What is this occasion? I am about to (or may have just managed to, depending on when this gets posted) reach my 60th Birthday! This is an age that not so long ago seemed impossibly distant. But here it is at last. Over the last few weeks I have thinking back over my rapidly growing list of 'Big 'O's and other bits and bobs.
I was born on June 18th 1956. Just 11 years after the end of world war 2. Everything was black and white. Computers were unheard of and I have to say that England was (in my view) a better place.
I was born in Lutterworth in the midlands. My Mother was a farmers daughter and my father a German Luftwaffe Pilot P.O.W who, after being captured, was put to work on my Grandfathers farm where he met, and fell in love with my Mother.
My sister Lyn was born in 1954, and then myself in 1956 and soon afterwards the family moved to Bournemouth.
I grew up in the Northwick Hotel in Boscombe where I enjoyed a happy and somewhat privileged childhood. Health and Safety rules were not around to impede the development of children as it is today. While our parents were busy running the hotel, we children were left to our own devices most of the time. We climbed trees, raced death trap home made go carts and generally had fun. So! That was the start. Now, what about all of the 'Big 'O's that were to come.
IAN AGE 10
In truth, I do not really remember turning 10. I do know that during that year, I moved from a very exclusive little private school (Rosegarth, in Boscombe. Now a car park) to a very rough primary school (Boscombe County Primary). It was a baptism of fire. I learnt that teachers could shout, bullies existed and the world could be a scary place. This phase did not last long though and within 2 years I was back in a private school.
IAN AGE 20
Between the ages of 10 and 20, my life underwent some momentous changes. I think (memories of this time are a bit confused) it was in about 1970 (age 14) that my sister took me for a walk, at night in the pouring rain to break the news that our parents were splitting up. Much of what followed is a blank. Dad was seriously ill in hospital, I was to lose my home, had to return to comprehensive education and see the family separated.
I have no photographs of this time, or my teens (much to my regret). I took the normal teenager route and rebelled. I discovered rock music, motorbikes, beer, grew my hair long. For a while, I was the typical wild child. It was a GREAT time in many ways. And then, in 1974. I started going out with Gerry (smiling as I type now).
Gerry bought common sense and control back into my life. We really were a match made in heaven (and in this same year that I celebrate my 60th Birthday, we will be celebrating 40 years of married life).
We married in 1976. The famous 'Hot' year. A long summer with a glorious ending on September 4th. Yes, when we married I was aged 20 years.
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