50 Years On

Firstly I would like to say how pleased and delighted I am to see you all here. I might add I am pleased to be here myself.

I will start by thanking all those who have helped in the preparation of this lunch, the spread and decoration of the feast has been lovingly created by a magnificent team from the kitchen and beyond.

During this speech there will be reference to events and participants so please forgive me if the grammar is not perfect. For those you who are not taking notes this speech will be posted later on my website ericchown.com.

In my experience chance plays a large role in our lives and I can remember some of the events that affected us.

Starting at the beginning the most important thing was me meeting a Fijian chap, his name was Bagwhan Sharan. He will not remember me but I remember him. He was a mechanic that joined the company I worked for, late in 1963. He said that he was working his way around the world. It sounding like a good plan and I thought, if he can do it so can I.

Mentioning this to my brother-in-law Alan he showed me an advert in the Popular Mechanics magazine which was advertising for mechanics in America. Well as I spoke the language (sort of) this seemed like a good omen.

Before I could change my mind I grabbed my passport, got a ‘green card’ from the American embassy in London (easy in those days) and I found myself in April 1964 landing in Washington DC, being picked up at the airport by a gent in an air-conditioned Lincoln Continental coupe, I was suitably impressed. He drove me down-town and dropping me off at the YMCA a few blocks down from the White House, saying “This is the start of your new life” – I never saw him again.

I started work the next day and needed a proper place to live, and Charlie, one the car jockeys at the Manhattan Autos, told me about this very large hostel with dining called Hartnett Hall. Sorted, and I was set up at the start of my big adventure. Remember this was before gap year was invented, so I was learning as I went along.

The job was great and my new social life revolved around various expats and Americans who were all living at Hartnell Hall with the local pub, Cahills as a favourite venue. On one occasion one of our party told a joke causing great laughter we explained to the two girls sitting at the nearby table, “Sorry if you didn’t get the joke, we are English. “Don’t worry”, they replied we are English too, so we promptly invited them to join our group.

This was the very fateful event that was to change my life fore-ever .

Days later at another party, which was set up in a local Dutch American restaurant called the Watergate Inn, I made sure that I sat next to the dark haired girl. We quickly became an item, and not letting the grass grow under our feet a few months later decided we would make the relationship permanent.

Trying to arrange wedding details with 3000 miles between Washington DC and Liverpool was not an easy task, remember this was long before modern telephones, but we managed somehow. Flying home to the UK visiting Taunton, getting married in Liverpool and flying back to the USA for our honeymoon all in about 21 days, now thats what you call a whirlwind romance.

The honeymoon was a trip across America on a Greyhound bus passing through about thirteen states. We had a $99 for 99 day go anywhere travel pass it must have been the bargain trip of the 20th century.

I had a new job to go to in Pasadena, California as a car mechanic. My very new wife Iris also got a prestigious job in Caltech (California Institute of technology). We were not well paid so after about 18 months we had another journey, setting out in our $150 1953 Chevrolet loaded down, off we set to drive back to the East Coast to Washington DC. I later found out that the guys I worked with had bets on how far we would get – we won!
The trip was clouded by the fact that Iris’s dad was seriously ill. And while his illness was a big worry I hope Iris did enjoy the ride. We settled down in an apartment in North West DC with me back working for Manhattan Auto Inc. Shortly after, Iris had to fly back to the UK, sadly to share the last few weeks with her dad. After the funeral her mum came back with her for a holiday.
We spent a further two and half happy years in DC making friends that have stood the test of time. We talked of raising a family and we both felt that we would like any children that we had would be able to laugh at the same things we do.

So we decided on another venture – back to the UK. Week by week we sent off our luggage down to Florida (17 cases in all). Eventually we said farewell to our friends in DC against the backdrop of riots and the destruction of the part of the city where I have been working, this was the aftermath of the death of Martin Luther King. Not a happy exit but all part of our leaving the USA.

Forgive me for focussing so much on the first ten years. Largely because it was such an eventful period. As mentioned we had a very happy time in America. And in the short space of ten years we had met, married, moved three times, travelled across the states twice, and were the parents of two boys. Not too bad an outcome for what we both started out as a year’s working holiday in 1964.

