When I finally left the Homes to make my own way in the world, I started working in a small workshop that made bespoke footwear for rich people and up-market shops in the West End.  I  had taken lodgings with Mrs Hughes, who also worked there and whose husband worked for the Council.  Their house was about a mile from where we worked and, on a Friday when I finished work, I would carry the weekly shopping back for her - it was mostly uphill and, being almost ready for retirement, it was a struggle for her. 

The factory where we worked was built into the corner of Tottenham Hotspurs Football Ground.  At weekends, if Spurs were playing at home, I would watch the match on Saturday afternoon and then catch a train to Gravesend in Kent, where my former Matron at Number 8 had moved to after leaving the Home to start a family of her own.  Her name was Joy Rawlins and her husband at that time was a Marine Sergeant based at Eastney Barracks.  I spent many happy hours with Joy and their baby daughter before making my lonely way back to Tottenham on Sunday night.

On alternative weekends, Vera made me welcome at her and husband Fred's home at Portsmouth.  Gerald and Ted were both married by this time but we always met to go to Fratton Park to watch Portsmouth play.  Portsmouth (like Spurs) were a very good team in those days, with many international players, and the ground was always packed.  Newcastle also had some really good players and so it was a Big, Big match when they played Portsmouth in the FA Cup in 1951.  We all went to watch the game and, against the odds, Newcastle won with a Wondergoal from Jackie Milburn.  They then went on to win the Cup that year against Blackpool, who had the great Stanley Matthews on the right wing.  I watched the game after getting a ticket for Wembley - they were like gold dust!

Life went on like that for a while but I was more and more disillusioned with the work I was doing - after all my training, it was just a production line type of job that didn't require the skills I had worked for.  I had missed National Service while at the Homes and, with no friends in London, I decided to enlist in the REME and to learn a new trade.  To do so, I had to sign on for three years but I had no doubts as I was missing the comradeship that I'd known all my life at the Homes.