After John left us, I was alone with my boys. He moved out into a bed-sitting room just down the road at the back of the Grapes public house, just off Bridgeman Rd. I used to meet him every Friday night at the Grapes when he would give me my housekeeping of £6.0.0d a week.  This was just for food, as he still paid the bills and the mortgage. Of course, the house was in his name. This eventually caused a whole lot of problems and heartache for me and the resulting outcome has had repercussions on me to this very day and will do for the rest of my life. He moved again a couple of months later to a bed-sit at the corner of The Butts and Windsor St., around the corner from my Nan. I thought what a brass neck he had!

        I wasn’t working at the time and when young John was at school, I would take my babies down to Radford Common, where I made new friends in the Beaker café. Not all of these friends were what you would call suitable, but I was very naïve at the time and took everyone at their face value. I met a young girl who lived in the YWCA. She gave me a sob story and I felt sorry for her and as well as feeling lonely myself, invited her to come and share my home. She moved in the following weekend. She didn’t have a job and wasn’t getting any money except for her dole, which wasn’t much. She stayed for a couple of months and never paid me a penny board.  I can’t remember how I got her to leave, but to my relief she left about August time after causing me an awful lot of heartache. 

        Meanwhile, in June 1961, I was down at the Radford common one afternoon, sitting with my friends and chatting. (Stephen and Kevin were in Poole Rd. nursery at the time) and across the road were some cottages, these were subsequently demolished and Mossdale Close was built on the site. I saw a lad walking up from Beake Avenue. I said to my friend “Who is that gorgeous looking chap? ”. One of the lads said “Oh! That’s Bob Vernon, Val Vernon’s brother. He’s only sixteen!”  Prophetic words indeed! He obviously knew my friends, as he came over and sat on the common with us for a while. I thought that he was the best looking lad I had ever seen. He looked an awful lot like Elvis Presley. He had the same hairstyle, and had a beautiful tan, wore a black shirt and blue jeans, and that sort of brooding moody look that Elvis had. What a pity he was so young!  Little did I know that this was to be my future husband and that we would be married for almost 30 years before he died at the early age of 50. It was to be another 16 months though before we started going together.

        My life continued in the same pattern all the way through 1961. By this time, Stephen and Kevin were in the nursery and John was at school, I got myself a job at the Beaker café, helping out in the kitchen and behind the counter. I was very happy with this job, as many of my friends used it, and I got on well with the people who owned it. The one black spot came in November of that year.  My dear Nan fell ill with a severe cold. Auntie Kath nursed her at Norfolk Street, for about three weeks, where she spent her 79^th birthday, but at the beginning of December, she sadly passed away. It was ironic that she died at the address that had been her home for many years. The day of her funeral was very bleak and cold and there was snow on the ground. She was buried with Grand pap in London Road Cemetery. Some time later, Uncle Frank gave me some of her effects. Among other things, I had her vacuum cleaner and fireside chairs. I suppose that Nan was the first of my really close relatives to die. Her brother, my Great Uncle Len had passed away in 1958, but I wasn’t as close to him as I was to my Nan.

        I really don’t remember a lot about the start of 1962. Life must have gone on as usual but I'd had such a traumatic year in 1961 and indeed it hadn't changed in that respect.  I think I have a mental block against it all and have forgotten quite a lot.  I was still working at the Beaker café, hearing hits such as ”Moon River” (from the film ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s) or Neil Sedaka’s “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen” blasting out from the juke box but the first thing to stick out in my mind that year, was great excitement about John Glenn, an American astronaut, orbiting the earth in the first manned space flight on February 20^th. After this phenomenon, putting a man on the moon didn’t seem so impossible! Nearer home, Coventry was getting ready to consecrate the new Cathedral. The Queen and Prince Phillip came on May 27^th and many people gathered in the City to be a part of the occasion.

