1949 our first born arrived .

About a year or so after we moved into the flat the landlord died and the new owner put both flats up for sale ,as we were sitting tenants we where offered it at a lower price than it would be with vacant possession , we were able to get a municipal mortgage at very favorable terms .Soon after the people in the other flat left and we were able to let it to a Naval Officer which meant their rent was paying the mortgage for us .

When we got engaged we went to see Joan's parents who worked as butler and cook in large country houses they were living in so we only stayed for the day,we,only saw them a few times. Joan took to my mother and father and went to the house every day and took the children there, she would help my mother with the house work and later on would work on my fathers smallholding collecting eggs etc she loved working there .My mother became her mother in almost every way ,they were very happy days . While I was overseas I had part of my pay paid into an account in the UK so I was able to furnish the ground floor flat ,you had to have coupons for almost every thing ,the back of the wardrobe was made of three ply from a tea chest,it lasted about 20 years but was full of woodworm so it had to go to the tip. We never complained we always felt that we were so lucky to have come back from the war and to have our own home and to have a beautiful son.



I went to work on my bike, i did not have a car until about 1958 , it was a Ford 10 horsepower , and a few years later a Rover 95 ,Joan did some waitressing in the evenings in the summer she liked meeting the people .in 1953, we had a lovely daughter ,this time she was born in a NHS maternity Hospital , My son was born in a nursing home no NHS then we had to pay ,the care was basic . We went on holiday when the children were small in June ,once on the bus , we stayed in a gypsy caravan. When we arrived in the late evening it was very foggy and could just make out the caravan, when we awoke in the morning we found we were very near the edge of the cliff , and we had the most beautiful view of the sea .We went everywhere by bus or walked with the pushchair , once we went on a ferry boat ,the boatman lifting the chair with the baby in it on to the boat,it was great fun . When we went to come home we did not have enough money for a taxi so we had to walk, we put the suitcases in the pushchair and carried the Baby it was good fun ,we were together.