Around September of 1979, I had a choice of several different Jobs to go to , as I was leaving the Hotel where I had worked for nearly 3 years, I had several different Interviews at Bakeries & Butcheries around my local Town!
The Wages as a Butcher or Baker were virtually around the same, but a butcher worked more sensible hours, ie 8 till 5, where as a Baker would start around 2 am in the morning, but be finished by about 9am, but with Kids, that was'nt a Job for me!
So I had a choice of 2 different Butchers Shops, incidentally both of them have now Ceased Trading, but back then they were the 2 biggest Butchers in the UK, Dewhurst's & Baxter's.
I chose Dewhurst's, but their nearest shop was about 4/5 miles from where we were living!
But as Luck would have it, around this same period we were offered a Private Rented Property in the next Town to us, which was the same Town as where the Shop was for my new Employer's, so everything worked out O.K!
Incidentally, we got the Rented Property through the Housing Oficer I mentioned in a previous Blog Entry, so we were very Grateful to Her!
In those days, Private Rent was not a common thing, it was either, you had a Mortgage or you had a Council House & paid a Rent!
These days it round to other way, most people are in Private Rented Properties & paying well over the odds for the Pleasure!
Obviously we didnt get our new place that easily, we had to go to see the Landlord & his Wife, their were a few rules etc, plus we had to get a couple of References, but these came from the Housing Officer & Person in charge (our Friend) from our shared Accomodation House but the main thing was they liked us & Nathan, & after a short while, we were told we could move in!
So for the first time in our Married Life (over 1 year) we were going to be Living in a House together, & more importantly, on our own!
By about July /August 1979 Three Major things were happening in our Life!
Baby, House & Job!
Firstly Susan was Pregnant, the baby was due March 1980, Nathan was'nt quite one yet, so two small Babies together , anyway the new Baby was planned!
Our One Bedroomed place in a shared House, was alright but as you can imagine, very cramped, but as I said in previous post we got on well with a couple of different people, one being the unofficial Person in Charge of the House, Shirley was her name, the other Person was the Head Council Woman in Charge of our House, a Woman by the name of Phyllis Flaxman, who I mentioned her in a previous Post!
Now Mrs Flaxman had said she had a Landlady Friend who was soon having a Property empty, & would we be interested in a Move!
Of course we said "Yes" to her, and now just had to wait for news on the possible move!
The Third about to happen was concerning my Job, I had just found out I had Passed my Catering Exams, I had taken them about May / June earlier that year!
In the Exams I took to become a Fully Qualfied Chef, you had Three Levels of Pass,
1. Distinction 2. Credit 3. Pass
I got a "PASS"...................... so not the Best Brains!
But I could Handle working under Pressure in a Hot Steamy Kitchen as good as most, & thats what really mattered, A person can have as many Qualifications as he wants, but when it comes to the Nitty Gritty of Hard Work in a under pressure situation of a Hot Kitchen, can he handle it!
& the answer in most cases was................ "NO"
So with the Passing of my Final Exams, We had to make our Minds up what was I going to do for a Job!
I definately knew I was finishing with being a Chef, seems strange after doing 4 Years at College on day release from Work and 1 year when at School (at college) that I finally passed all my Exams and the first I do when finally being a Qualfied Chef, was Leave the Trade!
But when I started 5 years previous I was a single man, now I was Married with a Kid & one on the way, Cooking was not a Married Man's Job!
Too many Long Hours and too many differing Split Shifts!
So I decided to either try to become a Butcher or a Baker, so I set about writing off loads of letters to different Butcher's & Bakery's in my Home Town!
