Chapter 8

My first year at University successfully completed, I left Cardiff on Saturday 30th June 1973, to go home to my parents' house for the summer.

I had successfully retrieved my damage deposit from my landlord at the end of our lease, despite the best efforts of my gormless housemates to forfeit our deposits by leaving the place in a filthy state. I think some of them had lost part of their money because of the state of their bedrooms, but it wasn't my problem. I had cleaned far more than my share of the three communal rooms, the lounge, kitchen and bathroom, and if they couldn't be bothered to do their own bit, it was their loss. I knew that I wasn't going back to live in that house, whatever happened.

I had taken an emotional leave of my girlfriend Julie, promising to write and telephone as often as possible, and hoping to meet up during the holidays. I had even written her a love letter on the Friday in between cleaning up my house and packing my bags, and had posted it to her so that she would get it when she reached home on Saturday.

Considering that I had only really met Julie in mid-April (although I had taken her virginity the next day, as the courting process had been somewhat speeded up by Sian and Vee), two and a half months later it felt dreadful to be separated from her. It was almost like leaving my heart behind me. I had fallen deeply in love, as had she, and we knew that we had something very special between us.

But we had said our goodbyes, so it was back to the practicalities of getting home with all my stuff.

There was quite a bit more luggage than I had arrived with at the beginning of the year, although I had taken many of my winter clothes home at Easter, and sent some more small things back with my younger sister Jen when she had come down for the Summer Ball concert.

Luckily I had never bothered to bring my record player to Cardiff, and my transistor radio was only a small one. Looking back now, from forty years later, it seems incredible that I had just one electrical item. My children seem to have half a dozen electronic gadgets on them at all times!

I had a bag of Chemistry textbooks, having sold my Physics and Maths ones back to the student thrift shop the day after learning that I had passed the exams in those subjects. I had added a couple of my paperbacks to the 'keep' pile, and left the others on the bookcase at the house for next year's occupants to read. I felt that I had slimmed down my belongings as much as possible.

It was still quite a struggle to get all my bags onto the train. Luckily the connection was on time when I had to change trains at Birmingham New Street, so I was able to organise myself and not leave anything behind on the train!

Jen was waiting for me at the station with Mum's car, and I was very pleased to have her help. Although I was already missing Julie, it was good to be home.

Jen had passed her driving test while I had been at Cardiff; I very soon realised that she was a safe and competent driver, who had been getting much more driving practice than I had. With her hair tied back in a pony tail, she almost looked too young to have a licence.

She chatted away happily as she drove; there had been a school trip to Stratford to see 'As You Like It' the previous week, and she had really enjoyed the whole experience. I had seen the Royal Shakespeare Company performing the previous year, and had also been amazed at how well they brought the old language to life.

She was still full of the Pink Floyd concert, and thanked me again for inviting her. She had thoroughly enjoyed staying with us, and had really clicked with Julie. I was delighted, because neither of us had ever had a 'best friend' of our own age who we could confide in, and we were both naturally shy and retiring. From what Julie had told me, I think that Jen had opened up to her more than she ever had to anyone else, and she seemed much more confident as a result.

Mum and Dad were both at home; it was great to see them after three months. I gave them both a big hug, and then we had a family group hug with Jen as well.

It had been a long time since Easter, and a great deal had gone on in my life since then.

Apart from seeing occasional glimpses of Julie and Rebecca as Sian and I went up and down the stairs, I hadn't actually met my girlfriend until after Easter, and now I was hoping to spend the rest of my life with her! I had also done a lot of other things that I wasn't going to tell my family about...

Mum managed to say in one sentence that I had grown again, and in the next that I hadn't been eating properly and needed feeding up!

She made me a quick sandwich to go with my cup of tea, after I had admitted to not having had breakfast that morning, and only a soggy British Rail pasty for lunch.

Dad said that we'd celebrate all being back together by going for a drink at the pub before supper; I'm sure that they both got a bit of a kick out of being able to go for a drink with their adult children. In those days, most publicans would not admit children at all for fear of losing their license, and for many years, Mum and Dad had gone without the social life of a pub rather than leave us on our own. The only time we had ever had 'babysitters' was for the annual Christmas Party at Dad's works.

I enjoyed that evening, chatting easily and catching up with what Mum and Dad had been doing. It was a different world from Cardiff, but I settled straight back into it, as nothing major had changed.

It would have been even better if Julie had been there, though!

Jen had just left school - or at least she would at the end of term, but was excused from attending as she had nothing further to do there; she was just over a year younger than me, and hoping to go to University in October, so she was as keen as I was to build up some cash to supplement the student maintenance grant.

Through Dad keeping his ear to the ground, we had both got summer jobs at the local vegetable factory starting on the Monday; we volunteered for all the shifts they would give us, which was really hard work, but very good money.

At the factory, our job entailed cutting off the outer leaves and washing the vegetables clean, before passing them down the conveyor belt to the more expert people who did the final preparation for freezing.

It was monotonous work and the water was cold, but it was a full-time summer job which was the envy of many, and we were paid the enormous sum of sixty new pence an hour, which would buy four pints of beer, or two gallons of petrol, or twenty First Class postage stamps for writing to Julie! Overtime at seventy-five pence an hour was even better, but that rate didn't start until we'd done a twelve-hour shift already.

Mum let us use her old Mini to commute, which was essential, because the factory was about twelve miles from home, with no buses. Most days we had to be there in time for the first delivery from the fields at about 10 a.m., and we normally didn't get away until gone midnight, when that day's crops were safely in the freezer, and the preparation areas were hosed down ready for the morning.

We were both clearing nearly £7 a day after paying National Insurance and petrol, but not earning enough to worry too much about Income Tax.

In those days, the Local Education Authority paid university tuition fees directly, and our maintenance grant of up to £340 was enough for us to live on for the year at a basic level. Any extra money we could earn would pay for treats, or could be put away for when we graduated and had other expenses, like a suit for attending job interviews!

Mind you, the way inflation was going at the time, it looked like we would need a reasonable amount of money to top up our grants to pay our living expenses!

The pea harvest came first, followed by the baby carrots, then the various types of beans (French, Broad and Runner), and lastly came the main crop carrots. Because the weather had been fine in the first part of the summer, the harvests were quite early, and we were kept very busy for the whole of July and most of August.

Every night, we came back from the factory, had a quick shower, ate whatever Mum had left for us in the fridge, and went to bed until our alarm clocks woke us the next morning. If we were lucky we saw Mum briefly over breakfast before she went off to work, but we only saw Dad at the weekends, as he was long gone by the time we woke up during the week.