By 1939 the war came but my dad was not called up straightaway as they took the 18- and 19-year-olds first. Dad was 29 when he was called up. He had been hoping to join the Navy as he had some First Aid training but he was put in the Army. He was in the 5th Kings Own, Royal Armoured Corps, and stationed at Heysham Head in the Monkey House which he said smelt of monkeys and was very unpleasant. We used to go to Heysham and stay in a B&B to see him. We used to walk down to the beach and mum and dad would sometimes buy nettle beer, which all of the houses were selling. We also used to go to Cleveleys, near Blackpool, and stay with the Miss Saunts (I thought they were sisters but years later, Dad said they were lesbians!). He joined the army just after Dunkirk and the men were given ammunition but had nothing to fire it with. One of the men said: “What are we supposed to do – spit bullets at the enemy?" The problem was that after Dunkirk many weapons got left behind when the evacuation took place and they all had to wait while new weapons were manufactured. Eventually, dad was made a sergeant and was posted to Bamburgh on the North East coast. He used to go on instruction to learn about the new weapons and then back to teach the officers and the men how to use them. He then became a Tank Commander and went over the day after D-Day (they had some trouble getting the tank onto the craft that would carry it). When he arrived he was told to “Go find your regiment” by the Beach Master. He said it was awful – there were many bodies floating in the water. They eventually met up with the regiment and travelled down the “Bocage” (high-sided roads with just a tank width and were sitting ducks for the Germans). Dad used to say that when the Germans came over, the Brits ducked, when the British came over, the Germans ducked, and when the Americans came over, everybody ducked. Dad was with an armoured division when he was taken prisoner by the Germans and the officer in charge was killed, but the Germans discovered the rum ration and got totally paralytic so they all escaped. They met the Canadians, who were coming to look for the Germans, so they were able to point them to the farmhouse they had been holed up in, and the Canadians then took Dad and his troop back to their camp. At one point, Dad was peppered with shrapnel and years afterwards he was still picking it out from his nose. Dad then travelled into Belgium and Denmark but he got infective hepititis and spent six months in hospital and eventually was sent to Capsthorne Hall near where we lived. We went there to see him and I remember it was daffodil time and we met Sir Bromley Davenport, the owner of the Hall. Dad was invalided out and spent the last year in the War Office, demobbing people from the army, staying with a cousin in London. Eventually my Dad was also discharged from the army. Our mongrel Jock lived to see the end of the war but sadly not to see dad come home. In the meantime, my mother and grandparents had an airman billeted on them for some time. I think he was probably stationed at RAF Wilmslow although we did have A.V. Roes (AVRO’s) in Woodford where they were building the Vulcan Bomber. The Germans came over several times and bombed Manchester extensively. They dropped one or two bombs in the fields in Woodford but never managed to find AVRO’s. The air wardens used to come round and make sure there was not a chink of light showing and we all had to have blackout on the windows. Occasionally when there was an air raid, we used to troop downstairs in the middle of the night and sit in the corner of the dining room until the all-clear sounded. I started ballet lessons at a very young age – probably about four or five. We gave a performance and I forgot what I was supposed to do so insisted that I never went again. Around this time, my aunt lost her first husband through infective colitis (something that wouldn’t happen now because there are drugs to combat this disease). The following year she returned home to find her house had been blown up. My aunt then had a nervous breakdown, which was not surprising really and she went to live in Bramhall village. When I was five years old I went to Woodford Primary school where there were two classrooms, one run by Miss Wilson – the infants – and the second by the headmistress Mrs Crowder. I remember that there was an alsatian dog that lived on the corner and his owner built a ramp so that he could look over the fence and we all stopped to pat him when coming home from school. I remember one year trying to roll a snowball home from school but I only got a few yards when it became too heavy to move. At the end of the war with Japan we were in Dunoon in Scotland with my mother and my aunt and I clearly remember the festivities because the war had ended. A very nice lady made me a ballet dress from paper handkerchiefs for my birthday (I was eight). I used to play with the son of