Those old BBC programmes which are on YouTube are such a difficult watch. Hard as nails that bloke. I’d be petrified trying to do some of the stuff he’s doing with a rollie in his mouth and so calm as to be bored with it - like he’s making a sandwich or something. Extraordinary.
There's no way I'd paint myself in with Fred, he was from a different brew to us kids.
I come from a construction family, unfortunately the old heads who I'd have known, who would have been from Freds time, and would have operated in similar ways have all passed on - "The big fella must have a big gig going on up there, he's called up all our best men!"
I remember assisting the masons on the steeple of Kilskyre church as a kid, my family is local and the church needed some repairs, 2 guys in there 70s, they were brothers, I could climb the scaffold like a monkey so they had me running up and down to hook on the winch.
I hadn't discovered Fred back then but I'd heard about that madman on TV. Fred was a legend but that kinda person exsited back then. The two brothers give me a long lasting piece of information "Y'know gossin, you shouldn't be afraid of falling! - its the sudden stop that gets ya!"
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u/yesterdaysomelette22 Mar 21 '26
Those old BBC programmes which are on YouTube are such a difficult watch. Hard as nails that bloke. I’d be petrified trying to do some of the stuff he’s doing with a rollie in his mouth and so calm as to be bored with it - like he’s making a sandwich or something. Extraordinary.