Where are you from?

Another Thursday-Pete-walk.

In the late Fifties and early Sixties a loose gang of us assembled at weekends in Langdale and later at Keswick to climb and carouse. At other times  Bradford based members frequented pubs and clubs where live jazz reigned - Elvis and the Beetles were rubbish. Pete was a notable member, and in 1960 he and I had a holiday in the Jotunheim in Norway wandering over glaciers and making a good ascent of Galdhopiggen by a non-tourist route.

As to be expected we all eventually went our different ways. Forty years later I had moved to Arnside (2000)  after losing my wife to Motor Neuron Disease. I joined the gym at the very upmarket Holgates static caravan leisure park at Silverdale. I was supposedly training for my forthcoming GR10 walk (the Pyrenees from Atlantic to Mediterranean).

Working on a rowing machine I started talking to a little guy on the next machine:

"Do you do some running?"

"No, but I've done a lot of climbing and walking"

"Where do you come from?'

"West Yorkshire"

"Were you in the Yorkshire Mountaineering Club?"

"Yes, What's your name?"

"Conrad. Conrad Robinson"

"Bloody hell, stop rowing! Put your hand there mate. It's Pete. Pete Mansbridge!"

And so, not recognising each other we had re-met - the conversation was heard by other gym members creating a major talking point for ages afterwards.

Pete and his wife Liz had a static holiday caravan on the site, but shortly after they bought a house in Arnside and Pete and I have climbed twenty eight Munros together, walked the Lancaster canal and had our Thursday walks now running into hundreds I reckon. I also learned from Pete that another member of the original gang was living in Arnside, Pete Hindle and his wife Linda, and Pete H. joins us from time to time on our walks as he did yesterday on a pleasant road walk starting at Docker with snow covered Lakeland, Shap and Howgill fells in the various backgrounds as our route circled.

PLEASE CLICK TO ENLARGE

The two Petes and Docker viaduct - not far from the Grayrigg derailment disaster in 2007

Distant Whinfell Beacon

Zoom to the Howgills. A bright start had turned into a dull day

Me and Pete somewhere in Wales circa 1960. Pete was renowned for his beret, his long super quality Norwegian stockings and immaculately maintained Italian boots, all contrasting with my generally sloppy appearance.

Backwards or forwards?

I receive a depressing monthly periodical produced on a home computer in black and white from the pensioners amateur organisation of my previous employers. It contains articles from erstwhile colleagues from which I deduce they spend their precious retirement time reminiscing about daily trivia thirty years or so ago within the insular family atmosphere of an old fashioned bank branch. These writings seem to indicate the authors long to be back there in what I suppose was a safe environment There is even a regular feature titled “Looking Back”.

The most exciting anecdote I can remember from this wallowing nostalgia was about the Branch Inspection Team arriving from Head Office and going, by mistake, to a rival bank branch nearby, being admitted, and actually starting with their unpopular task, which by tradition starts with the manager handing over all his keys to the chief inspector. But that belies the more mundane nature of these recollections of temps perdu. Normally they only aspire to the drama of somebody with a name like Roger Murgatroyd arriving for duty on a Saturday morning wearing a sports jacket! What have these people been doing since they retired twenty years ago?

My career was with a more dynamic and competitive sales orientated subsidiary of the bank, most of the time being spent out and about canvassing and negotiating with business people in the big wide world.

I do often find myself “looking back”, but only on the things I have done since retirement over eighteen years ago which have been satisfyingly challenging, and given me enormous pleasure. 

Most of the time I am looking forward to the next adventure, and as I sit here my rucksack is packed and ready to depart a week on Monday for my next backpacking trip.