        April came, and a visit from John! He calmly informed me that he had been to court, and got custody of my boys! I didn’t even know that the case had been to court, so I was too late to state my case! That’s how many rights women had in those days! I was supposed to hand seven years of my life over to him without a by your leave. He was going to move back in when he was ready!  I lost my job at he Beaker café a couple of months later, Ev and her husband had sold it, to move to a café near the new motorway, I went out and promptly got another one at a place called the Blue Chain on the Holyhead Road. It was a greengrocer’s shop and I worked there for a couple of months, before it too closed down. With my first week’s wages, I went to Dolly Birk’s, a clothes shop on the Radford Road, and bought myself a brand new outfit.  I joined their club, where one paid 1/-d in the £ every week. I bought a lovely peach dress, and a white ‘duster’coat for the summer. With a white handbag, shoes and gloves and my hair dyed black and styled in a ‘bouffant’ hairstyle I was ready to challenge the world!!

        I asked my Dad to sit with the children while I went out for a change, and he gladly agreed. So I went to the Cedars, a public house near Mum and Dad’s house, where they had a ‘live’ group playing in the lounge .  They were called "The Cedarmen" and the leader was a pianist, (Johnny Leeson),  who lived up the top of  Brackenhurst Road, a drummer and a singer. As soon as I arrived, I saw a friend of mine named Carol. She was an ex-girlfriend of Bob Vernon’s and was with him and her new boyfriend. I sat down with them, and Bob was buying my drinks all night (Babycham) and telling me how great I looked etc. etc. At the end of the night, he asked if he could take me home and I asked him if he knew how old I was. He said, “Yes”, but he still wanted to walk me home, so, feeling a bit daft, as he was so young, I let him. We didn’t arrange to meet again, but I really liked him a lot. A real ‘charmer’!!  This was July, during the Coventry Holiday fortnight, as it was then. I seem to remember it being a lovely summer that year. I was at Mum and Dad’s one Saturday in August (6^th) when news came over on the radio that the screen goddess, Marilyn Monroe had been found dead in her bed. It was a big shock, as she was so very popular and beautiful.  She was only 36 years old. She was thought to have committed suicide but there has been a lingering doubt about it, ever since.

            My brother, David got married for the first time to Judy  Austin on 18th August at Allesley Church.  John was a pageboy and my cousin Linda was a bridesmaid.  They had their reception at Baginton Airport.  It was a beautiful sunny day and a lovely wedding.  Dave's best friends were there, among them was Les Owen, the former captain of the Brandon Bees Speedway, who at the time, had his head in bandages, having had a nasty crash and fractured his skull.  This was a foretaste of tragedy to come for Les, as sometime afterwards, he had a more serious crash and was brain damaged in 1973.  Sadly he died in the early 2000's, while crossing the railway line at Canley Halt, on his way home, he was accidentally killed by a train.  He was a lovely lad and always had a friendly word for me whenever we met when he was walking his beloved collie dogs.  He always asked about Dave.  However, I digress again!  I knitted Steven and Kevin a cardigan each in blue and white,  with guardsmen and a castle on them. It was the first time I'd knitted in "intarsia"---pictures in different colours.  I teamed them with little white shorts and shirts and they looked really smart. John wore blue velvet trousers and a white shirt and dickie bow.  A couple of weeks after the wedding, the boys and I were invited over to Dave and Judy's house for Sunday tea.  They had bought a house in Marton, a village near Rugby.  The day before, John had gone to the High Mounts on the Keresley Road, to pick blackberries and had been stung on the end of his nose by a bumble bee.  He had an allergic reaction to the sting and by Sunday morning, he was unrecognisable!!  His face had swelled up and I took him to the hospital.  They put some cream on the sting and told me that it would take it's course and go on it's own.  When we went to Dave's and were sitting at the table, Dave couldn't stop laughing at him.  It was such a shame!  Roger left school that summer and started an apprenticeship at Lee Beesley's electrics.  It didn't suit him though, so he went into the grocery trade in the food department of Owen Owens.  Two years later, he got a job as Assistant Manager at Fine Fare in Westhill Road.  When that closed down, he went to Leamington where he worked at Lockheed (later Automotive Products) When he worked there, he met Rosemary, his first wife, who lived with her parents in Lillington.

