The Long Walk to Redemption

By Mike Shaw

Within three short decades this raggedy arsed kid would
metamorphose into the globe-trotting, womanizing Son of a
bitch pictured here! As a successful International business
man traveling the World he would rub shoulders with Arab
Sheiks, Millionaires, High Ranking British Politicians, Arms
dealers and a sinister Mafi a type God Father fi gure! When
he wasnt chasing the one big deal that would make him rich,
he headed up his own Rock Band and played with his toys,
he would drive fast cars and fl y his own Airplanes! Driven
by his lust for sexual gratifi cation he would pursue many women most of whom he would
use, emotionally abuse then leave them in tears! This was a man of whom it was said,
had totally lost The Meaning of Life and he was headed straight to The Gates of Hell!
However he eventually saw the error of his ways and for the past two decades he has
been desperately searching for The Key to his Redemption! But is it all too little too
late to save his worthless ass?
This is a classic From Rags to Riches and back to Rags several times kind of story!
However there is a bizarre twist in the tail of this fascinating story!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483615431

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

The Long Walk to Redemption

When and where did this journey start, and where

Will it end That’s the million dollar question?

T HIS IS THE true story of a raggedy arsed kid born on the wrong side of the tracks, literately, but who rose from poverty to become a wheeler dealer business man who traveled the world in search of THE BIG ONE. He spent three decades in a relentless search of the one big deal of a lifetime that would finally make him rich. However, this is definitely not your typical Rags to Riches story! This is more a rags to riches and back to rags again, several times over story! However the ending has yet to be written!

Michael was born in England in 1942 the son of a Bricklayer in the middle of the Second World War. His dad Jimmy was raised in a strong Catholic family. His Mother Dora was raised in a Protestant / Church of England family. His home town Altrincham is a small market town in the North West of England close to the City of Manchester. In those bygone war torn days Manchester was an industrial city that produced large amounts of munitions for the British armed forces during The Second World War. This meant that throughout the war that the city was a key target for the Luftwaffe and its bombs on a nightly basis.

The target for the German bombs was a huge industrial area called Trafford Park half way between Manchester and the Shaw home town Altrincham. On a daily basis huge amounts of munitions were transported through the rail terminal and onwards to the South Coast before being shipped across The English Channel to support the English Army fight the battle raging in Europe. As a consequence the might of Hitler’s Luftwaffe on a nightly basis dropped tons of Bombs on Altrincham in an attempt to destroy the busy rail terminal.

The determination of the Luftwaffe to destroy the local freight yard posed a huge threat to the Shaw families’ survival of the war because the terminal lay within two hundred yards of the Shaw household. Fortunately Michael and his family survived the war.

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It was possible that any night due to a stray bomb the Shaw family would merely become collateral damage in today’s terminology!

Had this nightmarish scenario actually come to pass it would have been a tragic ending for the Shaw’s, apart from it being lights out for the Shaw family it would not have been the first such tragedy. On one such nightly air raid a bomb missed its intended target by a mere seventy yards from the Shaw family home. On that fateful night The Big House on the corner took a direct hit and was completely destroyed, the bomb also killed eleven innocent people which sadly included an entire family of five who had decided to take shelter in the cellar of their house and not in the air raid shelter just yards away. This was World War 2! These were real bombs, that were killing the Shaw’s real neighbors!

This was a bloody war, being waged literately on the Shaw family’s doorstep. This was a real, terrifying war, unlike the images of the wars in Iraqi or Afghanistan that we witness on our television screens these days on the nightly news. The images we see today are surreal, it’s just like watching a movie, and we are not in any danger! Michael and his family faced the possibility of becoming innocent victims of collateral damage on a nightly basis!

Michael’s only recollection of the war was that on virtually a nightly basis he would be plucked from his bed by Jimmy, dumped in his pram and pushed at high speed to the local air raid shelter some two hundred yards away. Because of the mandatory black outs it was always pitch black, not a glimmer of light to be seen, for all Michael knew it could have been just a re-occurring nightmare?

It was only by luck that the house and the family survived intact. However one can only imagine what a terrifying ordeal it must have been for Jimmy and the rest of the family on a nightly basis. The air raid shelters although they were well constructed they were not built to withstand a direct hit. So any night could be the last for the Shaw family? They never really knew!