Back in the UK I carried on working in the motor trade and Iris looked after the boys and once again chance entered our life. I was working long hours and getting (for the early seventies) a good salary. Iris spotted in the Gazette that the local Nuclear Power station was asking for Plant Operators – the same money with half the hours, it was shift work but I would no longer have to be out in all weathers getting my hands dirty.

As it turned out is was another good career move. I stayed there for twenty years – the longest un-interrupted job I had ever had.

We moved from our first home in Ruishton to our present home in 1976, and continued to build memories. We have accumulated a lot stuff, the things that bring back so many happy times, photo albums by the armful and mementos of events and times past, things like weddings, engagements, christenings, graduation ceremonies, dinner parties, holidays at home and abroad with trips around the country making the bonds that hold us together as a family.

They were not all happy times – like children swallowing things inappropriately and the hasty trips to hospital. I add this does not necessarily end in the teenage years.

In fact I think I still hold the record for the fastest journey in a reasonably priced car between Creech St Michael and Chichester hospital, a distance of about 126 miles, Google maps suggest about it should take about 2hrs 26 minutes but what do they know. Seeing your eldest son connected to machines as a result of a road accident was a sobering moment for us as a family. He made a complete recovery but the car he hit and the motor-cycle he rode were right-offs.

My service at Hinckley point allowed me to retire early with a good pension and this has given us twenty years in which to travel the world, see relatives we never knew existed (thanks Joyce and Colin in Australia) and generally spend our children’s inheritance, “SKIing” I think its called.

During this narrative I have talked about us as a family but I need to talk about my partner Iris. She is a pearl and the golden heart of this marriage, pulling all the strings that make things work – birthday dates, who’s married to who (or should that be whom) children and grandchildren. Remembering all the details that make our family group work, weaving a strong and loving web. Don’t ask my how she does it – she has a wealth of knowledge about all our families both here and at all points of the compass. She is a very sociable person able to mix, talk and engage with everyone what ever their station in life.

I mentioned earlier our mementos, the down side of collecting stuff is that my wife does not like throwing things away. We have an attic full of junk and rubbish all kinds, sorry kids no priceless antiques just the detritus of fifty years.

As an example we have five vacuum cleaners around the house just gathering dust.

We have so many umbrellas I think we must be saving them for a rainy day.

Gloves of all shades and sizes – well you never know when they will come in handy.

And please don’t get me on shoes, if I made a list it would be two feet long.

On a positive note this tendency not to discard all these old and useless things has worked well in my favour – I’m still here.

We consulted our old address books in gathering the names of people we wanted to invite to todays lunch. In those tattered pages there are many names that no longer occupy the space they once took, some having measured out their allotted span and others who were taken far too soon. We have had a few quiet moments taking time to remember them in our hearts.

During our married life there have been so many events that we have enjoyed and here we are at the fifty-year milestone. Looking back the time seems to have a Doppler effect – past events have gone by so quickly but the future is slowing creeping up on us.

And here we are fifty years on with our family – We are the proud parents of two grown up son’s, although the jury was out for a while on this. They in turn have their own families and we are very proud of them and the events in their lives. We have a wonderful group of relatives and friends. We are just a normal kind of 21st century family, we don’t make history we are just part of it. Iris and I still hold hands, but that is just to keep each other from falling over.

We look around the world and do worry about stuff but I think our parents probably did the same. Just to put a perspective on how life is changing and how fast things happen my father was born before Bleriot flew the channel and our oldest son was born just before a man landed on the moon. And we all now carry in our pockets greater technology than that used for that milestone event.

I don’t know where we are going from here as all the signposts just wave vaguely to the future. Where life will lead us we don’t know, but we will try and enjoy every minute and mile.

With just 2000 words I have left some things out I am sure, but there are some other events I missed out deliberately. I know that Iris will want to talk to you so I will not steal her pleasure and pride.

Thank you once again for coming and please can you welcome my wife, life-long partner and friend Iris Crosbie Chown. . . .