           In October of that year, the news that I had been dreading came with a vengeance!  John was about to come back to Brackenhurst Road, and take up residence. This meant leaving my boys, and going to live in a bed-sitting room. I got one up at Malmsbury Road, at Whitmore Park.  I was still able to see my boys once a week and always took them to my Mum and Dad’s on Saturdays. By this time, I had another job in Lyons café in Broadgate. I wasn’t there long, before getting a job in Woolworth’s again. This time I was working behind the counter. It was a temporary job, for Christmas only, but it was something that would tide me over for the time being and the wages were better than the cafe. On the Saturday night that I left Lyon’s, prior to starting at Woolworth’s on the Monday, I went into the Manhattan café, just across the road from the Grapes pub. This is the café that was previously known as the Milano but under new ownership by now. While I was there, Bob (Vernon) came over to speak to me. He said that he’d been to call for me at my former home but John answered the door and said that I’d moved. We sat talking for a while, and he walked me home again that night, all the way up to Whitmore Park! We began to see each other regularly after this. I befriended Val, his sister and she took me home to meet his (her) Mum and Dad and the rest of the family. Bob was the second oldest son, the eldest was Fred, and his birthday was on Christmas Eve. He was born in 1942. After Bob came his sister, Val, who was 16 at the time, then Bill (15), Carol, (14), Richard (12), Ann (9), then lastly, there was Margaret, who had her 5^th birthday on 15^th November that year. The night that I met Marge and Pop was bitterly cold. A foretaste of the icy winter that followed in 1963. It was warm and cosy in their house though and Pop had jacket potatoes in the oven. They invited me to supper and we had them with melted cheese over the top. Mmmm! Delicious!  Bob was out with his friends, but came in later, and walked me home. By now, I was getting very fond of Bob, in fact, I knew by then that I was in love with him. At that time though, being as young as he was, his feelings weren’t as intense as mine and he often two-timed me with other girls!! Very hurtful at the time, but he always came back!  Ever the optimist, I knew that it was only a matter of time!  Bob had to grow up!

        Marge hadn’t been out for a number of years, owing to ill health.  She contracted TB in 1953, and was in Hertford Hill Sanatorium for two years. After which, she had young Margaret---aged five when I first got to know her. Val and I did a ‘makeover’ on Marge, in time for Christmas.  We cut her long hair in a short style, and gave her a home perm. At Christmas, we got her into town for the first time in three years! We spent a happy day shopping on Christmas Eve, although she was nervous at crossing the roads. We went to the Cedars pub that night, to help Fred celebrate his 21^st birthday and I got up on the stage to sing Bobby Darin’s “Things” with him. He was on leave from the army at the time. I stayed at their house over Christmas, although I had dinner at Mum and Dad’s on Christmas day. Marge felt sorry for me, living in a bed-sit, although at the time she didn’t know of the relationship between Bob and myself.  They made me feel very welcome, and I loved it there. On Boxing night, we went out to the Swanswell pub in the town, where Marge’s friend Sylvia was playing the piano at a ‘free and easy’. Marge had a wonderful voice. She used to sing with a band at the ‘Shepherd and Shepherdess’ in Keresley, before she became ill.  Her ‘party piece’s’ were ‘Only Make Believe’ from ‘Show Boat’, and Doris Day’s ‘Que Sera Sera’ She got up on the stage to sing them, for the first time since she had been ill, and went down a storm!! I got up and sang Elvis’s ‘Wooden Heart’ We had a wonderful evening and walked back to their house in the snow. I stayed at Bob’s parent’s house until New Year’s Day. I went out with Val on New Year’s Eve and when we got back to Marge’s, somehow, Bob and I finished up doing the dishes at midnight!  He washed and I dried! Val remarked that it was lucky for me, as whatever you’re doing on New Year’s Eve, you will be doing for the next 12 months!  Prophetic words indeed!

