CHRISTMAS OF 1979

By now it was Christmas of 1979, The Butcher’s was really busy, it was though the Shop was shutting down for a month or two, (not just a week) they Sold Loads Of Meat, if I can remember I believe we all worked longer hours just to complete all the extra orders there were!

As I said in previous Post, I was looking to Transfer to a different Branch, this as it turned out, was not too long away! By the New Year  I would get some Good News!

As for our Home Life, Susan was about 3 Months away from giving Birth, so we were getting ready for that, ie Decorating Bedrooms and buying a New Cot, Babies Clothes etc and Nathan was Moving into his own Bedroom, so that had to be got ready.

As this was our First Christmas in our New House and on our own and this would also be Nathan’s First Christmas at home (He was in Hospital , the previous Year)  you would have thought our memories of this period would be very Easy to remember, but in fact, it is the opposite, I/We cannot really remember anything of that particular Christmas Period!

I/We cannot remember any Presents we brought each other or for Nathan, or what happened that Christmas or where we went out to, in fact I/We cant even remember Christmas Decorations in the House!

One thing I do remember though, I had a Full Week Off Work, which in fact was my First Ever Christmas off  Working ( for about 5 years), as obviously when working as a Chef, Christmas was the busiest period, and you never had any time off, in fact I used to work longer hours!  

THE BIKE WHEEL & THE SHEEPSKIN COAT!

Firstly, my last Blog Entry (on my Life), I thought I changed Jobs before we moved!

That was wrong, after writing the last Blog Entry it got me thinking about what happened first, and an incident that happened back in 1979 reminded me of which came first!

I used to Cycle back and forth to work back then, which was a fair few miles about 4/5 each way! I must have had a Puncture in one of my Bike Tyres, I cant remember that, but can remember what happened when I was taking the mended Bike Tyre back to work to fix back on my Bike!

The Bus Stop was down in the High Street about 5 minutes from where we lived, and I can remember running along carrying the Bike Wheel , I was about 2 minutes from my House, when I passed a couple of Shops, I can remember a Woman standing there with a Nurses Uniform on (I believe there was another bus stop there, she was obviously waiting for a Bus, but this wasnt the bus stop I needed) she was waiting to go to work by Bus!

That day as I remember I had my Full Length Sheepskin Coat on, and I was running quite quickly (I must have been late for work/bus) and some how my Coat got tangled with the Bike Wheel , and Crash???? I fell over on to the Concrete Pavement right in front of this Nurse, near enough right where she stood!

I remember looking up and she was laughing her head off, I felt such a Prat, but all I could do was laugh as well, me and Susan often have a laugh about that incident, to this Day!

I Loved that Sheepskin Coat!!!!!!

BUTCHER, BAKER ??????????

Around September of 1979, I had a choice of several different Jobs to go to , as I was leaving the Hotel where I had worked for nearly 3 years, I had several different Interviews at Bakeries & Butcheries around my local Town!

The Wages as a Butcher or Baker were virtually around the same, but a butcher worked more sensible hours, ie 8 till 5, where as a Baker would start around 2 am in the morning, but be finished by about 9am, but with Kids, that was’nt a Job for me!

So I had a choice of 2 different Butchers Shops, incidentally both of them have now Ceased Trading, but back then they were the 2 biggest Butchers in the UK, Dewhurst’s & Baxter’s.

I chose Dewhurst’s, but their nearest shop was about 4/5 miles from where we were living!

But as Luck would have it, around this same period we were offered a Private Rented Property in the next Town to us, which was the same Town as where the Shop was for my new Employer’s, so everything worked out O.K!

Incidentally, we got the Rented Property through the Housing Oficer I mentioned in a previous Blog Entry, so we were very Grateful to Her!

In those days, Private Rent was not a common thing, it was either, you had a Mortgage or you had a Council House & paid a Rent!

These days it round to other way, most people are in Private Rented Properties & paying well over the odds for the Pleasure!

Obviously we didnt get our new place that easily, we had to go to see the Landlord & his Wife, their were a few rules etc, plus we had to get a couple of References, but these came from the Housing Officer & Person in charge (our Friend) from our shared Accomodation House but the main thing was they liked us & Nathan, & after a short while, we were told we could move in!

So for the first time in our Married Life (over 1 year) we were going to be Living in a House together, & more importantly, on our own!

WELCOME TO 1979!

1979 was the Year of change for us, Nathan finally came out of Hospital for good! but this did’nt happen until April, so we still had around 4 months of Hospital visits etc still to come!

This was a very testing time for us, we were both still only 20 years old and what with Nathan still not right and we were still living in a 1 room place! and not too much help off anybody!

One thing me and Susan can say is, we have never treated our Children , liked how we were ! even to this Day we treat our Kids, how we would have liked to have been treated ourselves!

I was still working at the same Hotel and going to College every week, but my 4 year Course was coming to an end, so I had to make my mind up what I wanted to do, work wise, do I stay as a Chef, working long and un-socialable hours or do I go into something different!

One funny event of early 1979 I remember was, My Father had a Volkswagon Van like the one in the picture above, and as we had sold my Car, the previous Year, any chance to Drive the Van was a welcome change!

So one Day we went to the local Town Centre and parked on the main Town Car Park, right in front of a Butchers Shop ( a few years later, I worked in this Shop) now I dont remember if we did this before we went round the Shops or after the Shops!

Anyway I remember I drove into a parking space next to another Car, and had to reverse back and forth to straighten the Van up, well on about the third movement I jammed the van into the Car next to us, the Volkswagon had these big door hinges on the side of it and we could’nt move forward or backward, and as I said we were in full view of the Butcher’s Shop and the people inside the shop!

Anyway to cut a long story short , the only way out of this spot, was to drive forward very quickly, but there were quite high concrete edgings to this Car Park, about 6inch high at least!

So we drive back as far as we could, scraping along side this parked car, then I stuck my toe has hard as I could!

We came out of the car park, like Starsky & Hutch, bumped up & down the car park edgings at about 30 mile an hour and off the car park, we were laughing so much, we forgot about the people watching in the Shop!

Luckily for us, the Old Mans Van was’nt damaged that much and he thought he had done the damage anyway, and nobody ever reported the incident the the Police either!

So we got away with it!