by Dr. Iain
Corness
There
are not too many of us who can say they stood up Liza Minelli. Peewee
Cochlan can! There are not too many of us who have a fully loaded juke box
in their kitchens. Peewee Cochlan has! He also lists as antecedents,
Robert the Bruce and an Irish King of Offaly County in the 14th century!
Peewee Cochlan is a most interesting man!
Peewee (who has a record album of Jazz musician Peewee
Hunt hanging above the aforementioned juke box) was born within the sounds
of Bow Bells in London, technically making him a Cockney.
His father was an army barber and Peewee was one of
six, including his twin. She unfortunately died at six months old. This
was ironic said Peewee, “I was the one given a couple of weeks to live,
but I’ve proved them wrong!” This was all said with a grin.
As many families in post-war London, they were moved
into the notorious ‘new’ towns and Stevenage Newtown was where Peewee
grew up. These were not the finest of environments, especially after his
parents divorced when he was a young teenager. “I became a free agent. I
could do anything I wanted to - and did!”
He left school at 16, he with no interest, and the
system giving him no encouragement. His father asked the local butcher if
he wanted a lad, and Peewee began his working life as an apprentice
butcher. Needless to say, this was neither his calling nor his future, and
he gave butchering away after six months.
From there, he drifted, jobs coming and going, ranging
from working in a fairground to working in the jute mills in Dundee. Those
were the days of the Mods and the Rockers and the ‘wrong crowds’.
Peewee was there. In the wrong crowd.
However, he had a hankering to see the world, and with
a mate, decided to go round the world. They were fully equipped, complete
with sleeping bags and a compass. But no tent! Their mode of transport was
the universal thumb, and Peewee’s luck began to show, with a sympathetic
2CV Citroen driver giving them a lift from just outside Paris right down
through France and Spain, all the way to Gibraltar.
After a couple of abortive attempts to get through the
border gate between Spain and Gib, the adventurers finally made it onto
the rock. Again luck was with Peewee, landing a job as a bouncer for a
nightclub within 30 minutes. He didn’t forget his mate either, saying he
would only take the job if they gave him one too, and so a position as a
washer-up in the kitchen was also filled.
For once, the boys worked hard and began to save some
money for the next leg of the world tour. However, film star Norman Wisdom
had a charter yacht anchored in Gibraltar and they needed a waiter, and at
twice the pay that he was getting as a bouncer. There was no contest, he
signed on as crew. On the luxury yacht he met notables such as Yul
Brynner, a man that Peewee describes as, “One of the nicest, kindest
people I’ve ever met.” He also met Liz Taylor, but his description was
not so complimentary.
And so the great adventure continued, but stalled in
northern Spain, where they had to ask the British Consulate to help them
get home. He was now 22 years old and again jobless. He was welcomed back
by the old Stevenage Newtown crowd, but found that they were now into hard
drugs, and so he moved to London.
Being a music addict, he would gravitate to the Folk
Club, where many musicians got their first break. There he met the woman
who was to turn his life around, and his heart upside down. This was Sue,
whom he married. “It was Sue who forced me to find worthwhile
employment,” said Peewee.
Worthwhile employment turned out to be social work,
with troubled young children. Drawing upon his own experiences, Peewee
found he could help these young people, even those that were being kept in
remand homes. He applied for training and was accepted for a full-time 12
month course, complete with government grant, coming out now with
qualifications to cover residential social work.
He returned to London, working in residential care, a
job that covered all hours and all the days in the week. However, after a
while he wanted to move to field work, where the social workers only
toiled Monday to Friday. This unfortunately needed university
qualifications, but at Sue’s insistence, he applied, and was accepted,
spending the next two years in the cloistered halls, emerging as a fully
qualified social worker. “It was a struggle for me as I’d never done
anything at school,” said Peewee.
He returned to London and spent the next 31 years
working with those who were not coping well in the society. The one-time
‘misfit’ showing others the way through the maze!
He took early retirement in 1998 and sold everything
and relocated to Spain. It was a toss-up between Spain and Thailand, but
Spain was closer to Sue’s aging father, but four years later, after his
passing, they came to Thailand at the end of last year, complete with
their two large dogs, Hamish and Scruffy. “I couldn’t have come
without my boys,” said Peewee. He also asked me to mention the Asian
Tigers company that did a great job importing them. (There you are Peewee,
I’m a man of my word!)
So has the social worker really retired? I’ll let you
be the judge. He states he has only one aim in life left, and that is to
start a charity or a foundation to provide segregated cells for women and
children, to keep them apart from the males in the local police station in
Pattaya. Once a social worker, always a social worker!
Oh yes, I forgot about Liza Minelli, but I’ll let Peewee tell you
himself!