Thankfully VE-DAY finally arrived, the dark clouds of war lifted and life for the Shaw family began to get back to normality even so normal was no bargain! However as tough as it was living in virtual poverty for the Shaw family, it was way better than what went before! Jimmy and Dora could now focus on fighting their own personal war against poverty. This was a battle for survival that would last much longer than the war they had just survived. Was there ever to be a VP-DAY for young Michael? Only time would tell.

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CHAPTER TWO

Born into Poverty, Michael’s humble beginnings!

T HE SON OF a bricklayer, Michael was born into a working class family at the height of the The Second World War, obviously and fortunately for Michael along with his family he survived the war despite Adolf Hitler’s best efforts! Michael was born at home in the early hours of Tuesday May 19 TH 1942.

Its mid May 1942 bombs are falling on the greater Manchester area in the North West of England. Hitler was using the full might of the German Luftwaffe additionally he was utilizing his new secret weapons, the V1 and the V2 rockets in a concerted effort to break the will of the English people. Little did The Fuhrer know that Dora Shaw was preparing to launch her own secret weapon on the world!

In what turned out to be a strikingly accurate prediction of the general pattern of his life, Michael James Shaw was already 2 weeks late and vastly over weight! Eventually the World would be informed that Dora had given birth in the early hours of May 19 1942. The dye was cast and the miserable world of the Shaw family would never be the same again. So why was this, such a milestone event in the World Calendar? Well frankly it was a total none event as far as the World in general was concerned, except for Michael of course, he was destined to Rock the World!.

After surviving another two years of being tossed in and out of air raid shelters attached to Dora’s ample bosom. Michael was eventually surgically removed from Dora’s breast long enough to be Christened in a Methodist Church. In the fullness of time aided and abetted by his villainous Alter Ego Mike James he became a devout womanizer with a predilection for Big bosomed ladies a preference that has persisted for most of his adult life. Of course Michael blames Dora for this problem!

As fate would dictate this son of a Brick layer was born and then raised for most of his early childhood on the wrong side of the tracks literally and metaphorically! Throughout his early childhood Michael was brought up in a home environment where on a daily basis his Mum and Dad struggled to eke out a living. For Jimmy and Dora it must have seemed like every day was spent trying to overcome scarcity, trying to stay above the poverty line, living hand to mouth for many years. Even though times were tough the family managed to survive but it always seemed to be that the family was within a hair’s breadth of descending into poverty.

What did Poverty look like to Michael? The following are Michael’s recollections of poverty as he remembers it. From his perspective poverty was no big deal! After all it was all he had known from birth. Michael’s mum and dad for years had faced tough challenges on a continuing basis however for Michael in his early years as a young boy growing up that was the norm. He just got on with it; this is my life, this is how life is big deal! Even though he was deprived of many materialistic possessions he wasn’t unhappy, he was ignorant! He just didn’t know any better.

Michael was born at home at 21 Thomas Street. This area of Altrincham although not officially designated as a slum as far the people that lived there were concerned they would readily describe it as such. Thomas Street was not attractive to say the least it consisted of two rows of old Victorian terraced houses facing each other across a cobbled street that measured just about 50 feet across from window to window.

Down each side of the street there was a series of Victorian Gas lamps. For most of the time the street resembled a slum, however during the winter when the snow fell and the old Lamp Lighter had finished his rounds the flickering flames of the old gas lamps would transform the ugliness of the street into a beautiful Victorian Christmas card scene straight out of Oliver Twist.

The houses were small two up two down terraced houses that were built in the Victorian era. Since being built the only upgrade was that they had been modified and gas was now the source of energy, it provided lighting and it also provided fuel for the kitchen stove. However there was no hot water and no heating apart from a coal fire place in the kitchen likewise the two bedrooms had fire places. There was no bathroom and the dilapidated lavatory was situated outside in the back yard.

Due to the miserable English climate and the fact that there was never enough money available to buy coal to light fires other than in the kitchen, the lack of heating made life miserable particularly in the bitterly cold and damp winters. For Michael however luck was on his side because he shared a bed with his dad, so at least he had access to a constant source of heat. Because there was only enough space for one bed in the back bedroom circumstance demanded that he slept with Jimmy. So on the frigid winter nights he got to spend the nights watching his breath evaporate, while ignoring the thick layer of ice that formed on the inside of the bedroom window. Michael would just cuddle up to his dad. Jimmy was always as warm as toast!

