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!
We were now into Spring time in 1978, Dates I must admit are a bit vague around this time, as we had alot of things happening around this time!
As Susan was Pregnant and due Early September, we had alot of things to sort out "where to live" "marriage" and of course our "Baby"
We arranged to get Married in July, nowadays it seems nobody gets Married, but just live together!, but back then, it was completely different, although we had already talked about Marriage, the event of Susan being Pregnant, speeded everything up!
Both Families were not Happy, to say the least! my Mum didnt like Susan, my Dad was alright to her, Susan thought the same of both of them!
I didnt like Susan's Dad, but did like her Mum, and basically that's how it was back then, and how it has been for most of our lives!
Susan's Mum was the only one, that was always alright to us!
It was also around this time that we found out, that the Promised Rented Property we had hoped to move into, fell through!
So now we had no where to live, Susan was about 5/6 months Pregnant and we were getting Married in about 2 month's time!
Could things get any WORSE!
By now around late 1977, I was back at College, doing the second two year part of my Catering Course, things were going well at my new Job, I still had my Car and me and Susan were still seeing each other!
We had, had a Great Summer, as I said Susan worked in her Father's Shop, during the Summer Season, I used to go in there all the time and sometimes help out! but that Work had now finished and the Winter months were now upon us, I remember we used to Baby Sit for several of Susan's Brother's and Sister's on a weekly basis, to think now all them Kids we babysat for are now, are in their middle to late 30's!
That Christmas was my First with Susan Really, although I knew her the Year before, this was our first together! Being single I can remember us buying each other loads of Presents, one item in particulary I remember buying Susan was a red and multi striped coloured Robe, I think it was for Bedtime!
But all the Excitement of Christmas was not going to prepare me for what Susan told me while we were sitting at the back of her Mother's Front room, I think it was Christmas Day when she told me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"I'M PREGNANT"
What a SHOCK this was, I was just 19 and Susan was 18, this obviously this was going to change our lives forever! I cant honestly remember how this News affected that Christmas,
We were both in Shock!
How the HELL would we cope, we were Still Teenager's ourselves, I know nowadays it seems to be the Norm to have Kids Young, but back then it was unusual to have Kids at that Age!
