I left school at age 15……in another time….1964, in the hay day of Flower Power, The Beatles and denim hot pants…….yes I had a pair.

I really didn’t know what I wanted to do as a job……but I knew what I didn’t want to do ….and that was to get a job in one of the local factories….that was my mum’s ambition for me and not mine.

When small I wondered what it would be like to be a ballet dress…..but that was just a stupid little thought…..something that would never have happened.

Some people came to my school with the offers of lots of jobs in a mail-order office as general clerks and I applied and I got one much to my mum’s dismay …..£4 per week. I was leaving Peterlee at 7.30 in the morning and not getting home till about 6 in the evening as I to travel to Sunderland and back……in hindsight ….a way of escaping for me. Did various jobs in various departments for 9 years. Met lots of interesting people who all seemed more knowing than I felt.

Married hubby while I was there and even managed to get him a job in the warehouse. We both “ran ” away from these jobs six months after we married for reasons which appear in an earlier blog. We both found jobs ….mine being a cashier/clerk in a television rental shop in Newbury. Greenham Common was still a working USA airforce camp and we would get the young guys in”Can we rent a TV from you Marm” in a deep Southern drawl……made me weak at the knees. Was there about 2/3 years. During that time we moved into the flat above the shop.

Next port of call was after we left Newbury and moved to a farm cottage with hubby’s job to a hamlet called Moss End between Bracknell and Maidenhead. I tried for various jobs which I didn’t get….a shop assistant/clerk in a furniture shop, a job in a bookies…..both in Bracknell and a library assistant in what I think was an ICI plant at Jealotts Hill Berkshire……I did get offered a job by the jobcentre but turned it down as I was 4 months pregnant with son no1.

For a few years, I stayed a full-time mum.

For a little while when hubby was a gardner at a place in Finchampstead Berkshire……where I had to do a certain number of hours of housework for the lady of the manor which I did not enjoy.

Then a move to Shackleford where I did one morning a week simple house chores when son no 3 was at nursery…I hated it. I was also an Avon Lady for 7 years.

Then a move to Guildford when we were allocated a council house. I waited until hubby had found work then I found an evening part-time job in the hospital kitchens of our local hospital. I stayed at the hospital in various guises until I retired.

A six-month stint as a cleaner on the wards when I decided to go back to the kitchens.

Then a move up to the wards again as a health care assistant on an elderly care ward which I really enjoyed gaining my NVQ 2 and 3 while I was there.

retired at 63 and now I do voluntarily work in two charity shops….which I have just had a 5-week break from and looking forward to getting back into it.

Until next time byeeee.