Early years

When Mum and Dad married they first lived in Bower Lane, Eaton Bray where Robert was born in 1957, then Taskers Row, Edlesborough where I was born in 1960. In 1962 we moved to Glebe Close in Pitstone, a new development of council houses, with an indoor bathroom, luxury. This was a great upbringing for us, as nearly all the houses had families with children of similar ages. We would play out in the street for as late as we could before Mum would eventually call us in.

Dad had seven brothers and sisters and it seemed we were always going off for visits at the weekend. Stopping off at a pub on summer evenings was the norm and Mum would bring out bottles of pop and crisps to Bob and me in the car, while we made our own entertainment. Child-line would be inundated if that happened nowadays, but it was always an adventure for us as kids.

The Labour Club in Leighton was also another regular Sunday night out. Dad would spend the early evening in the ‘men only’ bar, and we would sit with Mum while she played bingo. Then the resident band would start and we would be up, with mum teaching us dances. We always had a sing-song on the way back, and I would be asleep by the time we arrived home, with Mum or Dad carrying me up to bed.

Dad worked at Waterlows, a printing firm in Dunstable and Mum as a hairdresser. She had a shop in Ivinghoe called Vogue, which she co-owned with Doris Hawkins. At some point in the early 70’s, with help from family, they bought the shop and adjacent cottage, which was converted for our new home. Mum and Doris parted company but Mum carried on working in the newly branded ‘Jeans’, I always thought there wasn’t a great deal of time spent on working on the new name.

The hairdressers eventually closed and Mum had a variety of jobs in local factories before finally ending up at Tunnel Cement, where she worked until her retirement.

After Bob and myself eventually moved out, Mum and Dad returned to Edlesborough in 1990. They loved their cosy cluster home by the river and settled there content in their retirement. Mum was a golf/horse racing/football widow, but never had any complaints, she was more than happy for Dad to enjoy his life while she was selfless in knowing he was happy. However Mum did get to enjoy the social side of Dad’s sporting past-times and through his golfing friends from Dunstable Golf Club, they socialised a lot both here and abroad. Mum always recalled countless stories of their exploits and fun times, Pete Samsa usually being at the heart of all the antics. I know these were very happy times for them both.