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Life in 1950's Angmering, as recorded by Roy Green in an open letter to his granddaughter Hannah --- episode six.
On returning to Civvy Street, I got work at Darlington's mushroom farms. I could have gone back to my electrical apprenticeship, but the pay at the time was one shilling a three pence an hour (just 7 pence at today's money), whereas the mushroom farm paid eight pounds a week plus overtime.
It was during this time I met Doreen your Granny, at a civil defence dance in the Assembly Hall, Worthing. Her father Don Whitaker was running the dance. It was about one year after our meeting that we decided to get married.
We had a big engagement party at Doreen's house in 11 Mendip Rd Durrington, where most of our friends slept overnight on the floor of the living room.
My best mate Peter Bentley went out with Molly Daulton, Doreen's next-door neighbour. Unfortunately he was drowned in a boating accident. I really missed Pete a lot; he was only about 20 years old when he died.
Doreen worked at a knitwear factory as an over locker. We did all sorts of things to earn some cash to get married, even baby-sitting at 10 shillings a time (50p).
Doreen's house was in a block of four flats in Mendip Rd, and neighbours simply let themselves in to borrow things. Molly Daulton's mother used to come into the flat and help herself to cigarettes. If the door was locked there was always a key outside in an upturned umbrella.
These things were always returned, and it was of course in the days that people were not scared to leave their doors open. Can you imagine that happening today ?
Don Whitaker, Doreen's father, was a great bloke. We got on really well and I respected him very much. I could not really get on with her mother Flos. Many times me and Flos had disagreements. When we told her we were going to marry, she insisted that Doreen could not marry unless we had somewhere to live.
So we found ourselves a little caravan, and rented a large piece of ground at St Deny`s Nursery in Dappers Lane Angmering to keep it on. One caravan we had was really great, it was heated by a coal fire. We could just lean out of bed on cold mornings and open up the fire to get the place warm before we had to get up.
Eventually we got a small flat in Water Lane, Angmering, a little pokey but it served a purpose.
I married Doreen in St Andrew's Church in Tarring on the 23rd March 1957, and spent a honeymoon in London with a relative of my mum's. The house we stayed in was one that had suffered badly during the war: the old dear had countless horrible stinking Pekinese dogs. The whole house was really smelly. Still it was free.
Cash was in short supply; we did visit most of London's sights and ate out in Lyons Corner House cafes. They were cheap and the grub was good. Sadly there are no Corner House Cafés now, they were taken over and eventually disappeared.
When we returned from honeymoon to our caravan, we were totally skint. I remember going around the field we rented, and digging up potatoes that had been left in from the previous crops. Still they made a meal.
I left Darlingtons and went to work in a scrap yard bailing up scrap metal with my then brother-in-law Terry Cooper. He was married to Doreen's sister Margaret (GAG).
The scams we had going on this job were unbelievable. Any non-ferrous metals such as brass, copper or aluminum we were allowed to keep. We sold this to another dealer on the site and shared out the money. Overnight, Terry would go back and nick it, and then sell again the next day.
Doreen and myself moved around various flats and houses, one in Southsea for a while, until your old mum was born in 1960, when we got a council house in 21 Palmers Rd, Angmering.
I started work with Crispa in January 1961 and stayed with them for 27 years, fourteen of these in Southport, Lancashire.
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