18 August 1958. The red house and the perfect wedding

18 August 1958

My dear Len + Margaret

I’ve hardly finished your last weeks letter, then I am starting on your next one. Although it’s only Monday you will not get it before Saturday, but I am making a start on it so as to try not to let you down, though I still don’t guarantee that you will get it, because you know we are going to be very busy for some days with the wedding + also the cutting of the cake. We are not looking forward to the cutting of the cake, this will be a long job.

Before I go further will you please thank Mrs.Booth (my mother’s mother who lived in Stockport) for the lovely P.C. she sent us, it’s a very fine one for my album. I have not had the chance to work on my album for a long time. I am thinking of taking a whole day to work on it, I have quite a number of nice & pretty cards to put in. Mrs. Booth seems to be enjoying herself she mentioned that she had been to Edinburgh, I guess that was there that she bought this nice card.

I’ve just looked at the top of the house in front of us, I noticed some funny object on the roof, I told Father to look, he said it was a monkey. We called Roselle to come & see. She too said it was a monkey. She ran upstairs to close her roof lights, than in the meantime this object moved & it turned out to be a pigeon, it’s still there in a corner. I would like to know where it is going to disappear, but I can’t lose so much time looking.

Roselle starts on her fortnight’s holiday today. As you know she is not going away, she said last night that she should be in Scotland. I am hoping she has good & warm weather so she can enjoy going to different beaches. She & Margaret went out to Kay this afternoon, Kay phoned Roselle this A.M. asking her & Margaret to go, otherwise they had made up their mind to go out to Gorey or to La Pulente tomorrow A.M. Both girls will meet Kay in town, they will order the flowers for Thursday + buy a few other things that are needed, on Thursday A.M.

Mr. Wall came this afternoon to see about painting the house, yes Len he came with his treasure J.I.(?) which is still going strong. Well we are going to have the house done up, it would be cream this time, I think it’s what they call Snowsom(?) they are going to put on, this is what is on it now, but It got very ugly and dirty looking. Then I had made up my mind that I wanted the woodwork painted in a nice shade of red, but Dad & Mr. Wall managed to put me off this, so it seems it’s going to be green again.

Then our bedroom must be papered & painted. Again I am making up my mind to have the woodwork painted a nice soft shade of pink (it’s not because I wear a pink hat that I can’t have pink paint in the house) any way I may change my mind, I will have to see the card, showing the different shades of paint, there will also be the choosing of wall paper. Again I don’t want a colourless cream as we have everywhere in the house. I want one with colour for a change, all this is going to be a big expense still it has to be done. There is a lot more that should be done in the house, but now at our age we don’t want all this big expense, there are lots worse then us, I don’t think there is much to grumble at with us, labour is so expensive these days and also materials.

Now I will close for to night, I’ve made a good start.

Now this is Tuesday eve, the weather does not look very bright. Kay took us to Corbiere this afternoon, we had a shower of pouring rain on our way out, it was not altogether a very nice afternoon. There was quite a number of visitors at Corbiere, they were caught in this heavy shower of rain, some of them had next to nothing on, but then it’s more or less their own fault, they won’t bother to take any wraps.

I’m sorry to say that Uncle Frank will not be at the wedding, he is on his holidays and going to France for a few days, Marguerite will be there, she will fetch Aunt Blanche. Kay ordered the flowers for us all, they will send them on Thursday A.M. Pink carnations for us ladies + white ones for the men.

Doreen has ordered her bouquet from another florist. I don’t know what the flowers are. She leaves work today on her holidays, but she intends continuing work until Christmas. It seems to me that she will have enough to do to look after the house and children, but we are not interfering in her affairs.

I told you somewhere on this letter about Dad and Mr. Wall putting me off from having red paint on the house. Well I have been thinking about it all day & thought why should I give in and not have it, if I want it. I have spoken to Dad about it again, he quite sees that I would want it. This evening Father phoned Aunt B. to tell her something about the wedding. He told her that we were having the house cleaned up and that we were to have the wood work painted red. She said if we do she will not come to see us, so for the second time of trying I am put off again. I told Dad to have the paint he wants that I am not going to bother any more. We will have to decide when they are ready to paint. They have started work to day, cleaned all the front of the house + given it one coat of cream snowsam (?) It was white before it will be cream this time. I can’t think of anything else to say. I will now stop this.

