From then until now by Alan Wood

Born in 1928 makes me one of the two oldest PRATS, Tom Walder being the other although he only beats me by some 5 weeks. (1928 was a good year).
I came south in late 1939 to Lewes where I spent the war years at school, same school as Tom, although we were not aware of each other at the time.
I joined the POED in late 1944 as a Y-in-T, at Seaford before moving to Lewes on various duties. In 1946/47, on Internal Construction, the other youth on the team under a Mr Frank Hulse was no other than Tom.
March 20th 1947 Tom and I travelled to Maidstone to start our 2 years National Service and two years later, on April 1st 1949 I was demobbed.
Our friendship continued after demob (meeting up on Triumph motorbikes). And in 1950 Tom honoured me by being Best Man at my wedding.
After establishment I was a lineman at Lewes then down to Newhaven (CB 10) and Peacehaven (UAX 7) exchanges before moving to Gatwick in 1957, initially to install then maintain the PABX No3 and telegraph switching centre plus a miscellany of other equipment.
Whilst at Gatwick I managed to extend my interest in aviation by obtaining free flights on numerous occasions when aircraft were on training or positioning exercises. On one occasion I finished up in Berlin but the return flight was cancelled and I had to pay for my flight back by Lufthansa. Colleagues at the time never let me forget the incident.
1961 saw my move to THQ where in the next 22 years I served in TG Branch, Accommodation (Radio Stations) Branch and finally in Service Branch.
1983 (April 1st again – no comments please) saw me start my early retirement. I think I was one of the first to be offered this way out in the then newly formed BT.
Early retirement saw me doing Chauffeuring (peak cap and suit), technical documentation work for Teradyne, an American company providing BT with modern remote testing equipment and finally delivering cars the length and breadth of England.
On a final issue where the PRATS are concerned, Roy Peacock contacted me some six years ago to see if I would like to participate. At the time I declined but things changed and after meeting the group for lunch on several occasions I was finally persuaded to join which I did, albeit initially just for the after lunch return. On June 1st 2004 I entered into my first full walk and the rest is history. I wish now that I had started earlier.

I have thoroughly enjoyed every walk even though I have difficulties at times especially over stiles. Fortunately the ‘younger members‘are always helpful either physically or verbally. As you can see, sometimes I can be seventy nine years young, This is one of a series of things I have been persuaded to do including being jammed into a phone box with several others to create a record as well as being one of about twelve to sit on a stile.