I guess in today’s world Michael sleeping in the same bed with his father until the age of eight or nine years of age and likewise Jennifer sleeping in the same bed with Dora could be considered a bit weird however a tour of 21 Thomas Street would explain everything.

As an aside The fact that he shared the bedroom with Jimmy from a very young age caused some confusion for young Michael for many years! As you can imagine unfortunately on occasion he saw Jimmy naked! It wasn’t until quite a few years later that he realized Jimmy had not been born with two and half legs! The image of this phenomenon could have permanently blighted Michael’s self-esteem and as a consequence quite possibly ruined his sex life! However as you will find out Michael managed to overcome any possible damaging effects of this trauma to lead a very active sex life!

However a couple of decades later it occurred to the lecherous Mike James the ever present voyeur that compared to Jimmy’s generous endowment, genetics had been somewhat unkind to Michael, but what really pissed him off was that by proxy Michael’s dodgy genetics had screwed him too! By endowing him with only Jimmy’s often debilitating bad back and not the extra half a leg! The painful re-occurrence of his bad back on occasion would definitely inhibit Michael from participating in his favorite pastime. Sex! (Sorry I digressed)

CHAPTER THREE

A Tour of the Shaw Household

D UE TO THE fact that there was no other source of heating, the winters of Michael’s formative years were spent trying to get warm either in the kitchen or in bed. Enjoying the luxury of a warm kitchen always depended on whether or not there was enough money left over after the rent and food had been paid for. Money to feed the gas meter or to pay for coal to light the fire in the kitchen was never guaranteed. In the absence of coal during the winter Michael and his sister Jennifer would be dispatched to search for fuel for the fire, this might be bits of wood or any other flammable material they could burn.

The only source of heat in the house was the open fire place, in the kitchen, because of that the kitchen also doubled as the dining room, bath room and laundry room. Due to the notorious Manchester rainy weather often on laundry day Dora could not hang the clothes out in the back yard, so with nowhere else to hang the wet laundry she would pull down the huge drying rack that hung from the ceiling in the kitchen. This was a large wooden contraption that stretched from wall to wall and there the washing would hang until it eventually dried.

Michael recalls the laundry drying rack was positioned directly above the kitchen table. On rainy days the rack would be festooned with all sorts wet of clothing, bed sheets along with the family’s underwear. Typically Jimmy’s under pants, his long John’s and Dora’s bloomers along with all the other wet items would drip water onto the table. This scenario would occur whenever Dora couldn’t be bothered to put the clothes through the mangle enough times to get most of the water out, or it was raining outside and she chose not to run the gauntlet of getting wet and having the clothes be even wetter than when she took them out of the wash tub.

In the meantime when Michael and Jennifer got home from school and sat down to eat their tea there was always a fight between the two to grab a chair that was not directly under wettest clothing. Even if Dora had put the laundry through the old wooden mangle out in the yard before she hung it on the rack, water would still drip onto the kid’s heads or on to their hot dinner.

However Michael loved his grub and he was prepared to fight tooth and nail for a dry area at the old brown table just to maintain the integrity of his favorite nosh! Occasionally things would get worse for Michael when he lost the fight with his sister for a drip free place at the kitchen table particularly when the dripping water would land on his Heinz Baked Beans on toast. This was one of his favorite dinners and whenever Dora served up his favorite he would yell out in delight "Yum, Yum Pigs Bum! On those occasions the only downer would be the cold water that would drip off Jimmy’s Long Johns or Dora’s Bloomers directly onto his plate! It did nothing to enhance his favorite dinner!

When it came to feeding the family Dora always did her best. Some days the family got lucky when on occasion The Rich folks Mr. and Mrs. Pierpoint for whom Dora cleaned house, would give Dora the leftovers from their dinner parties.

When things were good at home Michael would get to eat his favorite, Rabbit pie and chips. Mind you for years Dora convinced him it was chicken, so he believed it was chicken he was eating! It wasn’t until much later when on one occasion Michael spotted a fury rabbit hanging dead in the pantry! It was only then that Dora fessed up that they had been eating Rabbit for years because she couldn’t afford to buy chicken!

