I had a disappointment recently. I was due to meet my new date under the clock in the Derngate bus station and he didn’t turn up. His excuse was that he must have been hidden behind a “green ‘un”, the sports paper, and didn’t see me. I’ll just call him M for now in case he doesn’t last long. Anyway all is forgiven. He’s an apprentice at Express Lifts, at the moment working with Tom Lawrence, who gets him to choose his horses for the bookie’s runner at the factory. He’s been to Heyford for tea with Tom and his wife in Furnace Lane. I’ve now met his parents and his brother. His mum gave him a ticking off for bringing me in through the back door. I don’t know what she’s worried about, we all have a coal hole and an outside lavatory.

M took me on a train from Northampton Castle Station to Wolverton last Saturday to visit his auntie, uncle and cousins. It passed through several small stations like Roade and Castlethorpe. His auntie spent the afternoon serving her extended family while his uncle rolled his fags for the week, both so laid back. He’s got his eye on a Zundap scooter so it won’t be long before we’re spinning along country lanes.

Some of us girls went to see Breakfast at Tiffany’s at the pictures last weekend, with Audrey Hepburn – lovely. There was a ‘B’ movie, then advertisements, cartoons and Pathe News, with a break for ice-creams before the big movie so we were there for hours, by which time the air was a bit thick with smoke.

I’ve got a French pen-friend who I regularly write to and I’m learning to paint and draw which I love. I’ve started going to the YMCA dancing by candlelight on Thursday evenings. I meet my friends in the Wimpy Bar for a burger, then we go up Cheyne Walk for dancing. It’s only a short walk at the end of the evening to the Derngate Bus Station and, if he’s there, M catches the bus with me and gets off at Jimmies’ End where he lives. He’s teaching me to Jive.

This year we have had work trips to the seaside and NME (New Musical Express) concerts; after all there are several office girls and apprentice boys to fill the buses. I went on holiday with my friend Janet, to Poole in Dorset in July. We stayed in a boarding house for a week. M went to Blackpool in a caravan with 4 other mates and wrote to me twice.

Saturday evenings are mostly spent in town. Regular double-decker buses are full going in at teatime, returning at the end of the evening, packed to the gunnels. If one of our regulars is late for the bus, the driver hangs on at the request of the rest of us. One of our most popular drivers is Ron who lives in the village. He knows us all, teases us if we are late, but looks out for us on the journey. Of course there is always a conductor on the bus to ring the bell, keep order and take the fares. If the bus breaks down he can walk to the nearest phone box to ring for a replacement bus. The driver has a separate cab at the front, not accessible from the bus itself.

Aunt Beatrice came to tea last Sunday. Mum panicked, we cleaned thoroughly, we made salmon sandwiches & a cake and got out the best china. This auntie is well off, lives in London and wanted to bring mum & dad a present of a really heavy vase which now takes pride of place on the piano. Mum embarrassed me by telling auntie that I have an office job, a shorthand/typing course at the Technical college and I’m courting a lovely boy who is doing an engineering apprenticeship. I was glad to escape to church for the 6 o’clock service.

There are now new homes off Watery Lane and talks are being had about a new estate at the end of Close Road on the field behind Furnace Lane. The builders are Wilson.

There’s a Jumble Sale in the church rooms on Saturday. I shall go along because you can get some good bargains, a cup of tea and biscuit and I like reading so I’ll head for the book stall.

Polly

First published in The Prattler Edition No. 444 – October/November 2021

The past year has been a real change for me. I left school in July last year and started work at The Express Lift Company the following week. I chose there mainly because it’s on our bus route. Some of my other girlfriends chose hairdressing, nursing and dressmaking. I catch the No. 305 bus at 8:20 am, outside the Foresters Arms, sit upstairs with my cousin Ken and enjoy the ride through Bugbrooke and Kislingbury. You can only smoke upstairs.

The bus arrives in the village with “Lower Heyford” on the front, then, after it’s turned round outside the shop, the conductor changes it to “Northampton”. As Heyford is the terminus and I’m usually early, I can sit and watch people coming round the green at a leisurely pace, to catch the bus. One day the conductor will ring the bell and the bus will go off without them. If Mr. Faulkner is the driver, he knows everybody because he lives here. He sometimes teases them by starting up the engine.

Dad bought me a season bus ticket so that I can use it at weekends as well, plus it’s cheaper that way. I am working in the Personnel department which means I get to meet so many people, it’s great. I’ve started a part-time course at the Technical college for Shorthand & Typing, one afternoon and one evening which the company are paying for.

Mum bought me some new clothes to start work. Up to then I’d lived in socks and flat shoes, so she got me stockings, a suspender belt and some shoes with little heels, with two new skirts, two new blouses and a Duster coat, so I’m all set now until I start earning enough to buy my own.

I was very nervous on my first day at work. I had to report to the Commissionaire at the front gate and someone came to fetch me. The place was huge and quite frightening but now that I’ve been there a few months, I’m more familiar with the offices and the factory, but I still worry I’ll lose my way, especially after I’ve been to the canteen.

There’s a new programme called Coronation Street on TV. In it is a pub called The Rovers Return which is run by Annie Walker, a little corner shop run by Florrie Lindley, and a Mission Hall run by Ena Sharples. There’s a family called Barlow and a lady called Elsie Tanner who has a son just out of prison. It all happens in this lively Manchester ‘soap’. I like the adverts between the shows as well, “The Esso Sign means Happy Motoring” and “Put a Tiger in Your Tank”.

I’ve had two boyfriends since I started work. The first had a motorbike which I thought was great but mum was concerned because we didn’t wear crash helmets, well nobody does, do they? He’s gone. The second boy took me to see The Cobblers play one Saturday afternoon, went through the turnstile and left me to pay for myself. He’s gone as well.

I wish I hadn’t started smoking but when you sit on a bus to town upstairs and everybody else is doing it, you feel like joining in. I don’t indulge at home or at work, only when I’m out although I might as well, as the pubs smell of smoke. Even mum and dad smoke which means that the ceiling turns yellow and has to be painted every year.

Dad had us save all the Chronicle & Echo’s for him to cover furniture when he painted the kitchen at Easter. I like this daily paper because it’s all local news and the Situations Vacant pages are always full, giving details of jobs including hours of work and pay. Trouble is it’s so big and hard to handle.

Polly

First published in The Prattler Edition No. 443 – August/September 2021