the owners of the hotel and we used to try to get away and hide from a very fat girl who always wanted to be with us. There was a bus that used to go to Manchester and it came up and turned round at the top of Jenny Lane, very close to us. My dad was walking past one day when he discovered his old tank driver was driving it. The driver said: “Bloody hell, I thought you had had your head blown off!” and they stopped for a long chat before the bus had to go back to Manchester. When I was eight, my parents took me away from Woodford and sent me to Bramhall primary school. The headmaster was a Mr Fox who also lived in Moor Lane. I was told by one of the children, Audrey Wood, that I would be smacked if I didn’t use my right hand (I was left-handed at the time), which wasn’t true of course, but I forced myself to use my right hand for writing (as my dad had done many years previously). I sat the exam for Manchester High School but didn’t like the school and decided against going there. I was very fortunate that I passed the exam for Moseley Hall school. In my final year at Bramhall, the school put on an operetta (Robin Hood) and I got the part of Maid Marion. I couldn’t quite believe it as there were much more pretty girls than me in the class but I think it was because I had a good voice and could sing really well. June, my friend, went to Cheadle Hulme school (we used to call it CHINTS – Cheadle Hulme Institute for Naughty Toddlers!). We had snow every year and used to go sledging in a field near Bramhall station. We also had a lot of fogs and the centre of Manchester became almost a no-go area. This was due to the fact that there wasn’t a smokeless zone in that area. I remember when dad got his car and used to drive into Manchester, everyone else fell in behind him as he always seemed to know where he was going. We had eight chickens and two apple trees in the garden and I was always up the tree (not very ladylike!). It was a Bramley apple tree and the other one was an eating apple tree. We also had white rabbits that my grandfather used to look after for me. We had a greenhouse where dad used to grow tomatoes and chrsyanthamums. Dad also had a frame in the garden and grew cucumbers and radish. My friend Helen Garner had a farm and we used to get a knock at the door and her horse would poke its nose into the kitchen. I was also very friendly with June Meggitt. The local farmer (Mr Gibson) used to deliver milk to the door, dishing it out into jugs that we took out for him. If we ran out of milk, I would cycle up to the farm and wait for the cows to be milked and would then bring some home in a jug, trying to be careful not to spill any. In summer my grandmother would boil the milk so that it didn’t go off (no fridges in those days!). There was a lady who lived a few doors down in a big house called Mrs Johnson. She organised concerts that were always known as Mrs Johnson’s concerts. I often used to get the junior lead in these performances. We also used to have social events at the old village hall and one of the games I remember was splitting up into four corners and trying to remember nursery rhymes but not doing one someone else had already done. We usually ended up with Miss Rosie Artinstall singing: “There’ll always be an England, and England shall be free, does England mean as much to you as England does to me. Red, white and blue, what does it mean to you...” I can’t remember the rest of it. I suppose, following the war, this was a good song to sing. My aunt used to teach me to play the piano but I hated her lessons as she was a very hard task-master. I also started elocution lessons – I can’t remember exactly when, but I do remember going on my bike to see Miss Hesling who lived almost on the border of Woodford and Bramhall and trying to learn my poems as I was riding my bike if I hadn’t got round to learning it. I got as far as Grade 6, which was the last one you could take and we also used to take part in competitions. I then went to piano lessons – I can’t remember the name of my teacher – but I got as far as Grade 5. I used to play with Dorothy Irlam and Audrey Wood. Dorothy had a habit of going to the loo in her knickers which was somewhat disconcerting! We used to play hopscotch and dressing up and various other things. Dorothy went on to become a headmistress and never married. My grandmother died when I was 11. She was a difficult lady (rather like my aunt) and I found myself at times flouncing out but not having anywhere to go, I always came home. She spent a lot of time in the bedroom watching the locals go by. We used to go to see Eileen and Stanley (Eileen had been mum’s best friend -Stanley was a butcher) and I used to play with Rodney her son (much better playing with trains than dolls!). We used to go to Eileen’s on a trolley bus from the centre of Manchester. We used to travel home and I was always feeling sick and mum used to wait until I couldn’t go