I just popped over to Duncan’s blog to read why he had made a prat of himself, and after reading, I decided to share my experience.
It was 1987, Christmas. Well a few days before. I had just finished my training to be a welder for the year and was heading home. I was 20, had just won £45 at poker (in 1987 that was a LOT of money) which was a game I had never played. We were supposed to be playing for pennies and two pennies but one of the guys was a hard core and started putting the notes in. And I was duly winning. So we got drunk as well. I headed up the road to the digs I was living in as I was in Gillingham, Kent at the time but home was in Hythe, Kent. I picked some of my bits up to take back with me and made my way to the train station. I was 20, drunk, smoking a cigarette, so naturally when I asked for a half fare, they said … yes.
I staggered up the train to the smoking carriage and took the journey home feeling slightly queasy a couple of times due to the fact that the train was a “chudder-chudder” train that you couldn’t see straight when it was moving. I did try and read my Dick Francis book, but wasn’t sure if it was the world spinning or the train juddering that out paid to that.
Now, the trains back then were ones were you put your arm out and opened the door. These were later deemed dangerous because they could be opened when the train was moving. As the train was pulling into the station, I did what other people had done many times before and were doing further down the train. I opened the door and got off before the train had stopped. Bearing in mind, these others had done it before and were not drunk.
I stacked it.
I landed on my kisser and my backs went sprawling. I didn’t wait to see if the laughter was aimed at me. I got to my feet, picked up my bags and walked off.
A Mixed Bag 