When times were bad and money was scarce, and Michael and Jennifer were lucky enough find bread in the house he recalls how he used to make himself Sugar Butties for his meals. These consisted of thick slices of bread spread with axel grease like Margarine with sugar sprinkled on top! Hey there was no Jam but it was sufficient to satisfy Michael’s hunger. Toast was also a great stand by, assuming you didn’t burn it to a cinder while toasting it front of the open kitchen fire. If Dora was feeling generous she would give them a sliver of "her Best Butter to spread on their toast, the kids were in ecstasy! Mind you if they nicked her Butter when she was not around and she found out, woe betide you," you would face very painful consequences.

The cobblestone back yard had an old lean-to wooden structure that housed the Mangle. A little further down the yard was the dilapidated old toilet. On rainy or snowy days in the winter running the ten yards down the yard was a challenge, one would run the gauntlet of getting soaking wet, or going arse over tit on the ice or snow. On the flip side during the occasional hot summer when all the windows and the doors were wide open Jennifer and Michael would be giggling hysterically at the sound of Jimmy’s booming farts emanating from the Lav! Ah the good old days, what precious memories!

On wet days which were plentiful, the rain sodden streets would raise a different set of challenges for Michael due to the fact that his worn out old shoes and socks had holes in the soles, he would complain to Dora that he had wet feet and needed both new socks and new shoes! Dora’s typical response would be somewhat un-sympathetic along the lines of Stop whining you ungrateful little bugger! Do you think I’m made of bloody money? Do you want to eat or have dry feet? At this point if Jimmy was around his fatherly instincts would kick in and he would try to fix Michael’s problem. He would take his Fags (cigarettes) from the fag packet and put them into his Dimp box. (This was a little tin box in which he saved but end’s until he had enough to roll his own fags). He would then fold the cardboard packet and shove them into the soles of Michael’s beaten up old shoes. Viola this would keep the rain water at bay for an hour or so and stop Michael’s whining, at least until it rained again.

The house also had a front parlor, as best as Michael can recall in his younger days this room did not contain any furniture, it just had worn old brown linoleum on the floor and Dora’s bicycle leaning against the wall.

As the War became just a bad memory and England started to rebuild the thousands of bombed out buildings Jimmy was able to find plenty of work and things started to improve. Michael recalls second hand furniture started to appear in the Parlor and eventually a small rug. However under the threat of death from Dora the kids were never allowed in there, this was reserved for the occasional visitors. The only exception to the rule was on a Friday night when either the Milk man, the bread man, the rent collector or the insurance man came knocking at the front door in search of payment for whichever goods or services they had rendered. Both Jennifer and Michael were then dispatched to the parlor, they had been trained to stay low and peep from behind the curtains to identify which of those robbing Bastards Dora could afford to pay this week!

So there you have it, a sneak peak at poverty in England during and after The War, at least as it appeared to Michael and his family. By the end of 1945 the clouds of war had lifted, and Michael’s world would now begin to resemble normality. As miserable as his normal life would be for the next few years, this was indeed a welcome change. At least there were no more bombs falling!

Once the war ended Michael began what would pass as his education. On a daily basis Michael accompanied by his big sister Jennifer, come rain sleet or snow regardless of the holes in his shoes would trudge the mile and a half walk to Stamford Park Primary school. They would follow the rail tracks passed the bombed out house at the corner of the street, an ugly daily reminder if one were needed of the awful, terrifying and dangerous nights that had only recently past. Their route to school would also take them past the local gas works and the Knackers Yard" (the Abattoir) where the smell of coal gas and slaughtered animals would constantly linger.

The rail tracks in question formed a 90 degree angle which placed the Shaw family home between the Chester to Manchester main line and a spur that ran to the Gas Works i.e. The Knackers yard! It was this spur from the main rail track which unbeknown to Michael would become a pointer to the life path that young Michael would unwittingly follow in his later years.

After a few years of walking to school or walking into the town center, Michael grew tired of it. He was either freezing cold, wet through, windblown or a combination all three elements. By this time some of his more affluent school mates were ridding nice shinny bikes to school. In a misguided fit of bravery he decided to ask Dora if she would buy him a bike. After all she had one!