any further and then we would get off and walk. In fact, many years later, we met Rodney and his wife Winifred in Jersey when they came to my aunt’s house. Rodney had just phoned me because of the letter I wrote telling him I had Motor Neurone. We then got a cat called Sandy (because he was ginger) from Helen Garner’s. Sandy was a bit of a fighter but my grandfather used to sit in front of the fire with the cat on his legs. One day my grandfather fell in the bathroom and broke his hip. He subsequently got pneumonia and sadly died when I was 15. He was a lovely man. Sandy found a nest of rats under next door’s shed and killed the lot of them although the mother rat bit him in the throat. Mum used to try to give him tablets to heal the wound but he obviously didn’t swallow them and would spit the tablet out. Eventually though we managed to cure him. My aunt met Uncle Bill on a holiday. They took me to a posh hotel in Manchester and Laura (my aunt) told me I had to eat everything that was put in front of me. I was then violently sick in the foyer! Laura and Bill married in Manchester Cathedral on 21 December 1946 and I was a bridesmaid. They moved to Burton-by-Rossett in Wales to a bungalow as my Uncle Bill worked in the Education Offices in Chester at the time. My grandfather and I could always get to Chester in dad’s car but we could never make it in Bill’s car because the leather smelt so much and Bill used to put his foot down and then take it off the pedal and you got the movement of fast and then slow (he never took a driving test). I remember my aunt getting furious with me and pushing me onto what appeared to be a footpath but was actually a ditch. I fell down it and for years afterwards was picking gravel out from my knee. I used to go into Chester with Bill and spend my day wandering round the walls and down by the river and generally enjoying the city. Bill was a great swimmer and at one point dived into the Dee from the Suspension Bridge. I also remember going to a tributary of the Dee and seeing otters there. It was at Burton-by-Rossett that I met Barbara Phillips (as she was then) and I am still friends with her today. We write regularly - she married Derek Caulfield but he has now got Parkinsons and finds it much more difficult to get about as time goes by. I also used to go to the farm a few doors away from where my aunt and uncle lived in their bungalow (the farmers were called the Redrupps) and became very friendly with their dog (I have a picture in the album)! He was a small terrier who used to go down the fields and bring back the cattle. My aunt and uncle then moved to Marford just off the main road between Wrexham and Chester to a very large house. There was a pig farm opposite that used to fascinate Uncle Bill. My aunt had two beauty salons, one in Wrexham and one in Chester, and she wanted me to go into it with her but it wasn’t my cup of tea. Bill taught me to swim at Hoylake pool. I attended Moseley Hall and used to ride my bike there every day except when the weather was too awful and my mother made me go by bus. It was a mixed school and several of the boys from Bramhall also went on to Moseley Hall. I used to meet 'Bombhead' Alec Maund, so called because he had a shock of red hair (he was Friar Tuck in the Bramhall school play). I was in the 'A' stream and the subjects I enjoyed the most were English, French and history. I kept in touch with Alec until I was 21 but then it faded out. I got to know Kate Ireland (or Kathleen as she was known then). She also went to Bramhall school and took the part of the Grey Witch in the school play. We used to meet and cycle together to school. She wasn’t in the same class as me but we became firm friends. She and I joined the tennis club in Woodford and we also used to do the cricket teas. A few years later, Kay Sellars moved down from Leeds and also became a firm friend. My first boyfriend was a twin called Gerald Huxley (known as Geb), his brother was Kenneth. That was when I was about 15. It didn’t last all that long, though! I also used to go to life-saving classes from Moseley Hall. Sadly, it is no longer a school and a hotel has been built on the site. I remember going to a dance social at Cheadle Hulme with Kathleen. We used to wear circular skirts with lots of petticoats underneath. We would often walk home with the boys who danced with us (they usually had a bike) but it was about four miles so I can’t remember whether we took a bus eventually. My Dad bought a car from Fred Maddocks (next door). (WS3928). Dad eventually passed his test on Market Day in Macclesfield. The wife of the local farmer went with him (Mrs Gibson) but said he would definitely pass so cleared off and left Dad to it. Fortunately he did pass. We used to go on holiday with the Sellars (Kay’s parents) and went twice to Ilfracombe and once to Bournemouth. I remember it took us 2 days to get down South because the car wouldn’t go more than