"...I liked the George Davis piece, the graffiti is still there. last time I looked as is (I think I told you) "Veneer of the Week" (at Shadbolts), Steady Eddy Stobart is still naming his lorries after women he knew from his days in the Land Army and all is well with the world. I was debating whether you were fair in calling dad eccentric and decided that you were somewhat unusually understated. I wish I could find the photo of him in his Strangler White leotard (Red and White horizontal stripes); maybe one day..."
For some reason I am deeply elated by the idea that this gentle ex- Essex Yeomanry artilleryman, master plasterer, and lover of horse racing shown here:
once earned his living looking something like this.
I sincerely hope that a search of various shoe boxes and other potential repositories turns up the fabled wrestling picture. One day I'll get around to writing about my grandfather and his odd adventures that took him at right angles to a quotidian life (and my maternal grandfather's merchant sailor/country policeman stories too) but until then these images conjured by dad will suffice.
3 comments:
Of course I have joined the rank of blogs hit by badly written spam comments- yippie! Guess the word verificationservice is going on; sorry.
Deb- almost everyone is fascinating in someway to someone; you just have to find their angle.
Did you know Strangler White was the Georgia State wrestling champion in 1941..it never has been properly explained what he did before D-Day!!!
I think this proves that my habit of purloining other peoples' stage names (cf "Elvis Parsley") has a long history in our family, little brother.
What is slightly worrying is that the presence of the Georgian Strangler White, and the fact that Granddad knew about him, indicates a deeper and older love of professional wrestling than the official family story of "Granddad was down on his luck and needed to make quick cash". I'm begining to feel that becoming Strangler White was a long held ambition for Percy Horace George....
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