Valerie and her sister, Maureen, were born after their dad came back from the war. There was a big age gap between them and their big brother and sisters, who were all born before the war.
As kids, we were always looking for a way of making money. You’d pick up fizzy pop bottles and take them to the shop to get the 3p back. Or we’d go out at 5am, picking mushrooms in the woods.
She went to a brand new secondary modern school on the outskirts of Portsmouth. It was a long journey on the school coach.
Sometimes Valerie bunked off school dinners with her friends and went to the cafe for chips and (free!) batter bits. They loved the juke box.
Going to the pictures in Portsmouth was a mission. We couldn’t get there til after 6pm and we had to be back on the 9pm bus. We never saw the whole film!
Returning home after a night out, Valerie and Maureen would walk back across the moors.
It was pitch black! Absolutely pitch black. Just us and our little torch, no lights.
I left school at 15 and started work as a counter girl at Woolworth’s. After a while, I moved up to the office, counting all the money and the wages.
At 16, Valerie moved in with her big sister in Portsmouth. It was a bit of a squeeze, but it felt liberating. It was so much easier getting to work and socialising than it was when she lived on her parents’ farm.
At 17, Valerie met Andy, a sailor in the Navy. They were soon married, living together in a little flat and with a baby on the way. Andy went back to sea soon after the baby was born.
With Andy away at sea for over a year, money was tight. Valerie remembers feeding her son and eating only his leftovers.
When Andy came home life was easier. They had more money and saved up to buy and furnish a house. Valerie learned to drive.
After the children were born, Valerie started selling Avon cosmetics to bring in extra money, and for company. She went back to part-time shop work in her mid-twenties.
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As a teenager, Valerie’s dream was to have children and travel, and she has done both. Looking back, she feels that 18 was too young to become a mum, though she knows it wasn’t unusual at the time. When her children were 10 and 12, Valerie went back to full-time office work.
“I’d not worked since I was 19 and so when I went back to full-time work, and I was good at it, it surprised me. It was a real confidence boost.
Valerie wishes she could have had more of a career, but a few years later Andy retired from the navy and the family moved to the Midlands with his new job. Shortly afterwards, Valerie fell pregnant. They went on to have two more children, and Valerie gave up work to look after them. Motherhood in her late thirties was quite different. She felt more in control and could enjoy it more.
She went abroad for the first time aged 30, and has since been all over the world, from America to Zimbabwe.
Now in her mid-seventies, Valerie has lived alone since Andy died seven years ago. She still has the travel bug and goes on regular adventures with her sister Maureen.
Credits:
All images: Candice Purwin