Jimmy Mack....When are you coming back.

Jimmy Hulme an old workmate from England died last week. Jimmy was just one of a multitude of characters that worked for and with my Dad in the 1970's in England. I had the pleasure of working with him for a while in my early teens when I would work weekends and school holidays for my Dad.

Jimmy was always a cheerful fella, quick witted like a lot of northern working class guys back then and with a little larceny in his soul. He was always good to my kid sister and younger brothers whenever he came to our house, teasing them and laughing and joking with them. He didnt have to be nice , he could have just popped by to pick up his paycheck and leave in a hurry for the pub like some of the other guys did, but he would hang around a bit and have a laugh. He was just that nice.

As I was only 13 and Jimmy was over 20 yrs older than me it was really easy for him to convince me that anything he said was true(after all there was a bit of hero worship going on here). He had me believing that the song Jimmy Mack by Martha and the Vandellas was written for and about him, so for the past 35 yrs or so that has been true. So true in fact that when Mum told me about Jimmy's passing the first thing I thought about was the chorus to His song.....Jimmy Mack when are you coming back. You should be able to hear Jimmie,s song by clicking on the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8vvjdArzic&feature=related

There are a couple of other things I remembered about Jimmy too, one of them is how good he was to an old man in a hospital where Dad's company was installing a fire escape. I suppose the "old feller" would slip outside to have a smoke ,even though he was supposed to be bed-bound, and over the period of time that we were working there Jimmy befriended the old guy and shared ciggies with him. 'Course being Jimmy he had to have his little giggles too so he had this poor old war veteran convinced that the words of a particular song were somewhat different than they actually were. The song went ..."Woman take me in your arms , Rock me baby." Jimmy had told his new friend that he was very upset about a song on the radio and the bad language in it. The old boy wanted to know what the problem was and Jimmy told him the previously mentioned line from the song but he changed the RO in rock to F U. Well the old fella wanted proof and so the next time it came on the radio while they were on a smoke break Jimmy took the radio to the old guy and told him to listen, but every time that line came round Jim would sing along inserting his own version and of course thats what the old fella heard. The old man spluttered and gasped in outrage..."I didn't fight in 2 world wars so that people could put stuff like this on the radio, by God I shall write to my member of parliament". He was quite upset and Jimmy of course was peeing his pants laughing. I don't know if Jimmy ever explained things to his hospital friend, maybe he didn't, maybe, even now there sits a letter in the mail room of the Houses of Parliament denouncing the modern generation and their loose morals and the lowering of standards by the BBC to allow such stuff on the radio. The link for that great song is here too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So2cvXkbiI0

As I said before Jimmy had a little larceny in his soul too which was hard to contain when working for my Dad. Dad's work involved going into other people's factories and servicing old equipment or installing new equipment. These factories all seemed to produce consumer type goods: irons, towels, shoes, washing machines, tv's, food mixers, refridgerators, cars etc etc. As you can imagine the temptation to take home a toaster or a food blender for the missus was quite strong and although Jimmy and lots of other of Dad's guys tried valiantly, they sometimes failed in their battle with temptation. We were working in a factory in Stoke that made dinnerware, and I mean NICE dinnerware, 12 and 24 place setting type stuff, just the sort of thing you need when you live in a 2up 2 down house off Huddersfield Road. Dad's work vehicles at that time were little austin marina vans and for some reason there was a space like a locker behind the front seats but under the van floor, probably for tyre tools and a fire extinguisher. Jimmy managed to finish work at this place shortly after the employees of the place had finished their shift, so there was no-one to see him slide a whole dinner set into the van, pack up his tools for the night and drive past the security guard at the gate and go home. Jimmy was nice to everybody and even the security guards became mates of his after chatting with him every morning and waving at him as he left every night. Apparently after 2 weeks of Jimmy working at this place some one noticed the alarming amounts of dinner services that were going missing and the guards at the gate were told they must search everyone. So that evening ,as usual ,Jimmy loaded up his truck after the regular employees had left and started driving out of the factory grounds. As he approached the security gate the uniformed guard stepped out and held up his hand in the universally recognised palm forward HALT position. Jimmy chose on that day to not be of this universe, cos theft charges did not agree with him, so he held up his hand in the universally recognised palm forward side to side byeeeee gesture and drove right on past the guard shack never looking back. The next morning as Jim arrived at the factory gate the guard once again stepped out, this time in front of Jim's van. Jim stopped and the guard walked to the driver's side...." I waved at you to stop last night" Said the guard.
"Get out" said Jim"I thought you were saying goodnight"
"No, I were supposed to search your van. Stuff's been going missing"
" Yer kidding, bloody hell I am sorry mate. Did you get in trouble?"
"Well I didn't get to search you did I?"
"C'mon then" says Jim" search it now mate, I'll help you. Wouldn't want you getting in trouble would we"

And that is why, if you were driving past a certain pottery factory of high repute on a certain morning in 1974 you would see a really nice guy helping a security guard search a work van on its way IN to a factory.
That is also why a few not so middle class families in and around Oldham, Lancs., have some very high class Dinnerware in their 2up 2 down terraced houses.

One of the last clear memories I have of Jimmy is of him and me and my brother Craig driving to a job site and we had to drive past Jimmy's house or maybe his Dad's house. Anyway it was out in the countryside near a town called Todmorden. As we passed this house Jimmy said "See that house, see the field next to it, see the big rock in the field, well thats the Rock Of Ages" We didn't know what he was on about and told him so."Look " he said "Can't you see it?" Sure enough there was a massive boulder in the field and it did have one heck of a split in it. He said "Don't you see that big split in it....its the Rock of Ages , cleft for thee" , and he sang that song, that hymn and we looked again and it was the Rock of Ages ,in his bloody back yard. That was Jimmy he could convince you of anything.

Some of you folks reading this might remember Jimmy a little differently than I do but I think I'll remember Jimmy Hulme laughing and telling jokes and singing Rock of Ages and being somewhere around 35 yrs old.

R.I.P James Hulme

Thanks Craig for keeping us informed and representing our family at Jimmy's funeral.