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May 2024 May 2024

INTERESTING LIVES

Bob Holman

I guess that my life has been a series of “what ifs”.
I never had a plan but somehow drifted through
life grasping each opportunity as it came. My
problem has always been that I very rarely
considered any pitfalls and I was probably not
bright enough to do so.

Let me begin where it all started. I was born in
Barnstaple at the end of the 2 . World War and grew up in a tough district on the
nd
edge of town. We felt lucky in that mum and dad had been allocated a new
council home and dad after surviving army war service was home and in a
regular job cooking for the army at Fremington Camp. Looking back, the years of
austerity during the late 1940s and 50s never really registered with me. Everyone I
knew was in the same boat with very little money and simple pleasures were
greatly appreciated.
I fluffed my 11 plus exam so went to the local Secondary Modern School down
the road before going on to the Technical College to take my GCE’s. Teachers in
those days were tough but generally fair. We can all look back and think, he
would never get away with that today!
Dorset Property Care It was during these years that I developed an interest in gardening and took over
Allan Slater part of dad’s allotment patch to grow lettuces to sell to Tom Lewis who had a
Based in Briantspuddle greengrocer’s shop in the centre of town. I became a lettuce entrepreneur
 Services selling my lettuces for 4d each (remember that old money?). It became quite a
 Building maintenance business and along with my newspaper round I was doing pretty well at the time.
 General joinery I also loved swimming and would often spend the day at the local Rock Park
 Garden maintenance Swimming Pool or would cycle down to Instow with my older brother Brian and
 Garden landscaping spend the long hot summer days in the sand dunes and the sea. I have always
considered that we were the blessed generation with all the freedom that I think
 Kitchens sadly children do not have today. Life is a risk and I always claim that it has been
 Man and digger hire a minor miracle that I survived all these years!
 Waste carrier licence
It wasn’t until my mid-teens that I was eventually “discovered” by the Barnstaple
Swimming Club coach Harold Vernon who persuaded me to join the club. I
07973 158092 quickly established myself in the town’s water polo team. We travelled all over
Devon playing other clubs. Every Tuesday evening I competed in our home
allan@dorsetpropertycare.co.uk swimming gala ending up playing a water polo game under the lights against
www.dorsetpropertycare.co.uk fierce opposition. It was here that I became ‘Houdini Holman’ where I was bound
hand and foot, chained, tied in a sack and thrown from the top diving board into
the pool which had been set on fire! The ‘elf and safety’ brigade would have a fit
today!

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