>TOUR DE FRANCE & LARRY GRAHAM

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After working a couple of Months in the Town Center Co-op Butchery in Mid 1982, I was offered another Position in the company, it was being a Relief- Butcher, i.e going around the other Branches of the Co-op in my area, this I had done before when I worked for Dewhurst’s Butchers, anyway I jumped at the chance, as I did not like my Butchery Manager too much!


After a couple of weeks, I was asked to work in a near by Town Butcher’s, the Town was called Caister, I said “Yes” but when I thought about it, as I was still Biking to work, I thought I would get the Bus to work, this turned out to be a Nightmare, we were Living in the far end of Gorleston and Caister was about 7/8 Miles away!


As I started work at 8am in the Morning, I left home about 7am, firstly I had to get to Yarmouth, then get another Bus to Caister, the first day at the New Place, I was Late, then after about an 9 hour shift, I had to do the Bus rides all again, if I remember correctly it was gone 7pm before I got home that first night!


I liked working at the New Shop, the Shop Manager was a Chap by the name of Derrick, he was about 50 years old, if I remember right, there was an Assistant Manager, I cant remember his name, but he was a few years younger than me, he was alright as well, & they had a Saturday Boy, he was Derricks son!


The following week I was asked to go to the Caister Shop again, I remembered the Bus Rides and thought Sod that!  my only other way of getting there was on my Bike, so I did, it used to take nearly 1 hour to get there, as I said it was about 7/8 miles away!

When I finally got Home that night, I thought I had done a Days ride in the Tour De France!


Little did I know then, in a few Weeks time, biking to Caister was going to become a Regular thing!


As for Music around this Period, I would like to go back a Couple of Years to 1980, and one of the Best Bass Players Ever  “Larry Graham” had a Great Single out, it was called “One In A million You” it was from his Debut Solo Album of the same name.


This was a change from his usual Music (check out the second Video), with “Sly & the Family Stone” and “Graham Central Station” this was a love Ballad written by Sam Dees, it made Number One in the US R&B Charts and Number 9 in US Pop Chart!


Larry Graham has a Great Voice and this was a Great song. I remember Buying the Single and the Album, and of course I have the Cd now!






http://www.4shared.com/embed/21678328/2acecdb7
Listen to “One in a Million You” by Larry Graham. 

Love had played its games on me so long
I started to believe I’d never find anyone
Doubt had tried to convince me to give in
Said you can’t win

But one day the sun it came shinin’ through
The rain had stopped and the skies were blue
And oh, what a revelation to see
Someone was saying “I love you” to me

A one in a million, chance of a lifetime
And life showed compassion
And sent to me a stroke of love called you
A one in a million you

I was a lonely man with empty arms to fill
Then I found a piece of happiness to call my own
And life is worth living, again
For to love you, to me, is to live

A one in a million, chance of a lifetime
And life showed compassion
And sent to me, a stroke of love, called you
A one in a million you

A one in a million, chance of a lifetime
And life, showed compassion
And sent to me, a stroke of love called you
A one in a million you, a one in a million you

 ONE IN A MILLION YOU LYRICS  BY SAM DEES

SMALLER SHOP & THE BLACKBYRDS

When Natalie was Born on 10/03/80, I was still working in the Original Branch of Dewhust’s the Butcher’s, because I can Remember walking backward’s & forward’s to Work, as we only Lived about 10 Minutes away!

So when I exactly moved form one Branch/Shop to another on a permanent basis I cannot really remember, I think what happened was I did some Days here & there at the New Shop!

As this was a smaller Shop, there was only 2 Full Time Staff & me working there now & again

Anyway the Shop Manager at the new place was an old Butcher by the Name of “Wally”, what you might call an Old-Fashioned type of Manager, he must have been at least 65, but looked about 105!

He was alright as a Manager though, and the other worker was another Old Boy by the name of “Percy” he was from London Originally,  he as I can remember had a right Cockney Accent, he was alright as well!

Working in the new Shop was a lot slower than the other Main Branch, which I worked, the other Shop, seemed only interested in how much Meat they Sold, where as the smaller Shop seemed more worried about talking to all the Customer’s and calling them by their first Names!

I think I preferred working at the Smaller Shop!

