Early in February 1969 I left my job as forklift truck operator at a tobacco warehouse. I had given myself two weeks to find a ship to work my passage to Canada. I had arranged to fly with Air Canada on a fly now-pay later scheme sponsored by my grandfather if I was unsuccessful in…
Author: Ed Medley
Ed Medley has been on a random walk for over 50 years. Many scribbles and snapshots at this site are from his vagabond transits; others are from his decades of international experience in geological and geotechnical engineering, academia, and mineral exploration prospecting.
Of Taxes, Tobacco and “Them There Norwegian Ships”
I was approved by Canadian Immigration to emigrate to Canada in late 1968. But I had to find a way to get to there. I also had a large tax bill to pay. Britain’s tax authority had discovered that I had not paid tax on weekend income working at the BBC TV studios. A very…
Why O Canada?
In 1965 and 1966, while in the 6th Form, I studied North America as the specialty for my “A” level GCE in Geography. I had no choice: our teacher, “Jessie” Whitehead, was passionate about North America, particularly Canada. She had never visited the USA or Canada, and would not until she retired a few years…
Street Traffic: Rag and Bone Men, Grinders and Onion Sellers
We lived on King Edwards Gardens, In Acton. It was a typical West London road, crammed with narrowly separated two storey houses; detached they called them. It was a quiet and decent neighborhood then. It is probably still very nice, but expensive, now. In the 1950’s and early 1960’s a parade of tradesmen, commercial folk,…