Local
"The Closed Shop", Commonside. Like a drama setting from a different life. Shirley and I first went into that little pub in the weeks before our wedding. We were both in our twenties and had received the keys to our property just a month before the great day. This was in the same year that Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer. But our wedding was in October, not July and there were no television cameras or horse-drawn carriages. The end terraced house on Leamington Street cost £15,250 or $20,884 in US dollars. It had been upgraded by a local builder but there was still plenty to do to make it habitable. We needed carpets and curtain rails and of course furniture. Nearly everything we got was secondhand - including the carpets - but at least Shirley's parents bought us a new bed as a wedding gift. I fitted all of the carpets myself and my brother Simon bought us a Victorian kitchen table that I had to sand down and varnish before we could use it. We have still ...