I think it was around the time Natalie was Born that me & Susan made one of our Biggest Mistakes during our Marriage, as we were both Young around 22 years of Age with 2 Little Babies, we used to let my Mother look after Nathan now & again, too give Susan a break, over the time this is where my Mother tried to take over & tell us how we should bring our Kids up, more of this later!

Around this time in 1980 one Album I brought which was Great was The Blackbyrds “Better Days” this as it turned out was their Last Studio Album they ever Realesed, obviously back then it was on Vinyl, but I now have it on CD.

It was Produced by George Duke, The Best Track on Album, in my opinion was “Love Dont Strike Twice”

Have a listen below, its the first track on the player!

Download the Album here “The Blackbyrds, Better Days”

A Selection of “The Blackbyrds” music see below

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

NEW ARRIVAL & A MOVE! (MAR/APRIL 1980)

 Two major things happened around March / April of 1980!

Firstly our Second Child was Born, on 10/03/80,
                                       Its a Girl!
so Nathan had a Sister,  I can remember going to the Registry Office with instructions from Susan to call the New Baby “Natasha” but I wanted to call her Natalie, I honestly cant remember what exactly happened, but she ended up been Named “Natalie” Susan always said I named her after “Natalie Cole”  I cant remember that either!

Anyway I was glad we had a Girl, so we had one of each!

We did have loads of Pictures of Natalie, as we did Nathan, but many years ago, either my Mother or one of my Sister’s asked us for some Photos of Natalie & Nathan, to make us a Photo Album of our Kids!

Then we all fell out and we have never seen our Photos again! and of course we never got the Album!

A few years ago when we were on speaking terms,we asked for the Photos back, but Guess what…..they didnt have them & didnt know where the were either! so that’s why we have no early Photos of Natalie, to put on here, I will ask some of Susan’s Family, to see if they have any!

I think our earliest photo’s of Natalie are of about 6/9 months old.

So if any of my Family are reading this Blog in the weeks, month’s and Years to come……………………            
                    I WANT OUR PHOTOS BACK!

The other thing that happened around this time was, I finally got a move to a different Butcher’s Shop!

It was still for Dewhurst’s, but a smaller branch about 2 miles away, It was a better place to work, as I didnt like a couple of the Staff at the other Shop!

How I remember around this period of April 1980, Number One in the U.K Pop Chart, was The Detroit Spinners with “Working My Way Back To You Girl / Forgive Me Girl.

We always had a Radio on in the Shop (out back) and the Spinners were alway being played!

NEW JOB, NEW HOUSE!!!

I have tried hard to think of the correct dates and times around this period, but I cannot remember, firstly did we move House first or was it my new Job first! and what month did this happen!

I guessing this, but I think I changed Jobs first, which would have been around September / October of 1979, and we moved around middle to late October 1979!

But whatever the facts were, it was a busy time, not forgetting as well Susan was Pregnant!

I was working as a Butcher for Dewhurst’s, which included getting meat ready to sell and serving Customer’s!

I say “getting meat ready to sell” in my case as I was the new chap in the Shop, a couple of my main jobs were getting the Mince ready and cutting up Chicken’s into portion’s, not too taxing, as specially as I had been a Chef for about 5 years, so cutting up Meat and the Cuts of meat were quite easy!

Cutting up Steak and the better cuts of meat was down to the ” more experienced Butcher’s”, who worked in the Shop, I always found this a bit ridiculous, as I had probably cut and cooked more Meat/Joints/Steaks than most of the other workers put together!

I got on with most of the worker’s and actually eventually lived next door to one of them, about a year or to later!

I didnt like the Manager that much, a Chap called “Ernie” cant remember his last name though, I dont think he liked it because I did’nt need too much Teaching, because of my previous Job!

When we eventually moved from our One Room Accomodation to our rented Three Bedroomed House, It was Great, all that space!

We had permission to Decorate anywhere we liked, which eventually we did, from top to bottom!

Every Friday night I had to go to the Landlord’s House (it was only 5 minutes away) and pay the Rent, a grand total of £7.00 per week, but over 30 year’s ago, that was quite alot out of my wages!

See picture above, I went back to our first House (pictures are of front & back of house), it still looks the same, we actually past it at least 4 times a week, its about 2 miles from where we live now!

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!