The Date was Christmas Time 1987, incidentally Exactly 25 Years ago to this Date!
The Picture to the left (its a bit Blurry) is the Actual Takeaway now, some 25 Years later, its still going as a Chinese Takeaway these Days!
I had just Closed the New Takeaway for the Christmas and New Year Period, and things were going Great, Work and Money Wise, by this time we had been Living in the same House for Nearly 6 Years, Nathan was 9 Years of Age and Natalie was nearly 8 Years.
Me and Susan had been Married for Nearly 10 Years by now, and things were going Great for us as a Family!
After 2 Weeks off Work (I believe) for Christmas and New Year, I was back in the Takeaway, as you would expect, just into the New Year things were Fairly Slow, but I thought “Not too Worry, things would soon Pick-Up”
But for me in the Takeaway, things Never got back to the Heights of the Trade as they were before Christmas, things seemed to Drag on for Weeks, and I was Beginning to Realise what a “White Elephant” I had Brought into!
A Couple of things that Stand out in my Mind from around this Period, which was early to Mid 1988 were: Firstly, I used to Sell Cans of Pepsi etc in the Takeaway, and I used to have a Rep come to the Shop, now and again, on one of his Visits, he asked if I would like to Enter a Competition that Pepsi was Running!
It concerned Michael Jackson, who Pepsi were Sponsoring him and his Bad World Tour of that Year, there was all sorts of Prizes, and one of the the Main Prizes was to see Wacko at Wembley in July of ’88!
So as Susan liked Wacko, I entered the Competition, and thought Nothing more of it.
About 2 Months later, I took a Phone Call one Day from the Pepsi Rep, who had came into the Takeaway previously, and he said “Do you Remember that Competition you Entered a few weeks back”
I said “Yes” he then went on to say, “You have Won, 2 Tickets to see Michael Jackson”
I couldn’t believe it, I never had Won anything in my Life, not back then or Now!
I Remember Susan was “Over the Moon” so we had a few months to save up, as we were off to Wembley!
The 2nd thing I always Remembered was, I used to get a lot of Customers, all the way from a Holiday Camp‘s in Hopton, which is a Few Miles Away, and they All used to say the same thing to me, when they returned the Next Time “Your Fish and Chips are Great, Better than the Chips Shops around here and in the Camp!
I used to get them Sort of Comments all the Time, and always Believed I could get the Takeaway, making a Few Bob, and having a easier Life, but unfortunately for me and the Family, things were going to get a Whole lot Worse, later!
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Now for some Music, I thought I would put a few Classic Soul Christmas Tracks on here, from 3 Soul Greats including Sam Cooke, Donnie Hathaway and of course Al Green………..
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