about 40 mph. We once stayed at Laycock and I remember they had a stagecoach outside the inn as they were always filming there. In fact the recent episodes of Cranford were also filmed there. I remember going down to the beach in Bournemouth and Kay and I sat on the boot of Mr. Sellars car – it certainly wouldn’t be allowed now. Fred was an electrician and I used to babysit Carol & Keith (Keith was the oldest) when Beattie & Fred went to Belle Vue to the Dog Track and they used to bring in Fish & Chips (for me also) and then we had cream cakes – something my mother could never afford. I actually used to go to the Bramhall village to buy the cakes for Beattie and always wondered what to buy when I got there. They also had a TV which was unheard of in those days and I enjoyed watching that. I think we went in there to see the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth. I remember Jehovah’s Witnesses calling on Beattie and she said “just let me put a bet on the 2.30 and then I’ll come and talk to you. The Witnesses moved away!! I joined the Church choir but the girls weren’t allowed to process. Only the boys were allowed to do that. I was confirmed by the Bishop of Stockport, The Rev. Wilfrid Garlic who at that time was the radio parson (Thought for the day). I think I was probably about 15. Woodford got a bit of notoriety when the vicar, the Rev. Philip St. John Ross disappeared at Hell’s Mouth in Wales. His car was found abandoned and his clothes were on the beach so it was presumed that he had drowned. Several years later he was found hiding in the boot of a car in Switzerland. I joined the Brownies and Brown Owl (Mrs Whittaker) used to own the Deanwater Hotel and we often went there and had a lot of fun around the trees and the stream in the grounds. I became a Patrol Leader in the Brownies and I then “flew up” to Guides and also enjoyed my time there. I also became a Patrol Leader in the Guides and used to take my patrol down to Bramhall Woods on Nature Walks. At that point, we could actually pick the bluebells! We used to go to Guide camps on the back of Mr. Wilkinson’s coal lorry (scrubbed up of course for the occasion!). (I don’t think that would be allowed now for Health and Safety reasons.) I remember going to Matlock Bath. We had a round tent with our feet pointing towards the centre. I think the Guiders had a caravan. We certainly enjoyed Matlock Bath and went on long walks around the area. I took part in several of the Fancy Dress they used to have at the village Rose Queen fete. I remember once I was a Costermonger, and once in the year of the Festival of Britain was “Rule Britannia! June and I were attendants to the Rose Queen (Audrey Wood) the previous year and then in 1953, I was voted in as the new Rose Queen. That was the year that the new community centre was opened by Mr. & Mrs Shaw. I remember being driven around Woodford by Rene Clayton on the back on a car before the ceremony. (Something else that wouldn’t be allowed now). There were dances at the new Community Centre and my parents starting going to Benja’s Fold in Bramhall to be taught by Mrs. Burgess. My Dad used to come home and demonstrate quite fancy footwork and I decided it was time to learn to dance also. When you were taught by Mrs Burgess you remained taught! Archie who was a milkman and lived with Mr. & Mrs Burgess, came to the classes and was a very good dancer. I got my Bronze, Silver and Gold medals and also my Empire Emblem (the school of dancing was the Empire Society of Teachers of Dancing but I don’t know if that exists now although it was a Northern Society). When I was going out with David, Archie used to put on the “Belle Bottom Blues” and grin at me and then dance with me. (although David didn’t have bell bottoms!) Mum & Dad got their Bronze, Silver & Gold but didn’t go any further. I also met there Elsie & Joe Bannister and I became Godmother to Elsie and Joe’s daughter Susan. Joe sadly died of cancer and Elsie moved to the Isle of Man. She then went back to Blackpool near to her daughter Susan and her second husband also died there, and Elsie and Joe’s son, Michael, died of kidney failure. It wasn’t a very happy life. Now Elsie lives in Fuerteventura in the Canary Isles along with her daughter and son-in-law and son. Years later when we were on holiday at Lake Garda we met a family from Cheadle Hulme and they were still going to Mrs. Burgess’s lessons! June and I together with David Buckley, started to organise Young Peoples Dances at the new Community Centre and we had the fore-runner of the disco – a DJ who brought strict tempo Waltzs, Quicksteps, Foxtrots and Tangos as well as playing the Palais Glide and some Scottish Flings. We also had various other dances as well such as the Barn Dance, the Veleta, and the St. Bernard’s Waltz. I used to enjoy these dances although never went out with anyone from the dance group. There was a dramatic society set up in the new