Mick Overall ~
The Early Years

All things, as they say, are relative.  And so it is with my knowledge of my father.  Other than his place of birth (North London) and marriage (South London), I have very little knowledge of his early life.  He was, I believe, an only child, and he had at least one cousin whom I vaguely remember as my Auntie Anna.  Anna and my grandmother both lived in Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex in the fifties when I met them, and my grandmother certainly died there as well.  And that's it.  So the story starts in the twenties...

Gracie Peacock

He met her at a dance when she was living at the YWCA on the Old Kent Road.

How could he have NOT fallen for her?

The notes in my mother's hand on the back of
this undated picture say:
Eastbourne
Mick & Gracie
After a strenuous "game" of tennis

~o0o~

15 May 1932

~o0o~
 

A DAY at the BEACH
mm
Undated photographs taken somewhere on the Isle of Wight (possibly Alum Bay).  Judging by the attire, and lack of nibboes (Colin and me) this outing must have been in the early thirties.  I cannot make out a wedding ring on Mum's hand , so this may have been before their marriage.

I knew it couldn't be long before the pipe re-appeared!

~o0o~
 
Kids!!

Pretty sure that this is Colin kinda sorta standing at Mum's side.  But we don't know where.  Colin appears to be of an age when the family home was still in East Dulwich.

I can remember that the little black trike was still around even when I was just a small, whiney little bugger.  But if the  trike is Colin's, whose is the push-chair?  I mean to say, I wasn't even a  twinkle in the old man's eye at this point. 

Of course!  Colin must have been a whiney little fart too, and boo'd his eyes out until they brought both things along! Nice bit of of blackmail, bro'.

Alright, alright ~ that's me in the middle!  Now ain't that special?  Mum always said that after one little boy, she really wanted a little girl; and doesn't that show!

I can't imagine what bribe it took to get my brother and me to look so darned angelic.  But I can imagine Dad flashing this, or similar, photographs around ~ too embarrassed to answer when asked how old his daughter was.  Actually, now I come to think of it, I haven't really changed all that much ~ I'm still a good looking dude with nearly all of his own hair, very little grey, same incipient double chin and bright smile. 

Not bad for a sixty-something geezer, eh?