As you can imagine often times there was no money in the Shaw household to buy food let alone frivolous things like new clothes or a bike for Michael. When he posed the question to Dora, and after she had finished educating Michael on the dour monetary situation in the Shaw household, she advised him to make his own bloody bike!

Michael, a determined little bugger was not to be deterred, and as directed by Dora set about making his first bike himself from spare parts found at the local rubbish dump. Unfortunately he could not find all the parts, for example his trusty steed did not have the luxury of brakes, tires or even a saddle, just the pointed steel rod which protruded ominously from the frame on which a saddle should be situated! On many occasions, he would encounter some challenging problems particularly when ridding his home made bike over Moss Lane Bridge, this is a really steep rail bridge that that goes over the main rail line, to this day the spur line leading to the old gas works still exists!

Many times when riding his trusty self-made steed Michael would face having to risk life, limb and or castration due to the fact that his route home demanded he would have to cross the rail line. He needed to make a risky left turn to reach the family home, in doing so he would find himself faced with a potentially painful decision to make. The rail track went straight on, but Michael needed to execute a left turn. Due to the law of gravity by the time he reached the bottom of the hill he was now at Mack 1 He would be coming full tilt down Moss Lane Bridge but with no brakes! That meant the dreaded left turn was going to have to be made at high speed!

This risky maneuver would be typical of Michael’s future life challenges, many times he wanted to do the right thing however as you will discover often times he did not quite pull it off! In this case his challenge would be turning the corner to go home. As was the case on many occasions he would find his trusty iron steed had the tireless wheels securely locked in the rail tracks that led directly to the Gas Works, and worse still to The Knackers yard! With sparks flying from the steel rims due to the friction against the steel rail tracks, his options were not to plentiful, should he fight to extricate himself from the tracks and risk skinned knees and elbows or worse. Or try to maintain his balance and wait until the momentum generated by descending the steep rail bridge had run its course?

Alternatively, and only as a last resort if he was late for his tea and fearful of Dora’s rage he would attempt the dreaded high speed cock off! This was in deed a dangerous maneuver fraught with risk! It required a dismount at speed where one attempts to throw one leg over to the other side of the out of control bike, and then "step off the bike! The penalty for failure to execute this maneuver successfully was to endure un-imaginable pain!

WARNING! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! This is potentially a life changing maneuver on any bike let alone a homemade bike with no brakes and only a steel rod where the saddle should be! Any failure to complete this procedure successfully could lead to impotence in males and the premature loss of virginity in females! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

However such was his fear of Dora’s temper should he be late for his tea, Michael had attempted this maneuver on many occasions only to fail miserably. This maneuver had in the past lead to many a painful conclusion for Michael. However on the bright side, later in life it did give him the ability to reach some otherwise unattainable high notes during his career as lead singer in his Rock Band, The Cyclones! As it turned out this was indeed an eerie omen of what life would hold in store for him! Trying to do the right thing quite often proved to be a huge challenge! Unbeknown to Michael, at an early age an evil subversive power would challenge him then and throughout his adult life! Often times many a risk laden challenge would have painful consequences due to his habit of continuously making bad decisions! Unfortunately this would often occur even when he truly believed he had made the correct decisions, The Culprit? Mike James I.e. Michael’s troublesome Alter Ego who more often than not would be running interference always trying to derail Michael’s best endeavors to do The right thing! (To be continued!)

CHAPTER FOUR

An Inconvenient Erection!

M ICHAEL RECALLS THAT due to the lack of a proper bathroom there was never any privacy for him particularly on bath night! The house at 21 Thomas Street with no running hot water relied on gas to power the kitchen stove which in turn would heat umpteen pans of water to fill the old tin bath with hot water. This was a laborious chore but necessary to enable the family to bathe, as there was no plumbed in bath in the house. The ritual Bath night was usually once week on a Friday night they would haul a six foot long steel bath from the back yard into the kitchen and take turns in having a bath. As the youngest member of the family and a dirty little bugger to boot Michael was always first in the bath, while being scrubbed clean by Dora he would listen to his favorite radio program Dick Barton Special Agent then he would be packed off to bed by seven o’clock.

