teen romance

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with love from Keswick (1979)

Keswick 1979

Dear Hilary, Ged here in Keswick and believe it or not its sunny for a change. Ta for your letter and postcard from up North. As you can see I’m in Keswick still but I go home on the 6th of September to my new house the address of which is 14 …. I’ve got to work till next Thursday so I’ll write a proper letter then from ….. So I’ll be able to tell you all my news then, tarra for now. Gerard xx P.S Don’t think much of the hotel on the other side. P.S.S. Hope you had a nice holiday! xx

Here’s another postcard being used to update an address change.  It’s amazing how often we all did that, back in the day! It is unclear whether Ged is staying in the hotel or working in it – the latter I suspect. Either way he’s obviously not a fan, despite the ‘warm welcome, courtesy and friendliness’ promised in print at the bottom!

Sunshine in Keswick is, of course, worthy of a comment 🙂  My postcard to him was from even further ‘up North’ – our family holiday that year was spent driving and camping round the north coast of Scotland.

Postmarked ‘KESWICK 11.30am 31 AUG 1979 CUMBRIA’, this card was posted exactly 37 years ago today! The other postmark is the old favourite ‘REMEMBER to use the POST CODE!’ which he hasn’t.

The card carries 10p worth of stamps which is approximately 52p today (2016).

This is three years after Ged and I first met and the correspondence was still fairly regular; these were the days long before texts, emails, Whatsapp, Facebook; when there were only 3 channels on UK tv and expensive long distance phone calls were made by special appointment and only with permission of the bill payer (Dad), who was generally sat in the same room listening in! Letter writing was the only option 🙂 

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with love from Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire (1977)

With love from Slaughter, Gloucestershire

Dear Hilary, Sorry I could not come to the lake on Sunday and I am afraid I cannot come on Easter Day because I am on a cycle trip in the midlands. We stayed here on Thursday night. The weather today was absolutely terribly. Firstly the wind, which was very strong against us and then it decided to snow. It was terrible and everybody got absolutely freezing. We got to the host about 7.30 Love James

An earlier card from James, but still the same year. Much is made of the weather, which sounds a bit miserable for what must have been the Easter Holidays. The post mark is Cheltenham 8th April 1977

Upper Slaughter, pictured on the front, is described on the back as ‘one of the Cotswolds most beautiful villages’ – the macabre name is derived from an old English word meaning muddy place, but don’t let that put you off visiting!

The card is carrying 6½p stamp, being the rate for a small postcard.

 

1977 was obviously the year of James and me! We lived equidistant, in opposite directions, to the lake where our families were members of the local sailing club. This meant that our teen romance was constantly thwarted by dependency on lifts from parents and the various other commitments of our families… needless to say, it did not last long!