Cannock Chase Area: Life in the late 1960s was not easy.

I was looking at photographs of our first home, which we bought in the late 1960s last night. What memories they brought back, the back garden was like a builder’s yard full of the debris that the builders had left behind. Bricks and all sorts lay in waiting for me to remove. I had the job of clearing it as my husband had a job in Lichfield and worked long hours. Not that he or I minded hard work of any description, we both had a strong work ethic. We always had, and it is something that has persisted to this day. The mortgage and the bills had to be paid. We both knew that things would be tight – very tight as it turned out – but we wanted to give our children the best start in life that we could.

It had not been easy to find a house that we could just about afford; we had to move away from friends and family in Birmingham to Staffordshire. We found one in a small country village. It cost £2.500. I can almost hear people thinking, Blimey, that is cheap. By today’s standards and wages yes it does sound amazingly cheap, but back then no it certainly was not cheap for an ordinary working class couple. The house values in that area are now around £140,000 - £145,000. At the time, we had two young children, and for a while I needed to concentrate on settling them (and myself) into an entirely new environment. Plus, I had many jobs to do to make our new home comfortable. I would never have left my children in the care of strangers to find work. That would have been totally unfair on them. We had allowed for the loss of my money before we committed to buying our house. It was a typical 3 bedroom, through lounge, semi-detached house. Certainly, it was nothing luxurious and it did eat our money away, no matter how hard we economised.

Despite this, it was wonderful to own our own home and not have to make journeys up and down a flight of concrete steps with my babies, shopping bags, and finally bump the pram up the steps to the flat. Some days I had to take the pram up and down the stairs three times, when I had to take the children to the doctors or to the welfare. Living in the new house I just had to wheel the pram in and out of the house.

There was an infrequent bus service from the village to the town. I never used it. I would always walk the couple of miles to town and back. In fact, I think I have only ever used the bus service once in all the years I have lived here. I prefer to walk. Plus the bus fare is quite high. There are many taxi companies; I have only ever used them in emergencies.

We struggled in the early days, but our circumstances improved when the children went to school, and I found work. We eventually managed to buy another house. Then the recession came and although we worked as hard as we possibly could, sometimes until very late at night and weekends we had to sell our lovely detatched Victorian house and move to a smaller property.

The late 1960s were hard for young couples, but we kept working. I never minded what work I did. I even did menial work, but I was always treated with respect by my employers. I took on work that many would and did refuse to do, and still would nowadays. It was my choice to work. I could have signed on and claimed benefits as could my husband when he lost his job a number of times. We preferred to work for our future. We pulled together to give ourselves and our children a better future. We were no different to other working couples of our era. Whatever job we did we gave it our best. To this day I am still in touch with a couple of my former employers.

Through the course of my working life I have worked for many professional people, doctors, consultants and others. All of them treated me with respect. When I changed my profession, people from the aforementioned professions came to me seeking advice. A few of them became friends as did their wives. You can read more about the early years in my books.