Last February I launched this Blog without really knowing anything about blogging or where I was going with it. But today I reached a little milestone and so far I have had over five thousand visits to the site. I’m delighted with it. I have received some very positive feedback from many of you and I appreciate every comment, favourable or otherwise. At least some of you get a kick out of the nonsense that I write every week.
With that in mind I’ll plough on for another bit and see where that takes us. I don’t always know where I’m going and something usually pops into my head to drive me on. Like now, I just heard Nat King Cole singing on the radio and every time I hear him I am reminded of a guy called George Doherty. He loved to sing his songs and he had the voice to match.
George was a guy who worked with my father for years. My father was a small time building contractor and the two lads worked side by side for donkeys’ years. George was more than a work colleague he was also a family friend and was godfather to one of my sisters.
He worked previously in Irish Steel until he got a bit of metal in his eye and lost the sight in it and then he went to work with my father. He was an avid golfer and was very involved in the original golf club in Cobh and was involved in the development of the new course as well. In fact it was there that he died, while presumably out checking on the progress of the new club.
It was appropriate that he should have died in the place that he loved so much although he left us far too soon. He regularly comes into my mind.
I remember working on a roof with him back in the seventies. I used to give a hand during the school holidays. He was at one end of the roof and I was at the other. At some point during the morning I asked George what time it was. He stood up straight on the roof top and looked out over the harbour.
Then he licked his finger and stuck it up in the air to check the wind direction. Then he took a deep breath and filled his lungs with fresh air before he put his hand to his forehead to shield his eye from the sun and he looked up to the sky and examined the cloud movement. This went on for a bit and then he announced that it was a quarter to ten.
I thought this was very strange so later in the day I again asked him for the time. Again he went through the same ritual. Standing up, looking out over the harbour, licking the finger, taking a deep breath and putting his hand to the forehead and looking up to the sky to study the cloud movement. Four o’clock he said.
This went on for a few days and it was getting the better of me. I started to wear a watch to work with me and whenever I asked him the time he went through his ridiculous ritual and he was always spot on. Eventually I found myself on the side of the roof that George was working on and I discovered that if I stood in a certain position I could just about make out the clock on the Cathedral.
So he didn’t have super powers as it turned out but he was a super character and he is still missed.