Community Centre (the old one was wooden and was pulled down). I joined the society and quite often was given the junior lead. We used to practice in someone’s house (usually Mrs Simpson’s) and then for the dress rehearsal we practiced at the community centre. I remember one year, the lights all went out and we had to wait until they came back on again before we could continue with the play. When I was 17, my Aunt & Uncle moved to Jersey and bought a perfume and cosmetics shop. They had a flat just across the road. I went to see them and it took 3 hours from Manchester to Jersey and then we couldn’t land because of fog and we were taken to Dinard in France where we stayed the night, flying back the next morning. I had never stayed in such a grand hotel. Kay Sellars also came to Jersey at that time with her parents and I spent some time with her. The shop made a bomb for my aunt and uncle but my aunt was hankering after coming back and they came back to London after 7 years and sold the shop. My uncle was never well whilst in London – they bought a medical book shop and had to pay vast amounts for employees, and the Dr. told Laura to get him back to Jersey immediately. They moved back to Jersey and my uncle bought a jeweller’s shop and my aunt set up her electrolysis business. That was when they rented a house half way between St. Helier & St. Aubin. Uncle would never buy a house because he wanted to use his investments although at the time, houses were very cheap in Jersey. Now you can’t buy a low cost house as they are all for the Jersey born people. I left school at 17 and went to Miss Wilkinson’s Secretarial College for Young Gentlewomen!! There I learned to type and do shorthand. I think my aunt and uncle paid for some of the fees as my parents could never have afforded it. I remember at one point the Manchester University Rag Group coming in and rampaging through the college. I became friends with several girls and used to go to the cinema with them. I had 10 shillings a week for my lunches. (50p in today’s terms). I would occasionally eat at a restaurant in St. Ann’s Square but the only thing I could afford was Tomatoes on toast that cost probably 1/9d.and a drink. A better deal was at a café underneath Lewis’s where I could get a reasonable meal for 1/3d and could then afford a drink too. After I finished at Miss Wilkinson’s I went for a holiday with Kathleen and her parents near Stratford. We met two airmen there and they could dance so enjoyed that. Unfortunately, the guy I was with was 6’3” and I was only 5’3” so it was a bit of a struggle dancing with him. They did come to Woodford to see us but I finished it then. I then got a job with a partner at a firm of Chartered Accountants in Manchester and went there on the train. His previous secretary had been with him for 19 years. It was there that I met Jean who was 12 years older than me and she worked for Mr. Myers. Jean eventually married Alan Waring also from work. They had a boy but it didn’t really work out as Alan was a lot younger than Jean. It was also there that I met David Port who was in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. At Christmastime we went to the Manchester Palace theatre to see a pantomine as a group from work, and when we came out it was dreadfully foggy. David found someone who was going to Poynton and we travelled in his car but someone had to walk in front of the car all the way to establish where we were going. I phoned Dad and he tried to get to Poynton but in the end had to give up when he was nearly there. David and I were walking into the hedge and onto the verge as the fog was so thick. We did eventually meet Dad which was fortunate and he eventually managed to find his way home. Eventually David qualified as an Accountant and then had to do his National Service. He was fortunate to go in as an Officer and, I think it was at Liverpool, that the ship came in and I was invited to attend. The Navy certainly didn’t do things by halves then and we were piped on board. It was an Aircraft carrier and the Marines Band was playing on one of the decks they used for the aircraft that was partly up. We had food and drinks. We were then piped off again when the event finished and I came home again by train. Eventually, David’s ship was sent to New Zealand. Six of us went to the Isle of Man, David, Derek & Graham and Kate, Anne Tunstall and me. The girls shared a room and the boys did also. We met a family there who shared a table with us. We stayed at the Balqueen Hydro at Port St. Mary and we went to Port Erin to a dance. The guy who came with us could actually dance and I really enjoyed dancing with him. He lived at “Crows Nest House” Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire. I did actually write to him for a few years. David couldn’t dance at all. There was a boy called Pete joined the tennis club together with his friend – I can’t remember his surname. Pete was