         Mum and Dad asked me to come back home early in the New Year, and I got a job in the G.E.C. factory in Stoke, on the wiring section. One of Bob’s friend’s girl friend Janet Marsden worked there. I knew her distantly, but we were to become very good friends over the years, and indeed, we still are to this day. More about Janet and Tom later!  They still piped the radio through the factory (as they did during the war) and we would listen to the popular music programmes while we were working. A new record came out by a young Liverpool group called the Beatles. Their first record was called “ From Me To You” and it shot up to the top of the charts in the first week that it was released. The rest of course, is history! A new bowling alley was opened in Queen Victoria Road and it became very popular with ‘our crowd’.  It was the ‘in’ place to be seen. My brief tenancy with Mum and Dad didn’t last long!  I realised at the end of February that I was pregnant!  Ooops!!  I managed to keep it quiet until May, but when they found out, I, of course, had to leave.  I found a bed sitting room at Sandy Lane in a house owned by an Asian couple. Val visited me often and every Saturday night, when the landlady made chicken curry, we raided the pantry, and pinched a couple of chicken legs each. Then we went down the road to the Manhattan, (for me to meet Bob), chewing the meat off them! One Saturday night, Val still had the bones in her hand, and we were walking over Ellis Road foot bridge over the railway line at the back of ‘Radford ‘Rec’. This was in a very quiet and dark part of Radford. A young man was coming the other way, and Val, being slightly nervous, screamed and held the chicken bone up to protect herself in case he attacked her!  The young man ran ‘hell for leather’ across the ‘rec !  I don’t know who was more frightened---him or Val!  I stood there crying with laughter!!  One night, soon after I moved in to Sandy Lane, I was sitting up in bed, knitting a little cardigan for my expected baby when I saw a mouse, scuttle across the hearth and disappear into a hole the other side of the fireplace. It made me jump but as I’m not frightened of mice, it didn’t worry me too much but the next morning ,Val came to see me, and I was telling her about it. She shuddered and said “Oh!  I can’t stand mice!” I said to her, “Oh look!  He’s there behind you!” She screamed, jumped about a foot in the air and somehow turned a 90-degree angle in mid-air falling flat on her face on my bed! Of course, there was no mouse but the sight of Val’s acrobatic act was a sight not to be missed. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since!

        When I was in the early stages of my pregnancy, John and Celia used to let me have my boys at the weekends, when I took them around to see my parents at Evenlode Crescent. Stephen and John would sing me whatever nursery rhymes that they had learned during the week.  John would start off, singing “One Man Went to Mow” Stephen used to invariably interrupt him, because HE wanted to sing his song!  Talk about sibling rivalry!  I had to tell him off one day because he kept doing this.  “Ok then”  He said “If you don’t listen to my song first, I’ll say ‘Bugger’ all the way round to my Nan’s!”  I got around this by promising him he could sing his song on Grandad’s  tape recorder.  When we got to Dad’s, I fetched to reel-to- reel tape recorder and they happily recorded their songs on tape for me.  I had this tape for years, but unfortunately, when our house was modernised in 1986, the tape disappeared and I haven’t seen it since.

