5 years ago!

 Memory from 5 years ago!

We were about to be going into another full lockdown and I had ordered myself a certified chemical radiation suit so I could still carry on planting and chanting!

Nothing was stopping me, where there's a will there's a way!

My Delboy dad, as dodgy as he was with all his underworld lucrative wheeling and dealing. I always remember him saying you shouldn't make money of the dead.

When Geordie Best passed I made these memorial posters to sell at his funeral and my dad said that to me, that it'll bring you bad luck son making money from a dead man.

He used to say it all the time too about how much money people in Belfast made from the Titanic disaster. You dont make money from the dead he said.

Strange he had these type morals and outlook even though he was a gangster.

But my Delboy Dad sailed through life better than anyone I know. He was a genius and enlightened in his own way. This man could let things go over his head better than anyone I know, things that would drive others mad, my dad laughed it off, went into his shoeboxes and just carried on counting the cash!

He used to always laugh at people getting wound up or angry also, even with him. I've seen people threaten him before saying they were going to take him outside and beat him up and my dad just laughed it off saying, "you'll only hurt your hands" and carried on counting the cash with a cig hanging out his mouth.

He was only threatened as he just took a few thousand of someone in a game of poker. He was brilliant at poker.

On another occasion in our house growing up, every Sunday we had a poker school, my wee mum also was a brilliant poker player, everyone in the estate used to say they are tapping toes under the table cheating!

But this one time a guy lost a fortune and smashed the door on the way out, everyone was saying look what he just did. My dad just carried on counting the money saying, he can come back and smash it every week as he just took a few thousand of him.

He never let other peoples negative energy effect his, a very special talent to have.

Anyhow where I'm going with this was during lockdown it always stuck in my head my dads morals about making money from the dead. The amount of profiteering that on from the dead and dying during lockdown was just wrong and immoral in every way.

Al Capone would have shown more Philanthropy during one of the hardest things we've all had to go through.

One of my dads favourite sayings was, "you make your own luck in life".

And he did make his own luck, always positive and enthusiastic, upbeat and full of life. My dads glass was never half empty. I watched him go from rags to riches literally, running around pubs and restaurants back at the beginning with his black bag of king Billy socks flogging them. 

Then he hit it big time! 

"Directing 40 footers through estate winding streets

was one of my many childhood chores

Open the door it was ciggies and more

Andorra had just become the new bank offshore

Gangsters on forklifts having the odd nervous fit

Hoods loading vans i'm sure got on the neighbours tits

but they kept their wit as most were in on it

Counting money galore was another one of my chore

Mill after Mill my thumbs did get sore

We run out of room on my Ma's wee floor"...

Even though he broke the law in every way, my dad had a set or morals he stood by.

It takes a wise man to act the fool and by god my dad acted the fool alright. But he had that many bundles of cash everywhere he used to always say to me with this pitiful face, "son will you count all that"... it done his head in the amount of cash he gathered back in the early 90s. He had everyone collecting him £100 notes as it was easier to hide. And yes guys, in Northern Ireland and Scotland we have £100 notes. 

Glad to have you as life teacher Delboy Dad. 

Peace and love 

The Phantom Planter