(Illustrations: One day my prince will come: Mrs Hardy by candlelight: Wallsend Co-operative store)

It is said that, ‘You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you meet your prince, but my boyfriends over the years weren’t frogs, they were all quite handsome lads every one of them, and they had to be good at sport. Discovering my prince at the Bellingham International Camp, was yet to come.

Over the years, Joan and I had quite a few boyfriends. My parents didn’t seem to mind their comings and goings, as long as we had done our homework!

One of my boyfriends and I used to visit an elderly lady together once a week; this was part of scheme run by the church; young people had to adopt someone who lived on their own, and who was in need of company. I was given Mrs Hardy who was so sweet and lived just around the corner from church; and my boyfriend came with me sometimes. She allowed me to draw her portrait one evening for my Art homework. Bless her, she sat in a darkened room holding a candle so I could capture the shadows on her face.

(see sketch above)

For my birthday, this boyfriend bought me a 45’ record, a ‘single’, called ‘Happy birthday sweet sixteen’ sung by Neil Sedaka. I loved that song.

My mam thought the world of him, as did Mrs Hardy, and she hoped he was ‘the one’ for me. He even came on holiday with our extended family, and they all thought he was special. But it was not to be. He still is a lovely man, and he and his wife we now count among our dearest friends.

One boyfriend’s mam’s words scarred me for life though, and it taught me a valuable lesson about thinking before we speak. She had made a very personal comment about me to him about my legs, andhe in turn told me; she had commented that I had legs like tree trunks! How insensitive was that?

It wasn’t something I could correct ever. So even though she said what she thought, she needed to learn that sometimes truth can be cruel. People sometimes don’t realise the damage they do with their unkind words.

I was so wounded by that comment, that I can count on one hand, the number of times I’ve worn a knee--length dress in my lifetime. From that point on trousers became the norm for me. 

Nana used to say “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”. A lesson for all of us!

My life wasn’t all school at that time. Once we reached the age of sixteen, we could apply for temporary work on a Saturday.

I had managed to get a Saturday job in Wallsend at the old Co-operative store in Ladies Fashions, and I was so excited because now I was earning a small wage packet. This shop was old and quaint. Cash carriers were used overhead there to carry customers' payments pneumatically, from the sales assistant to the cashier and back again. But it was a great store, full of character, and so interesting with its warm wall lighting, its oak furnishings with plush drawers and shelving, and its ornate stairs. In those days assistants as well as senior supervisors were given their full names, and had to be addressed as such, even to each other.

But a new store, was just about to open, in April 1966 in Wallsend Forum, but, as far as I was concerned, once we got ensconced there, it wasn’t a patch on the old one. There was no character to it, and it was devoid of the style and atmosphere of the old shop. We were hauled into the modern age, with glaring overhead lights, which often gave me a headache, and wall to wall nylon carpets, which gave me electric shocks when I re-arranged clothes on the rails. We always had to appear to be busy when the floor manager walked past, and so I would dust rails that had already been dusted a dozen times, and I re-rearranged items of clothing on the rack; until he disappeared from view.

But there were two redeeming features, as far as I was concerned, in the ‘Ladies’ fashions department.

The first would be the deep sliding drawers containing hats; there were several of them; and when new stock came in, I loved unpacking the new fabulous creations. Some went on display on metal stands, and the others were wrapped in tissue and placed carefully into the large drawers. The wedding hats were quite wonderful.

The second was its large ‘leather coat’ wardrobe with its sliding doors. I absolutely loved selling these coats, they were the most expensive item in the fashion department and they smelled exquisite.

Even though I say it myself, I was quite a dab hand at drawing a customer over in that direction, but the minute I got them interested, the manageress would hurry over from her desk or the storeroom to take over the sale. She obviously thought she could close the deal more efficiently, than a mere temporary worker.

Eventually she could see I was selling quite a few coats, especially to those of my own age, and to her credit, she began to stand back and give me ‘free rein’.