          Soon, there began to emerge a scandal into the news. It started off as a trickle and soon became a flood of embarrassment for Harold McMillan’s (“You’ve never had it so good!”) government.  A relatively minor case about a West Indian being charged with threatening behaviour with a firearm, was the catalyst for a scandal that rocked the Country in June 1963.  A young call girl, Christine Keeler, was a witness for the prosecution. He was an ex lover of Christine Keeler’s and when she dumped him, he came round to her flat and threatened her with a gun. It appeared that this young 17 year old girl had been having a brief affair with the Minister for War, Mr. John Profumo.  At the same time she was alleged to have been sleeping with a Russian spy, Eugene Ivanov.  At first Profumo denied the rumour, but on June 5^th 1963, he was forced to resign from his post in the Government, and the story and subsequent court case against her ‘pimp’, Stephen Ward, a famous osteopath and artist, was to keep the population of Great Britain, riveted during that Summer, until poor Stephen Ward threw in the towel and committed suicide. Harold Macmillan , the prime minister, resigned through ill health and Alec Douglas Home took over as Prime Minister.  He was not a particularly memorable one and the following year, lost the election and Harold Wilson, leader of the Labour Party, became Prime Minister. All this was lost on me though at the time, as I wasn’t very interested in politics and after the Keeler/Profumo affair, they became boring to me

        During the summer, I often went to Marge’s and did her ironing for the boys.  She rewarded me by feeding me.  I would do Fred’s shirts and they were locked away in his wardrobe so that Bob couldn’t pinch them to wear when he went out at night, where he would probably get into a scrap and ruin said shirt!  Bob soon resolved this conundrum by taking off the back of the wardrobe!  Fred was in a no-win situation at the time, as he would be out for the night with a girlfriend and invariably would bump into Bob at some stage, and not only find that Bob had pinched his shirt, but the girlfriend would also be hijacked!!  At the time, I think that he was trying to break some kind of record just to see how many girls he could attract.

         My baby was due on September 22^nd so at the end of August, I moved into a home for unmarried mothers.  It was a very strict regime, with the pregnant girls having to do the house cleaning in the mornings, the girls who had given birth were spared this chore, as they had their babies to attend to.  We were only allowed out twice a week, on Thursday and Saturday afternoons. Of course, I spent these times visiting Mum and Dad, or sometimes Bob’s Mum and Val, his sister.  I didn’t see much of Bob during the latter weeks of my pregnancy as he was still sewing his wild oats.  However, I was quite happy and content at St. Faith’s.  Miss Paton, the lady who ran it, was very kind, if strict.  The food was wonderful and we really were well cared for.  The afternoons and evenings were spent watching television and knitting. I met some really nice girls there.  One was the grand-daughter of a previous Lord Mayor.  Although we got to be quite close friends during that couple of weeks, we never met again after we had our babies. We went back to living our lives I suppose.  St. Faith’s was just a watershed. I used to watch “Top of the Pops” every week and the first Thursday I was there the Beatles came on with their new record.  “She Loves You!”  Everyone loved it and by the time it was played the following week, it was number one.  Of course, I didn’t see that programme as I had just given birth. I went back to St. Faith's afterwards to show them my baby and they gave me a beautiful black Silver Cross pram.

On the morning of September 12^th, I awoke with niggling pains that were coming every five minutes.  I went into Gulson Road  hospital at about 10 o’clock in the morning.  I had my knitting with me and spent all afternoon knitting garments for my baby.  The pains decided to stop at about 4.30 PM. Just before the doctor came around.  He said that if they didn’t start again, I would go ‘home’ the next day. Visiting time came, which in those days was 7 until 7-30 PM.  My pains started with a vengeance!!  I didn’t have any visitors as no-one knew that I was in hospital, but I tried hard not to make a fuss, as the other ladies in the ward had their visitors.  I was doing my breathing exercises frantically, but at about 7-25 PM, a midwife came over and told me off. “Stop making such a fuss!  You are going home tomorrow!”  “ But nurse”!----