It’s Friday A.M. I will just say that the wedding went off very well indeed. Everyone remarked about it, the weather was perfect, could not be better, beautiful sunshine, we were surprised about it. The day before was far from fine, the reception at Kay’s was very well organised. We were all our family including Doreen’s husband of course, he looked delighted with himself, then there was Mrs. Picot, her daughter (Mrs. Roberts) she is a widow, also Mrs. Picot is a widow. These people are Nick’s Aunt and Cousin, then Marguerite.  We were disappointed Uncle F. was not there. Also Wynne, Norman (eventually Doreen’s second husband) and little Jean Bullock, these people are Doreen’s friends, Jessie Smith and Mabel Davy. Oh I am forgetting one of the principle ones, Aunt Blanche,  I think she enjoyed herself, naturally she kept thinking of Uncle John, the same with Marguerite, she too kept thinking of her mother.

Also Mr. Young was there, he is Nick’s boss. This fellow arrived for the reception only and late at that. He is exceedingly busy at his shop. He caused a tremendous lot of laughter when he presented himself. He arrived in his working clothes, this meant shorts which were broken and none too clean. Anyway he came in all smiles and not one bit disturbed but he was delivering goods, he said he had been terribly busy that A.M. Any way, every one took this in good part and understood. It was nice the he should pop in and have a glass of champagne and cake. Then there was the photographer and his wife. This fellow works at the electricity. That was the reason Doreen had him. I think this is all I can say about the wedding and reception.

Now before I go any further, I want to thank you on behalf of Doreen and Nick for the greetings telegram you sent and will you kindly thank Mrs. Booth also for the one she sent. We all appreciated your kind thought. There was other telegrams from different people, one we appreciated very much was one from Mrs. Le Rossignol who is away for treatment in Southampton. We thought it was so kind of her. Also one from Hayes and others.

Dad and I left Kay at about 5 o/clock came home to have a little rest. Also Charles and Margaret, but some one called for them after 6 o/clock to go to the airport with Kay and Roselle. Dad or I did not go. After seeing the young couple off Arthur proposed to go to Les Augerez to see Uncle John for a few minutes. Aunty B. was back by then, they told her when she left that they would call on Uncle. Aunty thought he might get quite worked up at the thought that they were coming. He took it very well and they said he looked quite pleased to see them and spoke to them, they were there about 70 minutes. Those who went to see Uncle John were Kay, Arthur, C, Margaret.He had never seen Charles, I’m pleased they went. I think Aunty was also pleased. By that time it was time for Arthur to call for us to go to the ‘Grand’ for our little dinner. By the way Doreen + Nick’s plane left at 6.45. They had a very nice trip.

Our little dinner was lovely, very well served. I don’t quite know what each one had. They picked a few things from the menu, chicken and other things. I don’t know these funny names they give. Roselle and I were the ones who ate the least. She had melon, veal and an ice. I had soup, veal and coffee. Nothing else, oh yes some orangeade of which I did not drink all that was in my glass. Also coffee, every one said it was a lovely meal. We left there just before 10.30. Margaret and Charles walked home, Arthur wanted to take them back, they said they preferred to walk. We came back with Arthur and Kay, but instead of coming back straight home. Arthur drove for the pier where we stayed for nearly half an hour. Finally it was 11 o/clock when we got back home. We were pleased to get to bed by then.

Of course I feel rather tired to day and seem to have trouble to concentrate. Still I am working hard on this letter which must be mailed before 12 o/clock ‘noon’. It’s getting pretty near that now, but I want to ask you one thing and that is please don’t take notice of all the mistakes or bad spelling on this letter. Dad is not here to read it over as he generally does, neither I have not got the time to do so, I would miss the mail if I did so, you will understand won’t you? So long as you have the letter you won’t mind.

If I can get some cuttings from Doreen’s dress I will send some next week. When they sent the dress they did not send any pieces with it, we will have to ask for them. Kay will be bringing back the cake sometime today, the hard work will start. I must stop or else I will miss the mail.

Again many thanks also to Mrs. Booth for everything and kind thoughts.

Love from us all, lovingly Mother xxxx

A letter from Cambuslang (Glasgow) has arrived for D this A.M. She won’t see it until Sunday when they come back. They will have tea at home.