Just the mile
In a television advertisement of the 1990’s, a roadside-assistance Patrolman is getting a client restarted and on her way. It is a dark, drizzly evening and the massive Orwell Bridge looms in the background. As the client drives off, the Patrolman’s eyes wistfully glaze over and there is no mistaking that he has just helped his estranged partner. A professional job done - not a personal word exchanged.
What is the background to this cameo?
Our hero grew up in the crazy days of The Goon Show. Perhaps the story goes something like this…
Many families relocated from North London. Folk feeling secure in a “lifetime” job with Post Office Telephones now thrust into privatisation and the brave new world of British Telecommunications plc.
They should have been warned by the mouthful of a name. The architect designing their new building must have read the devious or uncertain minds of the Board because the cube forming the upper part of the building faces in a totally different direction from the, equally square, base. Between the two is a circular section that symbolically de-couples the two halves. This contradictory building is located almost as far to the east as one can travel in England. Little did the staff know that their jobs would disappear even further afield.
These are not stupid people. But their Board is persuasive. They have the benefit of the overflowing coffers of the Post Office monopoly from which to offer very attractive staff share schemes and, when the time comes, generous redundancy packages.
So, our hero takes the plunge and moves his family out from the crowded streets of London to a place where the children can swim and sail – a permanent seaside idyll - until the trauma of redundancy. Their comfortable new home has placed them way out of the property ladder if the should wish to move back to London and its plentiful jobs. The east-coast ports offer an insufficient number of jobs that are mainly of a less technological nature. Even when the children were small, Mum always had a part-time job, rare in this part of the world, compared with London. But, the children are a little older now and she has found a full-time job that brings her into contact with a wide range of people. With the help of free training programs she finds that the brain previously exercised keeping her one step ahead of the children is well capable of keeping them all.
However, the trauma of redundancy is too great. The roles, perhaps old-fashioned and definitely deep-rooted, are displaced and the confidence of a clear future for themselves and their children has been replaced with total uncertainty. Eventually, after most of the redundancy money has disappeared, our hero finds a suitably technological job and retrains to become an AA Patrolman. Not, unfortunately, until after he has hit the depths of depression, a descent that has left him a different man from the one that his young wife married.
Perhaps inevitably, they are separated. She has made a new life. The children are gaining independence. He is rebuilding his life but his traditional nature leaves him with fading regrets. He knows that time will heal every wound – to some extent. Once lost in the depths of his depression, he has regained his offbeat sense of humour. He often crosses the Orwell Bridge. More than once in the past he had considered joining those who have ignored the Samaritans Telephone Help Line advertised on the parapet. Strangely, the mile-long bridge has now become a friend and he no longer considers the leap into eternity.
On this occasion, as she drives off, he realises how far he has come. He looks up at the bridge, his new friend, and says… “Tonight, I’ll travel just the mile”.
JUST THE MILE
Chorus
You and I, old friend - know the roads we’ve seen
Tonight, I’ll travel just the mile
Verse 1
He was a… rock-steady boy, not at all against the world
She was the girl next door
He only wanted to hear her laugh
At the crazy things that he used to say
Future plans - all abandoned now
He answers the offer from the bridge
You and I, old friend…
Verse 2
From school to work, telecom-trained
That’s where the prospects lay
Planned to wed and their chance came soon
Moved with the job - a new home too
Raised their children - close by the sea
They grew like the great new bridge
You and I, old friend…
Verse 3
Relocation – no fees to find
The Company gave him a share
No one saw that the risk was there
He would choose the same today
Good times vanished - the job went too
Way beyond the mile-long bridge
You and I, old friend…
Verse 4
Hundreds chase after each new job
There’s nothing to test his mind
All he knew – not a thing to do
It changes a man - in every way
Again the question, across or down
Newspaper puzzle or the bridge
You and I, old friend…
Verse 5
Gone the joy of the crazy boy
He broods while she goes to work
Shame so deep of which men can’t speak
Soon he turns her away
How it hurts him to see her go
Eternity beckons from the bridge
You and I, old friend… Repeat, but music only.
Verse 6, partly spoken
Now, he smiles again, with his head held high
Roadside help suits him well
A routine call brings him to her aid
Silent, he watches her drive away
Rooted there, where he’d faced his fear
He laughs as he looks at the bridge
You and I, old friend… Repeat and finish