Taking a bath in the old tin bath in front of a roaring fire in the kitchen was never as bad as Michael dreaded it would be. As Dora used to say he was always happiest when he was up to his arse in muck and bullets! It never occurred to him that some level of privacy might be in order. Eventually young Michael learned as he always did the hard way (If you will excuse the pun!) Privacy is good!

Case in point, he recalls one particular bath night when he had to endure a very embarrassing occurrence. He was around seven or eight years of age at the time but was already approaching puberty! On this unforgettable Friday night he was to fall a victim of the Shaw family household’s total lack of privacy! As usual on most bath nights he would sit on the stairs that led up to the bedrooms wearing just his underpants. The dark carpet less staircase was situated between the kitchen and the parlor where Michael would sit playing with one of his toys while waiting for enough water to be boiled in the various pots and pans perched on the gas stove. Eventually there would be sufficient water for there to be a couple of inches of warm soapy water in the bottom of the big tin bath.

On this particular night as he sat there Michael was totally engrossed playing with his toys and completely oblivious to the fact that just out of his line of vision his sister Jennifer was sat on the old kitchen couch with her boyfriend John Skelhorn. Eventually he was summoned by Dora to get in the bath. It was fast approaching six thirty and if he wanted to listen to his favorite Dick Barton Special Agent, then "he needed to get his grubby arse in the bloody bath NOW"! (As you will come to learn, Dora ruled the Shaw household with an iron fist!) Michael lived in fear of Dora’s temper for many of his early childhood years no one messed with Dora, not even Jimmy, Michael’s dad.

This particular night happened to be a warm summers night and as usual on such a night without the luxury of a bath robe Michael would sit stark naked on the stairs while waiting to be summoned for his bath. Much to his intrigue and enjoyment on this particular night while waiting for Dora’s dulcet tones to summon him to get in the bath he became aware that his Willy was stuck straight up! Wow! He had found a new toy to play with! Apparently this phenomenal bodily function was called an Erection! Who knew? Certainly not Michael! However even at this tender age it was a forgone conclusion that this was now destined to become a regular occurrence. Predictably this was to become the source of way to much pleasure in Michael’s adulthood!

As he contemplated making a dash for privacy in the huge metal bath having been totally preoccupied by his rampant Willy he was completely unaware that Jennifer was sat on the old sofa with her boyfriend John Skelhorn while waiting for her turn in the bath! Until that was he heard Jennifer join in Dora’s demands for him to get in the bath. Come on our Michael, if you want to listen to Dick Barton Special Agent You’d better get your grubby little arse in the bath NOW! Yea, come on our Michael! Hurry up, I’m next and I want to go to the pictures"! It was Jennifer!

Michael was frozen stiff with fear and embarrassment! What was he to do? None the less, despite his fear of impending embarrassment and humiliation he was well impressed by his rampant willy, Hmm, he wondered, apart from me having a pee with it what else it does do. He sat rooted on the stairs for several more seconds in a state of panic not knowing what to do with the untimely erection! In panic mode, and in utter desperation he tried squeezing it as tight as he could, he even resorted to slapping it several times, but of course that only made matters worse! The harder he slapped the offending member the harder it got!

Instead of wilting his rampant Willy just rose to the challenge in a spectacular fashion! What was he to do? As it turned out spending time trying to figure out how to get rid of a huge erection was never going to be a pressing priority in Michael’s adult life! In fact on this night he recalls a strange voice in his ear which he had never heard before. He glanced around to see who was talking to him in the midst of this trauma, but no one was there? In that very moment although he didn’t have a clue who was talking to him, he had just experienced his first encounter with his Bad Ass Alter Ego Mike James. It was him that was uttering congratulations in his ear.

Way to go young Michael! Keep it up! Don’t waste it, don’t waste it" cried the mysterious voice! Whatever that meant? Although Michael did not realize it at the time this was a historical milestone in his life, he had just become acquainted with his Alter Ego, Mike James for the very first time! However he had no clue as to the origins of, or the effect this mysterious voice would have on the rest of his life!

