I Only Came For The Music: 37 - A Change In Lifestyle
Betty McKay and her husband Hugh move to live in a Leicestershire village where she gets a job working a a pub kitchen.
...We were a polyglot crew - Dario, the Italian chef, Peter and Antonia his two assistants, and three very short-tempered Spanish waiters whose names I never learned to pronounce properly. For some reason, which I never really understood, the Latin inhabitants of the kitchen always appeared to me to be on the verge of open warfare, with Peter and myself on the sidelines wondering all the time how and when hostilities would break out...
To read earlier episodes of Betty's life story please click on I Only Came For The Music in the menu on this page.
In November 1963 we left London and moved to Woodhouse Eaves in the county of Leicestershire. At that time the change in our lifestyle seemed enormous. From living in a great metropolis, which London was and still is, we went to a tiny hamlet where life seemed to have stepped back many years.
The change in our lives was enormous. Woodhouse Eaves was a pretty little village where nothing remarkable ever happened. That was the only thing that was remarkable about it.
I had to get a job, just to get me out of the house and meet people. I wanted something to do while the children were at school. One day walking into the village I noticed the sign ‘The Bull’s Head’ over the local hostelry. I popped my head round the side-door and asked if there was any work available. Eventually I found myself working in the kitchen.
We were a polyglot crew - Dario, the Italian chef, Peter and Antonia his two assistants, and three very short-tempered Spanish waiters whose names I never learned to pronounce properly. For some reason, which I never really understood, the Latin inhabitants of the kitchen always appeared to me to be on the verge of open warfare, with Peter and myself on the sidelines wondering all the time how and when hostilities would break out. Dario, Peter and I became good friends. Once Hugh realised I wasn’t in any imminent danger to life and limb, he sat back and listened to all the Bull’s Head communiqués on a daily basis, understanding it was all quite good fun really.
Being based in the United Kingdom meant that my relatives and friends were able to visit us more often. There were about sixty Service families based in Woodhouse Eaves, and we were much happier in a village in the heart of England, than in London. A great city can sometimes be a lonely place. That little Leicestershire village holds very happy memories for both of us.
Josephine Curran was the first friend I made there and she still is my best buddy, even although she now lives thousands of miles away in America. At that time she lived in the house directly opposite to us. Jo invited me to a Tupperware party. I don’t think much of Tupperware but liked Jo immediately and our friendship blossomed.
In Seattle she serves on various Tourist Guide Associations and is a past President of the International Association of Tour Managers. We continue to correspond and meet up regularly whenever she visits the UK. We have a wonderful friendship that has lasted well over forty years.
Alison and Richard enjoyed life in Woodhouse Eaves. They liked their teachers at the village school and easily settled down to the new routines in a country environment and made friends quickly. After travelling around London by bus and tube, we were pleased to purchase a Hillman Minx, enabled us at weekends to explore an area of Britain we hadn’t known at all. We shopped mainly in Loughborough which was very close, and Leicester, quite a large city, was nearby.
On our first Christmas there we bought the children a bicycle each, which I suppose meant we assumed that we would be living in that area for quite a long period of time. Hugh and I thought that he would probably finish his army career in Britain. However as things worked out we were surprised and delighted when after less than two years Hugh was informed he was being posted to Singapore in November 1965.