         "Nurse"  whipped the sheets off, with a cross look on her face that soon turned to shocked surprise.  “Oh!  The head is showing!!” She quickly closed the curtains around my bed and called another nurse.  Five minutes later, William Robert Adrian had arrived.  I felt so smug proving that stupid midwife wrong!!  Billy and I were transferred to Sage ward where the new Mum’s went with their babies and by 7.45 PM, I was sitting up in bed writing to Bob’s Mum!  Yes---it was that quick.  The following day, Billy and I were transferred to an out of the way annex of the maternity hospital at Kenilworth, called ‘The Towers’.  I had never felt so alone in my life before!  I was in a completely strange place, and knew no-one. There was a posh lady with blonde hair in the opposite bed to me, and her husband bought her a huge bunch of red roses and she had chocolates and cards galore.  She had given birth to a baby daughter.  I seem to remember that she wasn’t English, but I really felt the contrast between us. They used to keep our babies in the nursery, and a beautiful West Indian girl used to bring them in to us to be fed.  She would come in the door with a baby in each arm, wrapped up in ‘papoose’ style.  As soon as I saw my little boy appear, I felt an overwhelming feeling of “Him and me against the world!!”  It was that way, as when they found out that I was pregnant again, John and Celia wouldn't let my boys come to see me, although, God bless him, my John managed to see me a few times, later on and before they moved to London in 1967.

          On the Saturday night, Mum and Dad visited me as they had found out what had happened.  Dad came in with a most beautiful bunch of chrysanthemums and they said that we were to come home to their house when I was allowed out of hospital. The strange thing is, that I met a lady, Mary, who had her little boy, two days before I had Billy.  We became quite friendly in the hospital and when we left in the ambulance to be taken home, she was dropped off at some prefabs in Whoberley.  Little did I know that in another three years, Bob, Billy and myself would be living in those same prefabs and when they were demolished,  Mary moved to Radford and a few months later, so did we.  Mary and her family are still good friends of mine and live just around the corner from me!

        Billy and I stayed with Mum and Dad until the beginning of November, but it was clear that I had ‘grown away’ from living with my parents, so I went, once again into a bed-sit.  My relationship with Bob was back on again and he loved his son but I still had to share him with other girls for quite a while to come and he still lived at home with his family.        

        Val used to baby sit for a man and his wife who lived in the cottages that were on the Radford Road.  On 22^nd November of that year, Billy and I went to sit with her.  The television was on, and at 7.30 PM there was a ‘News Flash’----President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas.  It’s quite true that people can remember clearly where they were at the time of this tragic and shocking event. We watched the events unfold and after a while the news that he was dead came over.  We couldn’t understand why anyone would want to shoot this young and popular President.  The world was in shock for the whole of that weekend, as we watched the happenings unfold.  Lee Harvey Oswald had been arrested but was shot the next day in the jailhouse and Jack Ruby arrested for the deed, then on the Monday, the sad funeral, with his young son, John saluting the coffin.

