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The previous part of this story can be found under Brighton, East Sussex.
Teenager Gordon Mills was doing farm work in the latter part of the war and had moved, together with his parents,from his home town of Brighton to Barnham in West Sussex.
In the fall of 1944 we left Barnham and went to another farm near Hassocks. The house to this job was across two fields, but the bus stopped on the road where we came down from the house. Again the job wasn't very good. Long hours for little pay.
In those days you were paid by your age, and since I was only sixteen I was a long way off from getting full pay, which started at 21. With Dad's small pension we seemed to get by, week by week.
Victory in Europe happened while we were living there. What a day that was. That evening after work I cycled to Hassocks Station and got on a train to London. In London the whole place had gone wild. I had never seen so many happy people in one spot.
I got back home in the early hours of the morning, didn't go to bed but went right to the farm to start milking. I went to bed early that night!
Early in 1945 Mum took ill with a stroke. She never went to the doctor about her constant headache, had she have done so perhaps something could have been done. She died and was buried in Keymer Church. We were very upset for a long time.
In the fall of 1945, a friend of the family, Tom Pateman, wrote to us and suggested that I come to work on the farm he was working at in Twineham. He said the boss was a good man and they wanted a man for the cow herd. (Peter Pateman, the son of Tom, was the best man at our wedding.)
I went up to see the place and decided that I would take the job. Again there was a house to go with the job so we were all alright again as far as that went. A plus was the new boss would send a truck to get all our furniture and belongings, and it wouldn't cost us anything.
With the death of Mum I think we all wanted to get away to a new place, so the change was welcome.
It didn't take long after getting to the new job that the boss expected more of me than there were hours in the day. I stuck it out because we had enough of moving for a while. Tom Pateman lived in the next cottage to us, so Dad was able at least to visit with them.
In October 1946 Peter Pateman came home after being demobbed from the Royal Air Force Regiment. We became good friends right off and both of us had an interest in motorcycles. We both got one, and somehow managed to get them running despite of not having a supply of gasoline (legally).
While at Twineham we got to hear about dancing lessons being held in a local hall. They were held on Monday nights, and according to all reports plenty of girls were going. Peter and I, along with another friend on the farm, Darky Small, decided to take a look.
The lessons were giving by a married couple, Mr.& Mrs. Moxford, and the style was after the radio dance lessons by Victor Sylvester. They were good fun and afforded opportunity to come into contact with the local girls.
I had been going up there for about three weeks when I noticed a young girl in a red dress with white spots. I found her name to be Cecilia Pelling. She was 19 and it was love at first sight for me! But she wasn't as keen on me !!.
Gordon Mills, Canada, 2002
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