a butcher who lived at Cheadle Hulme. He very kindly started to teach me to drive in his brand new Morris Minor although I didn’t take my test until down South. I went out with the son of the Chief Constable of Stockport for a while. Occasionally David Rees (another one!) would borrow his father’s car. That was in the days when there were policemen around and they would salute smartly as the car came along. David did come down to Woodbourne Avenue but I finished it with him then. I believe he eventually married a widow with four children. I remember going into Manchester on the day of the Munich Air Crash. This was the Manchester United football team. Everyone was just standing around, reading the papers. I think everyone knew someone who had died in the crash. In fact our old senior partner (well he seemed old to me then) was a friend of the Club secretary who died in the crash. My Dad started to get a lot of Conjuctivitis and Sinusitis though the smell of the rubber and my parents decided to buy a shop in Plymouth. June and I went on a holiday to Torquay and went to Plymouth to have a look at the shop. It was overlooking the Hoe and was really quite pleasant. I don’t know quite what happened but the sale never went though. My aunt and uncle came over from Jersey to Brighton and went to see a shop for sale at Woodbourne Avenue at Woodingdean, Nr. Brighton. My parents came down to see it and decided to buy it. It had greengrocery on one side and cakes and bread on the other. Mum organised the cake side, and Dad the Greengrocery. I was going to cycle to work but it was all up hill on the way back so decided against it. I met Eileen Hide whilst I was there and we are still friends. We used to meet in Chichester but stopped a little while ago. My parents decided it wasn’t fair to take Sandy all the way down to Brighton so we gave him to my Aunt Marjorie and Uncle Leslie in Bramhall. Sandy obviously decided that wasn’t right for him and one day he strolled in back at home in Woodford. (I think he had told another ginger cat in the area where to get a good feed!). Eventually my parents had to take Sandy with them and they got a cat basket and the vet gave him an injection to quieten him down and they set off. I gather he miowed for the last two or three hours – obviously the injection had worn off! He settled down very happily in Brighton. I stayed with the Sellars for about two months whilst Kay was at University. Unfortunately, I got proper ‘flu whilst I was with them and the surgery told me to go home to bed. Kay’s brother John who was a bit of an “odd ball” kept playing The Ugly Ducking at twice the speed that nearly drove me mad, particularly as I was in bed at the time. Eventually, I came down to Brighton. I went for an interview with a firm of, I think, Solicitors, but eventually decided I would prefer accountancy and got a job with Mr. Sheraton that was right near the Clock Tower. Strangely enough, I met someone who was a ‘Count’ (foreign) whom June and I had met in Torquay although never made contact with him again. There was a Mrs Luckman at Sheraton’s who was a disaster waiting to happen, and a Mr. Harvey. He used to describe himself as the Office Boy and she was the Office Girl. I was secretary to Mr. Sheraton. Mike was away studying for his finals (in those days you had to pass everything at one attempt, even if you didn’t get the total points you needed you still had to take the exam again – nowadays you can take one exam if you fail). Mrs Luckman and Mr. Harvey used to rave about Mike, saying how kind he was. When Mike eventually came back after his exams which were in May, and we went on our first date to the Regent Ballroom just opposite the Clock Tower (now Boots sadly). We went for a walk and Mike said we might meet his parents, but we didn’t. We then went and had a meal at a place down in the Lanes and then went back to the Regent again in the evening. Mike could actually dance and was a very good lead. We used to go to the Regent regularly. They had a very good band there. I always went home by bus after the evening. Mike was a member of the Carlton Cricket Club based at Withdean. I eventually met the other wifes and girlfriends. We used to go to Ron Hatley’s place – on the way to Rottingdean and he could play anything on the piano – you just used to have to sing the tune and he was away. Mike used to play the washboard! Janet (girlfriend of Pete Egginton) and I, if there was a beach nearby, used to go down to the beach, and then come back to the cricket match. We always went out in the evenings with the cricket club, usually to the Pump House in the Lanes. We did usually go to the pub at whatever place they had been playing. I had my 21st birthday in Brighton and Mike came also Jean & Alan came down from Manchester & also Bob (and his wife) who was teaching me how to drive. My aunt and uncle also came as well. Bob was our delivery driver – I had tried to