MEMORY: Sitting in bed playing with a little tin train on a tin track which had a radius of about two feet -- I also remember one or two workmen who were building air raid shelters at the back of our house in Lambeg, near Belfast, coming in for a cup of tea.
HOLIDAY: A Sunday school day trip to Newcastle and the Mountains of Mourne. For years that was my annual holiday.
JOB: Apprentice bricklayer and I loved the job. I would pass houses I had helped to build and it would give me a sense of pride that they would be standing long after I had gone.
PET: A little mongrel called Darkie. He died of a broken heart when I was transferred to England.
HOUSE: When I first came to Burnley I was in digs but it was the custom in those days that the club would buy you a house if you were a first team player and then let you have it for a low rent. It was a semi in Rosewood Avenue.
CAR: A little Austin 7 -- and, unbelievably, it was brand new. I thought it was a Rolls-Royce. FOOTBALL TEAM: During the war there was little organised football, especially among schools, so my first organised team was the nursery team of Glen Toran, in the Irish League, when I was 15 or 16. I signed professionally for Glen Toran at 17 and nine months later I was transferred to Burnley after being spotted by their scouts. They paid £8,000 for me at the age of 18 in 1950.
IMPRESSIONS OF BURNLEY: The manager's car swung into the Market Place at about 7am and I couldn't believe my eyes: cobblestones, and all the rubbish from the Monday market. I thought to myself, what sort of a place have I come to? But I very quickly settled in and looking back I think Burnley was the perfect-size town for a village yokel to come to.
FOOTBALL MATCH FOR BURNLEY: The Saturday after I arrived I played for Burnley reserves against Chesterfield reserves and we won 4-1.
NORTHERN IRELAND CAP: A week before my 20th birthday, when we lost to Scotland in Belfast.
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