My parents were fine living in Hastings High Street as long as my father was well. Although he had been very firm about giving up driving when he was 70, my mother stuck at it so they were still able to visit pubs and go to cricket - for example, to Canterbury with old friends such as Bill and Margaret Solly, who came over from the Isle of Man every year to stay with them. This is my father outside one of his favourite pubs, the Ferry Inn near Appledore in Kent.
By 1985 he was sufficiently unwell for us to feel that he and my mother should move up to join us in Maldon. It was a difficult decision as they still had many friends in Hastings - this is my father, at right, with his great friend Gordon Faulkner (in the bow tie) at the Cinque Ports in Hastings - but I felt the house they were in wasn't suitable for them as they aged, and I wanted to be near so I could support my mother as my father declined.
I think they finally managed to sell 117a in 1986 and move to a house which Gill found them in Fambridge Road, within easy walking distance of us and just down the road from my school. My mother quickly became involved with All Saints church in Maldon, including singing in the choir with her grandchildren, and my father established himself as a regular at the Blue Boar on weekday lunchtimes. I would pop down after school on a Friday evening to see them, on one occasion taking a colleague and friend of mine, Patrick Noonan, with me, to discover that his father had worked with my father in Dar-es-Salaam.
We also had lunch with them almost every Sunday, taking turns to be host, which meant that they saw a great deal more of their grandchildren. By that time we were making lots of home-made wine and my mother used to drink a good proportion of it.
My mother wrote in my father's 'Life' that she subsequently thought the move a mistake, in particular because they missed their Hastings friends. Such decisions are always difficult ones but, from a purely selfish point-of-view, I am pleased they did make the move.
Gordon Faulkner what a lovely man. Used to show me magic tricks when I was a boy.
ReplyDeleteYes, he used to entertain us with his magic - we remember one trick involving man's handkerchief. He was such a good friend to my father, there was always so much laughter.
ReplyDeleteMy mother and father met Gordon at the Cinque Ports when they moved to Hastings in the late 70s. I was born in Hastings in the early 80s but we moved away before my second Birthday. My parents, my sister and I spent many happy days visiting Gordon and his wife Ruth at their house in All Saints Street. There are so many things I remember about those days... his magic tricks, his fabulous old car, his sock suspenders, his potent cologne and the crazy victorian inkwell they had in their fireplace made from the hoof of a Shire horse. I was a young teenager when Ruth died, with Gordon passing soon afterwards. I remember mum telling me that, not long after Ruth was gone, Gordon said to her with a sad smile, 'the trouble is, I'm Ruthless'. So poignant.
ReplyDeleteHi Rosie - Thank you for writing this comment. It brings back to me the laughter my father and I enjoyed with Gordon back in the days when they met frequently for their lunch-time beers, particularly at the Cinque Ports. Joining them at the pub was one of the things I most looked forward to whenever I visited my parents in Hastings. Gordon and Ruth left a wonderful legacy of happy memories. Jon
DeleteOh - I loved Gordon - and Ruth, so much. They were an essential and integral part of our life in Hastings Old Town, back in the late 70’s and 80’s, and even now in my head, so many years later. And the wondrous Cecil, and Helen of course (she so sensible and grounded, or so it seemed) - such very special people. In my 30s when they were part of our lives, now in my 70s I remember them with such huge affection.
ReplyDeleteHi Jenny - Thank you for your comment. Yes, happy days they were. We spent a fair amount of time in Hastings with my parents in the 70s and 80s as we were poor schoolteachers in Essex and taking our three children down there on holiday was a cheap option. My Mum Helen loved having them and my father paid them to scratch the back of his head! And we saw lots of Ruth and Gordon, and they were so good with the children too. We tried to be there each year for the carnival: my parents had a house in the High Street so we could take chairs onto the pavement and sit there with a beer watching the world go by. And is it just my memory or was it always sunny?
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