Norman Harold Sale (27 Feb 1928 - 30 Apr 2020)

In loving memory of Norman Harold Sale who sadly passed away on 30th April 2020
Norman (DAD) was born on 27th Feb 1928 and was the youngest of 3 children; he had a Brother Dennis and Sister Ivy.
He had 2 sons: Andrew and Kevin.
6 nieces and nephews: Simon, Denise, Sarah, Colin, Tony and Michael.
And 6 grandchildren: Danielle, Richard, Matthew, Jennifer, Katherine and Nicky.
and many other relations in the Kinsale family.

He will be remembered as a kind generous man with a fantastic sense of humour. He collected friends easily due to his charisma and lovely nature.

To name but three of his closest,
Hans who he met whilst doing his service in the army just after the war and who was a German POW, They became friends and remained so until Hans passed away.
He also had another good friend in John who partnered him in the Southend snooker league for many years and went to football with him; they were firm friends until he also passed away.
And of course Michelle who has been Dad’s closest friend for a number of years now.

Dad lived until 92 and sadly outlived many of his friends, but he often talked about a couple of times when he almost didn’t make it and had a couple of close shaves.

The first was during the war when there was an air raid and the family rushed to the shelter in the garden. For some reason Dad and Dennis had lagged behind and stood frozen outside the back door next to a large wall. Dad recounts that Dennis decided they were not going to make the shelter in time as the bombs were already starting to fall. He rushed back inside the house and dived under the kitchen table and Dad followed. There was a large explosion outside and all Dad remembered later was his mum calling out “my boys” “my boys”. Later Dad and Dennis emerged from under the table and ventured outside only to find the entire wall they had been standing next to only moments earlier was completely demolished and had they remained there, then they would have been in big trouble.

The second encounter was during his military service. Unbeknown to Dad there had been some trouble with the local population and when as normal he went to the bar tent for a drink after his guard duty he found it strange there was only one other person in the tent, but he went to the bar and ordered his drink. Soon after the other man left and he was alone. Then something fizzed past his ear. It was only later he realised a bullet had entered the tent fizzed past his ear and gone out the other side. He realised that as he was the only person in the tent someone had shot at his silhouette, but thankfully missed.

Apart from his kind generous nature he was also a very good artist and loved to draw and paint.

But the three things which really defined Dad to me are the following

His Love of sports
Football was his first love but he was also very good at Snooker, Golf, Tennis, Darts and in later years crown green bowling. He won many trophies particularly in football, golf for Rochford hundred Golf club, snooker in the Southend League and tennis which his trophy cabinet could attest.

He represented his school, the army, his work firm(C E Heath) and local amateur sides at football.

He didn’t have many regrets in life but two centred around football.

The first was he was sad that his dad never saw him play, and the second was whilst playing in the amateur leagues and scoring lots of goals as a centre forward he was scouted by Leyton Orient and was invited for a trial. Unfortunately he was very shy and never took up the opportunity and he often reflected on what may have been.

His most embarrassing moment also came in a football match he was playing for his regiment in a match whilst he served in Egypt. There were not many women in the camp at the time but on this occasion there were a lot of them in the crowd watching the match, Dad went up for a header and was knocked over by the opposing teams central defender. As he got to his feet he discovered the elastic in his shorts had snapped and he was minus his shorts. He said it was the biggest cheer he ever got playing and he had to play the rest of the match with one hand holding up his shorts, He was so embarrassed.

He had a Dodgy taste in football clubs for a number of years before he finally settled on the right choice. He supported Leyton Orient in his youth, before the war, he then switched to Arsenal before finally settling into his final club Southend United who he supported since he moved out of London to Shoeburyness in the 60’s.

He took me to my first game when I was 7 and I have supported them now for 50 years with him. We were both season ticket holders until Dad was unable to go a few years back due to ill health. But he would always listen to the game on the radio. We sit in the same section which also includes four ex work colleagues of Dad from his employment at CE Heath and they still always ask after him.

We shared many good and some bad memories over the years. Some of the highlights being drawing with the then invincible Liverpool in the snow back in 1979, beating a star studded Man United side in the cup, and back to back promotion’s from league 2 to the championship being some of the highlights. I won’t mention the lows.

And with regards to golf Simon who was playing on a very low handicap has never forgotten how Dad manged to beat him one time.

His love of music

Dad was very musical with a very good signing voice. He accomplished many instruments and could play the piano, guitar banjo, accordion, saxophone and of course his beloved ukulele. He liked all kinds of music and particularly enjoyed jazz, I think I must get my love of music from him as although I could never play I have been to lots of gigs and concerts unfortunately, or fortunately none of my friends liked jazz so I would go with Dad and have very fond memories of Monday night jazz sessions at the Ekco social club. He also really enjoyed teaching and playing the ukulele with Michelle.

His fantastic sense of humour.

He was very cheeky, and loved telling jokes and performing magic tricks both good and corny. I don’t know if this was his way of overcoming his shyness but it certainly worked for him. Unfortunately mum and dad divorced when I was quite young but I always looked forward to the weekends when I would see him, not only because I would get to spend time with him but also because I knew I would be popular at school on the Monday as I would have loads of new jokes to share with my friends.

One of my favourites which is old and a bit corny now is Why would you invite a mushroom to your party?, because he’s a Fungi,

Dad always said he didn’t want us to be sad at his passing and wanted me to tell at least one joke for him.

You will all have your own memories of Dad but I’m sure most of them will include at least one of the above if not all three, but if I was to sum up how I’m going to remember Dad I will remember him by changing the words slightly from my earlier joke, to:

Why would you have invited Dad, Grandad, Uncle Norman, Normie or Norman to your party?

You would have invited him because he’s such a Fun Guy,

Rest in Peace Dad, you will be forever missed.