick shrubberies, or complex bushes. On the other hand, if it is so, then I am from the depths of Carmarthenshire, around Caio, Pumsaint and Crugybar, near the famed Roman goldmines of Dolau Cothi. The ancient sinews of that rural patch puts a pedigree Welsh stamp on my credentials. Beyond that relative certainty, it all gets a bit elastic.