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I started work with Crispa at Angmering, West Sussex in January 1961 and stayed with them for 27 years, fourteen of these in Southport, Lancashire. We lived in the nursery flat for a while, and then bought a large Victorian house at 240, Portland Street, which we purchased then at £2,500. It really was a smashing house with a large garden at the rear, wrote Roy Green. It backed onto a cemetery so the neighbours were very quiet.
I will always remember one night when a dog over in the graveyard was howling like mad and wouldn't stop. My daughter Chris and me climbed over the wall in our dressing gowns to see what was making this dog howl, and he ran further into the graveyard and totally disappeared. SPOOKY...
Southport was a really nice place. I worked at Crispa, while Doreen had various jobs, including one in an off licence. Chris went to Linaker Street School when she was five years old, this was one of the best in the area, and eventually onto the Girls' High School where I think she enjoyed herself.
At weekends, mainly on a Saturday, Doreen and myself would go around the town visiting various wine bars. I must admit we usually got quite squiffy. Chris and her friend worked at weekends in an ice cream shop during the summer, and we got lovely big helpings of soft ice cream, one of my favorites. I always said, if I won the pools I would buy a soft ice cream machine.
I was lucky enough to have a firm's car with everything paid for including petrol. We often went to the Lake District for weekend trips, and other places nearby, like Blackpool, which was very close.
Next door to us in Portland St, Southport, was an old couple, the wife being a right nut case. She drove us all mad with her daily ranting. She would go on all day about someone wanting to poison her. If I had been her husband, I think I probably would have.
If she saw me washing our car, she would come out and tell me that the car was hers, and to stop washing it. She would get the milk delivered each day, and pour it away because she thought she would be poisoned. Sad I suppose.
Portland Street was, I suppose, a little old fashioned, built in Victorian times during the 1800's. When we moved in, the street lighting was very old fashioned with some gas lights. I remember the night they switched on the new modern lighting. Everyone came out to stand and watch. Quite a carnival occasion.
Basically, we all liked living in Southport, and we lived there for 14 years. The house we purchased was a really nice old house with very large rooms and a nice garden as I have already mentioned. We purchased at £2,250 and sold at £7,500. This doesn't seem a lot at today's prices but it is worth remembering that the average weekly wage at that time was about £12 a week.
I was asked to return to Crispa at Angmering in Sussex to run the packing station there, and we returned in November 1979.
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