A Life Changing Day.

              The tenth of May 1971 is a very special day to me, it is a date that will be with me forever.

                                    It was a  warm spring evening and the kids had been playing on the lawns at the front of the flats in Stanley Court. Most evenings we would sit about or play with the kids from the estate at the front of the house. I had come home from work and had my tea with mum and my three brothers. The twins were playing football with the other kids of the same age. I was 17 and did not play with the younger kids but I knocked about with the boy from next door who was a year younger.

                                   Graham had very long hair and wore a leather motorbike jacket and blue jeans. He had a hells angel logo sewn in to the back of his leather jacket and told tall tales of what the angels did when you joined their chapter.He really fancied he looked cool like this. There were about seven or eight children all told, girls and boys playing together when a girl of my age came round to tell her sister that she was going out to a friends and would be back later. She stared chatting to Graham and I, I found out her name was Heather. She said her friend Angie lived on the depot and that was where she was going. The depot was the old Royal Armaments yard where all the bombs were stored for the fleet air arm that had had been stationed on the aerodrome. The local council had taken over all the housing and let it out now like they did the nissen hut we had had when I was a baby. She was studying typing and short hand at Wigan Technical college. She didn’t go round her friends but stopped with us all.  

                                  We all decided to go for a walk along the canal towards the Rufford spur  locks. It was so pleasant walking along the canal with the the sun on our backs.  The younger kids ran on ahead and we older ones strolled slowly together. As we got to the locks we walked down the Rufford link towards school lane. We passed the farm by the bridge on School lane and stopped to look at the piglets in the barn. They were all snuggled up to the sow as she lay on her side in the straw. The top half of the barn door was open and we big ones lifted the small kids up so they could see into the barn. They were amazed to see all the little piglets wriggling against their mum. They squeaked and grunted as they suckled the milk. Mum just lay there and grunted to tell them it was safe for them.

                                       Graham came to me as we walked up school lane and said “which one do you fancy?” I said “ The eldest one Heather with the dark hair.” “ Bet you ten bob you daren’t ask her out” he said. “ Ok” I said “ you are on”. I went up and asked her if she would like to go to the pictures next Saturday. She would not answer at first but her sister Shona said “go on you have just finished with Phil you might as well”. Then she agreed and I was going out with Heather, I never did get my ten bob winning off Graham but I won more really. 

                             For my first date with Heather I suggested that we get the train into Southport to go to the pictures, she said that would be nice. I decided to wear my new suit the I had just bought from my mum’s Littlewoods catologue. It was a sky blue corduroy safari suit, with wide lapels, patch pockets and bell bottom trousers. I wore an orange shirt with white collar and cuffs, my platform shoes had one inch soles and two inch heels, the toes had a cream and brown checker pattern on them. I thought I looked really groovy in 1971, really high fashion. I had seen this sort of clothes on Top of the Pops every Thursday night.

When I went to pick Heather up from her house she was wearing a brown midi coat and  floral mini dress, her dark hair was cut in an elfin cut and I thought she looked like a young Audrey Hepburn. I was proud to be taking her out.

                               Any way we walked down through the village to Burscough bridge station to catch the seven o’clock train. We waited and waited but no train came, after forty five minutes I went over the line to ask in the ticket office what had happened to the seven o’clock train. The man in the office said there is no seven oclock train as they had just changed to the summer timetable and the next train was eight thirty. I went back across to Heather and told her. She just laughed and said it was not to worry we could go another night. We went back to my house where we sat and watched the telly with my mum as Colin, David and Simon were in bed.  I have made it up to her since.