38 May 1965

‘Who do you want to win the Cup Final, Liverpool or Leeds?’

That was the big question being asked in the Twydall Junior school playground. As football was of little interest me, I really didn’t care. There was some sort of football activity going on in school too, as around that time I had the misfortune to walk around the pavilion one day and come face to face with fourth year Alan Vause’s bare bum as he changed into his kit.

 Late May

‘Has she had it yet Dad?’

‘Not yet.’

Dad was running things at home while Mam was in hospital expecting a baby. Between frequent trips to the phone box on Petham Green to ring the hospital for news, Dad saw to it that we didn’t go hungry but, as always, he did things his way. A Sunday joint, sliced up like a malt loaf, arrived on our plates with fat, gristle and bits of string attached. And a soup he made from leftovers, days later, came with bits of lettuce and tomato floating in it.

 Late May

With Dad doing the cooking, no wonder Mam seemed a long time gone. Then at long last Dad returned from the phone box with news. 

‘Has she had it yet, Dad?’

‘Yes, it’s a girl.’

‘No, Dad’ said a disbelieving Mike. ‘What is it really?’

Mike wasn’t alone in being stunned by the news. Not one of us had expected a girl. On the day of Mam’s homecoming we cheered at the front room window when a taxi pulled up outside, and waved when Mam came down the garden path, but Mam didn’t wave back. She couldn’t because she was carrying a bundle – a pink bundle. There was no denying it; we really did have a sister. What a let down.

Every cloud has a silver lining. With Dad needing to get back to work, I was kept off school for a few days to help out. Staying at home to run errands and make myself useful was okay by me. The weather was fine and when the American Civil War card album I’d sent off for flopped through the letterbox, I had plenty of time to set up an old card table in the back garden and spend a glorious couple of hours mounting my cards in the album.  In spite of its plain cover, the album looked good once a full set of cards were displayed in its pages.