drive with my Dad but we always ended up falling out! I eventually passed my test as the first attempt just after my 21st birthday. Mike and I went to Jersey immediately after my birthday. He had never been away from his mother before that and she was in floods of tears! My aunt wanted me to stay with her but I refused and stayed with Mike in a hotel – can’t remember the name of it. Of course, in those days you didn’t share a bedroom like today and we were separated but enjoyed the time there. I had a grumbling appendix and I went into the Woman’s Hospital that was just along the road from where Mike lived. I went in the week before Christmas and got out on Christmas Eve! Mike used to come and wave to me in the mornings before going to work and would then come and see me in the evenings along with my parents. As it was a Women’s Hospital we had lady surgeons! I was always very sick after an anesthetic. I wrote to David Port in New Zealand and decided to finish with him. I still have the letter he wrote back. I gather he eventually married an Admiral’s daughter. In the meantime, Mike applied for a job at Corralls at Shoreham and got the job as an assistant to Mr. Tester, the accountant there. After about a year, I couldn’t stand it at Sheraton’s any more and applied to George Sutton at Lovatt & Co. in Hove and got a job there so it was a bit further to travel by bus. George had been a prisoner of the Japanese for three years. Mike and I went to Paris but again were separated – he was several floors above where I was. Neither of us were very well whilst we were there and the Seine stank! I think they have cleaned it up a bit now. We did go to the Follies but both came home feeling really ill. We then went to Torquay when I think they had floods. Again, we were separated. We did enjoy Torquay though. We went to Alassio with Mike’s parents and got stuck in Paris on the ring road. A taxi driver said follow me, so we followed and found ourselves on the road to Fontainebleau where we had arranged to stay. Grandpa Case gave him 200 cigarettes that Mike’s Mum had bought. We eventually arrived in Alassio having stayed in various places on the way down. Had a good couple of weeks there. They did actually give us rooms next door to each other with a connecting door inbetween! I broke it off with Mike when I went to stay with June sometime before her wedding as he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to get married or not! However, we drifted back together again once I got home. I soon realised that he was one of the kindest, patient and warmest person I had met. He had deliberately decided to take the alternative course to his parents who could be decidedly weird. We used to go out with his parents for a meal and his Dad would always buy the Chef a drink. I was bridesmaid at June’s wedding the year before we were married together with her cousin Caroline. She married Peter Bland. I really don’t remember where we had the reception but enjoyed ourselves. Mike obviously came too. We decided to get engaged at Christmas 1960 – Mike having proposed to me in my bedroom in the October. He bought the ring for £75 – now it is worth over £3,000. My parents moved to Eastbourne in January 1961 and bought a Florists shop. We went to see the Vicar at the local Church and he flatly refused to marry us as Mike had been christened a catholic. He said it would be wrong for us to marry as there would be problems when we had children! Fortunately the vicar at the local Church just a few doors down from Mike was prepared to teach him in the Anglican faith and we used to go to private confirmation classes and talk about anything and everything and then he would say “bless you my children” and we would go home. He was a lovely old boy (well he seemed that way to us). Eventually the day came for Mike to be confirmed as an Anglican at the local Church and everything went off splendidly. With that the Vicar in Eastbourne was prepared to marry us although he wouldn’t allow us to have the bells as it might disturb the people having an afternoon nap! We also couldn’t have the choir! We bought the wedding ring – 22 carrot gold from the jeweller’s shop next door to my parents shop. It cost £14! We eventually were married on the 2nd June 1962 and had our reception at the Cumberland Hotel in Eastbourne. June, Lyn and Elaine (Elaine was Rodney’s sister) were bridesmaids. My Dad made the buguets or us. Lyn had broken her arm a few days before our wedding but it didn’t really matter. We went to Tunbridge Wells for the night and then on to Guernsey – the Richmond Hotel where we spent 10 days. I had a blue dress and jacket as my “going away” outfit together with blue shoes from Lyons Shoe Shop. Unfortunately the zip on the dress broke so I had to change once we got to the hotel in Tunbridge Wells. Grandpa Case had done up a flat in Kings Gardens in Hove (not terribly well!) and we lived there after we were