THE START OF MY CAREER, AS A POLICE CADET
Upon leaving school, with little ambition,
No profession to follow from family tradition.
I started at first with a friend, Dad had made
At a place in Nottingham, dyeing and finishing trade.
Gaining results from exams I had sat.
With 5 O'levels and a head too big for my hat,.
I went straight to the manager and asked for a few bob,
To reward these results, or a better job.
He sat at his desk, thought long and hard,
Then said, " Go downstairs lad and pick up your card".
Not Christmas or my birthday I thought, looking back.
When I picked it up, I'd been given the sack.
No hardship, those days, of finding more work,
There was plenty about and no need to shirk.
The money wasn't good, I was only a kid,
But, by living at home, what was a quid?
This time, I wanted to find a position,
With prospects, good pay, a purpose, a mission.
So I landed a job, testing water, from a well.
A lab technician, at Spray & Burgess, Bulwell.
With dye baths, water checks and Technical School,
This gave me nothing and I felt a fool
To continue, when I could do better.
So, to the Notts. Constabulary I wrote a letter.
Saturday morning was the day for the 'tests',
Good knowledge of English, I knew I'd been blessed
With the tools to pass what they could offer.
Big head, once more, I came a cropper.
English, Maths, dictation, all went well,
Then along came Geography, bloody hell!.
Not taught anything at school to do with that,
I felt a little daft, and quite a pratt.
With paper handed in, no answers, quite bare,
Inspector Buckley said, "Now pull up a chair.
Sit down again, you're intelligent, not thick.
Write anything, but make it stick".
Done with conviction and adequate diction,
The answers I gave, were now perfect fiction.
An interview later, with medical, passed.
Outside the office, with others I massed.
To us all, "Well done lads", the Inspector cried,
"Pick up your uniforms and wear 'em wi' pride".