However by now Dora was getting very angry at Michael’s none appearance, unlike Michael she cherished and coveted the bath half full of hot water, which was by now getting colder by the minute. Get your arse in this bath right NOW! She bellowed! At this moment his fear of Dora’s wrath far outweighed any momentary bout of embarrassment that might befall him on his way to the sanctuary of the warm bath! With no protection for his bare arse and with his still rampant un-protected willy stuck straight out he could not even imagine the pain of any punishment he might have to endure from Dora if he dared to wait any longer! At this point, fearing Dora’s retribution he left the privacy of his seat on the bottom of the stairs and made a dash for the relative privacy of the steel bath and the lovely warm soapy water, a distance of about eight feet. It was at that precise moment, just when he thought things couldn’t get worse that he spotted Jennifer and her boyfriend on the couch smirking!

In the same instant the eagle eyed Dora spotted the rampant member, to make matters worse she was pointing at it and laughing, at the same time she was questioning young Michael, eh what’s up with your Willy our Michael? He vividly recalls to this day how he felt the heat of his embarrassment surge through his entire body! He thought about diving under the kitchen table as by now both Jennifer and her bow were tittering behind their hands. Michael’s skinny body was by now the bright pink, the same color as his Willy!

Fortunately at this point Jennifer’s boyfriend John Skelhorn came to Michael’s rescue when in a bold bid to save any additional embarrassment for Michael he remarked Oh mine goes like that when I need a pee! Michael will often remark that Jennifer should have married John right then and there. In that instant John became Michael’s boyhood hero!

Later that night while Michael was lying in bed he reflected on the embarrassing events of this particular bath night, however at such a tender age he had no clue as to just how much pleasure his newly discovered bodily attachment would bring into his life. This was indeed a quite significant milestone in his pubescent development!

For a period of time on the regular Friday bath nights Michael would live in fear at the prospect and the specter of the reoccurring bath night erection! Not so Mike James Oh no, he was constantly urging Michael to induce a stiffy whenever and wherever. The free loading pervert was looking forward in anticipation of becoming a depraved voyeur / cheerleader to the many sexual exploits Michael and his rampant erections were to enjoy during the coming years! The die was cast!

CHAPTER FIVE

Meet Michael’s mum Dora and his dad Jimmy Shaw

M ICHAEL NEVER SAW his parents dressed like this, they look much younger than he can ever recall seeing them? He assumes that these images must date from the mid 1930’s prior to The Second World War. He never talked to either Jimmy or Dora about how things used to be. He assumes that since these photographs were taken Jimmy and Dora must have fallen on hard times, because judging by the way they were dressed at some point they had obviously been doing much better than when he was born! His guess is that Jimmy was probably doing well as a bricklayer as the British economy had recovered from the Great Depression and there was plenty of work for both Jimmy and Dora. However the start of the war had plunged Britain back into a depression and with Hitler Bombing the shit out of England every night building houses came to a complete halt, not much pint in building houses! Hitler would just blow them to kingdom come!

As far as Dora was concerned, as a highly skilled confectioner people were just not buying fancy cakes, not to many big fancy wedding cakes being ordered and not too much in the way of birthday celebrations either. In order to just survive Dora was reduced to cleaning "posh people’s house! As a consequence the family was dragged down into a poverty level existence which Michael was to become very familiar with!

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Dora Shaw was a significant influence on Michael’s life, although a hardworking, loving and protective mum, Dora was a woman who did not tolerate any form of insubordination from any one! Jimmy Shaw, Mike’s dad and big sister Jennifer Mary Shaw included.

Dora ran the two up two down, toilet down the yard terraced house with a rod of iron not to mention a she possessed a fearsome left and right cross to the ears of anyone who would unwittingly goad her into a momentary loss of temper! Dora was a devout disciple of corporal punishment. You did not mess with Dora!!

Michael lived his early life with a healthy respect for Dora’s Left then right cross combination to his head as we will witness when on many occasions when he was not quick enough to take the appropriate evasive action. As a consequence he spent many hours trying to figure out why his left ear was plagued by a simultaneous ringing and throbbing sensation. To this day Michael still believes he carries the scars of Dora’s Roth! To this day he is partially deaf in one ear!

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Michael’s dad, Jimmy Shaw also lived in trepidation of Dora’s knife edged tongue and the constant threat of retribution. His fear being born from Dora’s ability to carry a grudge for years! However Jimmy was a happy go lucky guy whose main fun in life was to have a bet on The Horses followed by a hefty boozing session at The Bridge Inn whether he won or lost. Jimmy was very popular with the patrons