A Coventry Kid's Tale

Chapter 11: 14 years old

The big day was arriving, the child's sister was to be married off. No more would her parents be worried about her getting lost. The dowry being paid to get rid of her, the day was set for the 30th June 1962!!!! This was to be a big day for the parents for they were finally going to get a bedroom to sleep in.... (the shop only had two bedrooms, one for the child and something and one for the sister). The mother and father had to make their bed up each night in the sitting room and then put it away again in the morning; this they had done for three years. With the arrangements made and the barrel of beer in pride of place, the wedding went ahead. The mother and father making sure that nothing would go wrong (for they wanted that bedroom badly), made sure by the father escorting the daughter up the aisle so she could not change her mind. The service was held at St. Peter's church, the child could not escape from this service. When finally the interesting part of the service arrived (this being when the doors opened to let the child out), the child could now nip around the corner of the church to have a ciggie while the pictures were taken. Onward they all went to the wedding reception, a long walk to the church rooms in Yardley Street (about 200 yards). When everybody was seated a meal was served with wine followed by speeches. Following this the band began to play and the child's father opened the barrel, sampling the beer first to make sure it had not gone off overnight. On the second sample the father declared it safe to drink. To make sure the barrel did not fall off its stand the father kept his arm around it, only taking his arm off to refill his glass. The child's father was very thoughtful of all things. The time had come for the sister and her new husband, Michael Dowling (the same Michael Dowling that the child had sold all the ribbons to many years ago), to leave. The child had to leave as well to do his paper round, for the miserable old git would not give him the night round off. When returning home the child found his father sitting on an orange box at the bottom of the garden, head in his hands and a big grin on his face. The child's father was rocking back and forward on the box, when all of a sudden, falling over backwards, the father's legs went up in the air. The father because of his thoughtfulness with the barrel of beer had been a bit too thoughtful, and could not get up. The child went and helped his father to sit back on the orange box and there he stayed for a number of hours to get rid of some of that thoughtfulness!!!!!!!! The father was really very pleased with his day's work, now he had a permanent bed !!