It has been my honour to stand up and speak for quite a few people I’ve cared about in Pill.
So, it’s with great sadness that I cannot stand up and speak for my old, old pal John.
If I could, this is what I would be saying.
John was one of five brothers, all very unique personalities with a great sense of shared humour. They were from a great Pill family, their parents John and Ena each characters in their own way, were good, decent people and it would be hard for anyone who knew them not to think of John or Ena without a big smile and so, it’s easy to see how John became the person that he did.
When we were in the infant school, John looked like a little angel, with his big blue eyes and thatch of golden hair. Well, he wasn’t. We sat next to each other and he threw a cap bomb at the slabs around the pot belly stove in the classroom..it exploded with an enormous bang. Miss Harding, the Dragon, jumped up and said “who did that”...quick as a flash, John said “Blackman, Miss”
We stayed friends into our teens, when we became “Mods”, what a state we were, looking back..John in his snap brim trilby and Crombie overcoat and me in my psychedelic cat suit...oh yes we thought we were the knees of the bees. Our favourite venue in the early days of “going to town” was “Uncle Bonnies Chinese Jazz Club” at the Corn Exchange where we would see terrific musicians such as Cream, Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger Trinity, steam Packet and so many more. Naturally, we missed the last bus, so often walked home or occasionally came back three on a scooter. If our mothers only knew....! We moved on to the Rococo and the Dug Out and the Mandrake and John had many pals from his “Town Clubbing” days who we would reminisce about with great fondness over the following years of our life. We even had our own dance moves...which would instantly come to the fore very time we bumped into each other in the village. No fools, no fun.
In the early 70s John played fly half for Gordano Rugby Club, he was his usual hilarious self in the game and invented his own move with Martyn called, rather frivolously “The Dixey Doo Da”. It wasn’t very successful and resulted on one occasion, in Martyn being carried off unconscious, on a stretcher at Weston-super-Mare. It was never adopted as a popular tactic!!
Then of course, there was the famous Salcombe dash...where John found out its alright streaking away from the audience...but a bit of a glower streaking back.
I know John is remembered with great fondness by the old Gordano players not only for his incomparable comic prowess but also for his sporting attitude and love of the great game.
To finish on that front the Dixey Doo Da Duo did have some shared successes, in one season Martyn was the leading try scorer with 26 and two drop goals who tied with John Sharp as leading point scorer with 110 points. Good Pill stock.
I know John loved his job as a docker and I’m not surprised. If there is any other working group of men on earth that have more of a crack than a gang of dockers, I’d like to know where. This suited Johns positive work ethic and the constant need for banter and he can add to his list of honours, the real mark of respect among dockers...a nick name. His was Shirley Temple!
As we all know, that dry dockers humour and ability to get a laugh out of almost any situation endured through the most challenging periods of Johns rich life and brightened some grim and dismal days for folk in Pill.
Yes, Johns rich life. He met Helen, the love of his life...and Stuart...and Karen ...and Merv ....and Valerie....and Ted. Then, along came Jen and Charlie. Nothing by halves. It’s hard to imagine a more magical and productive collision of personalities and emotions than that of John and Helen. Shakespeare could have made a good play out of their wonderful, roller coaster life together characterised really by an exceptional devotion to each other through every crisis they faced, to the very end. That’s love for you.
It’s good on this sad day to remember Mervyn Baker, Helen’s handsome dad, who despite being struck down by a devastating stroke kept up an enormous resistance to any shred of self pity or defeat. He was a truly remarkable man who was lucky enough to meet another truly remarkable man. No, even Shakespeare couldn’t have written it....John and Merv had a brilliant relationship, in which there was no awkwardness or false sentiment, only straight talk, mutual respect and good humour on both sides and marvellous adventures worthy of the famous five. Yes, I really do think John counted the Baker clan plus the Sharp additions as the real treasures of his life. In return he was deeply loved and enjoyed by each and every one of them.

Even with Parkinsons John continued to adapt himself to each day so that he could get the best out of life, eventually using his wheelie machine with his sidekick, Digger, on the footplate, to zoom around the village. He never passed a person without a cheery word or a crack.
My friends visited from Italy, they came over in a battered old Italian camper van and parked it by the turning space in Watchhouse Road. Suddenly, Ena (John) turns up with Digger and quick as a flash we heard “ Mines a ninety nine with a flake please”. Never stumped.
Sadly, just when John and Helen should have been looking forward to happier times, John was diagnosed with cancer. The last leg of Johns remarkable journey was yet another, bloody challenge. He was a brave man, no-one would have expected anything else. Helen generously opened her door to all his friends at a time that was terribly painful for her and the family giving John the chance to do at home what he could no longer go out and do...entertain others.
So many people will miss this much loved and remarkable Pill character but he will live in the conversations of so many people as long as there is breath to laugh.

Cheerio Ena, another old Pill door closed.
See you up the Corn.
Much Love
Lou
xxxx