        Billy and I moved home several times during 1964 and Bob continued to sew his wild oats.  I got a job as a glass collector at the Cedar’s public house and Mum baby sat for me while I worked.  Nothing eventful happened that year.  My baby continued to thrive and grow into a lovely little boy.  By now, the ‘Swinging Sixties’ were well under way, but most of it by-passed me as I was busy being a Mum and my life was pretty much routine that year. Bob's Mum lost her Dad that Christmas.  He died on December 22nd so it wasn't a very happy one for them that year.  He was buried on New Year's Eve, and I had a dental appointment to have a couple of teeth out that afternoon.  I had gas for the first and last time in my life and had the most horrendous dream in black and white (I always dream in colour)  I dreamed that I was dead and in hell!!  Was I glad to wake up!  Early in 1965, we got a room in Daimler Road and Bob moved in with us and in the spring of that year, we managed to get a small furnished flat in Dorset Road, complete with a television!!  This was a luxury I didn’t have until now, so I was able to watch “Top of the Pops” once more in my own home.  The ‘flat’ in actual fact was two rooms, a kitchen and an outside toilet.  The bedroom was a converted garage, but nicely decorated and warm, although the only heating was provided by a paraffin fire.  After living in rooms for so long, it was a palace!  I was able to cook proper meals in the kitchen, instead of going to my Mum’s or the fish and chip shop.  I could never make a decent Yorkshire pudding though.  They used to turn out like chapattis!  Dad, who used to mix them for his Mum, when he was young, used to try and tell me how to do them, but it didn’t matter what I did, they were flat!  Sometimes on Friday or Saturday night, when Bob came home, I went through the back entry and down Cash’s lane, to the Foleshill Road, to get a couple of faggot and pea batches from Picken’s Pie shop which was just at the bottom of Cash’s hill, across Foleshill Road.  They were lovely!  Unfortunately, Picken’s closed down  in the early 1970’s.   Nowadays, the only take away food seems to be anything with chips, or kebabs, curry or the occasional Chinese! No longer can we get beautiful home made faggots, or hot pork and stuffing batches (rolls) for supper. David and Judy had a second son, Timothy, on August 15th,  Princess Anne's birthday.  Their eldest son, Stewart, was born on the Queen's birthday in 1963, so it was a bit ironic!  Unfortunately, it wasn't long before they split up and divorced.  David had custody of them and brought them up until they were 16, when Stewart went back to his Mum after an argument with his Dad because he had started smoking.  Bill caught measles in March and was quite poorly with them  I tried putting blue sugar bags around the light bulbs, but it still left him "cross eyed".  We had to wait until 1969 before we could get it put right.

          By the time the Summer of '65 came, the Beatles were riding high in the charts still, and had been joined by several 'boy' groups who came mostly from Liverpool. The Searchers, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer, the Hollies, the Mersey Beats and the Mindbenders. ('Groovy Kind of Love'). Elvis was now making films---mostly mediocre ones---so he lost his popularity for a few years. Mersey Beat was the 'in' thing and was popular both here and America and indeed, the rest of the world.  Rivals of theirs, were the Rolling Stones, but they came from London.  The fashions had changed by now, as well.  Young people, instead of dressing like miniature adults, had their own 'uniform'.  Skirts were very very short, worn with long boots, nick-named 'Kinky boots'.  A designer called Mary Quant started this fashion and a young model, 'Twiggy', wore them and soon, all the girls followed suit, but you had to be stick thin to be able to carry them off.  The 'grown-ups' were quite shocked!  They stopped dancing 'together' and did the new dances called 'the twist' and 'the twang'. America had it's own version of these dances with equally daft names. The 'chicken' and the 'hug-a-bug' etc.

       In September, I discovered that I was pregnant again!   Bob informed me that it was definitely going to be a girl!  I told him that it wasn't, as I only produced boys, but he remained convinced!  He even named her when I was two months pregnant and she was to be called Shane.  I said you can't give her a boys name, but he thought that it sounded nice for a girl, so we compromised and I put a "y" in it and she was going to be Shayne. I got quite used to it while I was carrying her. As I walked back and forth to and from home, I passed three identical houses on Sandy Lane and they all had beautiful Christmas trees in the windows.  I fell to imagining how my home would look at Christmas if I could make it look like them! That Christmas was a bit special, because I was able to put decorations up and Dad gave me an artificial Christmas tree, which I was able to decorate. Of course, they weren't a patch on the Sandy Lane trees, but at least it looked a bit more homely and Christmassy. Dad also bought Billy  a pair of fashionable brown suede Chelsea boots.  These slipped on and had elastic inset into the sides.  They were so cute as they were miniature ones of his Dad's!  Dad also bought him a rocker which consisted of a seat on a rocker, with a steering wheel and dashboard with dials on.  He loved it and rocked away for ages!  By now, he was talking and when we went to visit Bob's Mum, she would give him 6d for a bag of chips from the hut on the Radford Road.  She could hear him coming as when we approached the house, he would be shouting "Chippy chippy chippies!"

         So came the New Year of 1966. Little did I know that it would be one of the most remarkable and surprising year of my life up to now!  Many changes were about to happen.