Stories Of my Life By Pete Saunders

Stories of my life Pete Saunders Part 5

  310 Grinding Paste, You have a tin in the shed

At the time of this event I am about to tell you of I was still with my second wife Vale. (Now don't go saying I have spelt her name wrong, that's another story. I will just tell you she was my Vale, not just any one's Val. I have never been the greatest at spelling so that was my excuse anyway) I suppose it must have been about twenty-two or twenty three years ago from the time of writing. I had back then a friend that I had taught to fly gliders, Steve. Now Steve had a small sports car. (That to is another story.) One day he has asked me to rebuild his engine. I told him that when I had the head off it I might as well grind the valves in at the same time. I told him I had not actually done any valve grinding, but that I knew how to do it from all the reading I had done on mechanics. Latter that afternoon I asked Vale for some money to get some grinding past. This was back in the days when I never used to handle money if I could help it I always found it easier to let the wife handle the money and just have what I needed when I needed it. Now her reply to me had been

"Did you use it all the last time you brought it?" Vale had asked.

"I have never brought any before." I replied

"Yes you did, you brought some when we were living down town." What did I by grinding paste for? I have never grand any valves in my life." Was my reply

"You did the valves on the three wheeler you had." Vale had keep on. I must tell you that by the time we had finished that day we had got in to one hell of a row. I think you will see how bad it got from the last word I said on the subject.

"I am fucking telling you, I have never ground any valves in, in my fucking life. Just give me some fucking money and let me get the fuck out of hear."

Mind you I thought the world of Vale but that day she had really got me wound up.

Well off to the auto shop I go. I could not have been gone more than half an hour. Upon my return I went into my shed to get some tools. Now as I picked up those tools and turned to go back out of the shed I hit the side of the cabinet with the toolbox. I am then bent down picking up all the bits that had came off the shelves. What do you think I pick up as well? I picked up a tin of grinding paste that had been on the shelf all along. I was gob smacked. I then went to put it back on the shelf and there I find lead at the back of the shelf is the stick with the two suckers on that you use to grind the valves. Now as I picked up that stick I was overcome with all the memory's of all the valve grinding that I had ever done in my life. Boy did I remember a lot? I remembered back to the first set of valves that I had ground in when I had been younger. I took that tin in and showed Valve. I now had to get back in her good books so to speak. I think she really enjoyed saying.

"I told you so."

Well I hope the reader can see what I am trying to say. I will add this also. I have just remembered this while writing that last chapter. About two weeks ago we had our local free paper come. Now I don't give a shit about Southmead really, but I always read that paper as there are some nice bits in there about the olden days. I have told you about all the bike riding we had done up those back fields in the day. I also told you that we used to be able to ride from Westbury right up to the Golf links. I have told you of all the Ambleside boys. About Butcher who lived by these fields. Well as I had written about those things, I had remembered being able to ride the whole length of those fields. But reading our local paper the other week I was reminded of the Milk Dairy in the middle of that run. At one time the cows had been kept in the field behind Butchers house. I can remember now how we used to hate crossing that field when they were out. It was not until those cows had gone that we could do the whole run with out stopping. I had forgotten those cow completely. but now I can remember them so clearly. Yes, I bet there must be lots of things that I do not remember. I suppose I need something to jog my memory.