married. After a few months Mike was moved to Head Office in Portsmouth and he commuted there on the train. He also had to work some Saturday mornings, so it was difficult for him playing at Carlton Cricket Club. I was able to walk to work as we lived on the seafront fairly near Lovatts. I remember once it snowed really heavily and the car was covered in snow and it was difficult to get to the station. George Sutton had a thing about employing people from abroad. He had Chris Bicknell as an articled clerk but then he employed Nik Ibrahim and Santos. Eventually he employed someone called Mr. Getgood. I still have the letter George Sutton wrote to me when I left. After 3 years we decided it was time to move to Bedhampton and we found the house where we are still living. I remember Mrs Hunt from across the road came across with a cup of tea for us. The Vospers were living at No. 1 and the Pannells at No. 3. Barbara Vosper was expecting and Kevin turned up. The Pannells already had three children although at that time Beverley was about 5, Trevor probably about 10 and Lorna 12. I used to have £5 for my housekeeping allowance and we were able to buy joints, steak and various other things. We hadn’t got round to registering with a Dr. and Mike developed an illness – had been to a meal with his Auntie Pat and he thought it was something he had eaten but eventually Mrs Daw (who lived next door) suggested we should register with her GP who was just up the road. We found ourselves with Dr. Howard who eventually emigrated to New Zealand. Anyway, we saw a GP who didn’t think there was much wrong with Mike and then on the Sunday called the GP again and a visiting GP came and said Mike had an abscess on his appendix and needed to go into hospital. He was there for three weeks and off work for two months. He eventually went back to work for two months and then had to go into hospital to have the appendix removed. By that time the abscess was growing again and they cut him right down the centre of his stomach to get rid of it. He then got an infection in the wound – again he was in hospital for three weeks and off work for another two months. He lost over a stone in weight. After all this had happened, I went to work for Tom Snow at Dunham Bush whilst Elaine was on holiday following her marriage. Elaine and I remained friends for many years. I progressed from there to work for John Galley who was the Marketing Manager. Eventually, John went to work for John Boulton who used to come into Dunham Bush quite frequently but it didn’t work out and he moved back to Drayton with his family. Simon was the oldest and his sister a few year’s younger. I worked for John Galley for four years but he left, and in the meantime I became pregnant with Jeremy. I worked until nearly June and then left. In the meantime I again got ‘flu just before Christmas and was terrified of taking anything because I was pregnant. We told my parents and Mike’s at Christmas and they were delighted. We spent Christmas Day with Mike’s parents and went over to Eastbourne for Boxing Day. We then came home. Eventually Jeremy was born on the 27th July 1970 and Mike’s parents came down to see us at the Nursing Home. Mike was there went Jeremy was born and it was an amazing feeling although I struggled somewhat and found myself hanging on the bed crying with pain. Mike remained with me though the day before when my waters broke and throughout the next day also. Jeremy was a lovely child who would go to anybody. When he was four weeks old we took him to Brighton and after his ‘howling success’ at Northlands, we arranged to take him with us. Again, he would go to anyone. He was christened at six weeks by Rev. Norman Smith, I became pregnant again but it felt all wrong and I then had a miscarriage over the Bank Holiday week-and had to go into the Q.A. for a scrape. I then became pregnant with Suzanne which felt OK. She was a little girl in a hurry. Mike took me into Northlands again and the midwife said it would be several hours before she was born. In fact it was only two hours so Mike wasn’t there when she was born. I had gone to see the Dr. in the morning and he said it would be several days before she was born but always in a hurry she came out very quickly. She would go to Mike and me but wouldn’t go to her Grandpa Case at all and she used to scream when I left her outside the shops – Colman’s stores at the top of Brookside Road and where ATS is now used to be a Vegetable shop and she used to scream ‘blue murder’ and people would stop and try to calm her down but only succeeded in making her yell louder. She was christened at 8 months on Sunday 8th April 1973 by Rev. W. S. Herrington, Curate. At the time, my parents had sold the shop in Eastbourne and were looking for somewhere else. They were living with us at the time. Eventually they bought a sweets and tobacco shop in Hassocks. Suzanne would go to my parents but not to Grandpa Case.