New posts

A little forum update...We're planning an upgrade.

Find out more about what's planned and how you can help support the forum
Click here for the details

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 116381" data-attributes="member: 22">1965Lou Beale on her husband Albert's aversion to Winston Churchill: He'd come in, see Churchill [on television] and just tip the table up with ourdinners on it, just like that.Lou on Albert falling out with his best mate: They went out for a drink at one o'clock and come back at two, your dad with a black eye and his mate with a missing tooth. "What was all that about?" I says. "Never mind," he says. They never spoke to each other for a whole year and all I could get out of him was "Churchill."Nana Moon on Winston Churchill: It was such a cold day when he died — and at his funeral. A bitter cold it was, cruel cold. They took him down the river on a special boat. The whole of London just stopped, watching Mr Churchill go by. You must remember.Alfie Moon: No, because I was just a baby.Nana: Oh, of course you was. It was me and your dad that went. You stayed at home with your mum where it was warm. It was me and Alfred.Kenny Beale on Angie: She was just a kid when I left, all legs and too much make up, tagging round after us so she could get close to [Den].Lou: It's [1965] since I've seen my Kenny. That's because of you.Pat Wicks: Because of you. Who packed him off the minute they heard he'd got me in the club, eh?Lou: Yeah, it was I who told him to go. I sent him away.Kenny to Lou: You thought you were really clever sending me away.Lou: I was at me wit's end. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want my sons killing each other. Kenny was the first to go. It seemed the right thing to do at the time, but maybe that's what started all the break up.Kenny: You acted like judge, jury and executioner. You put a split between my brother and me.Lou: You done wrong and you had to pay for it.Kenny: And for that, you wiped out our future together? Because Dad didn't understand me and you took his side? That was too hard, Mum, too hard.Lou: Family came first. And anyway, you got too big for the Square. You was wild.Lou on Kenny: I never told him [about Simon]. I don't think [Pat] did neither, but you never know with Pat.Kenny to Simon: If they'd told me about you, things would have been different. I'd never have left a kid.Kenny to Pat: If I'd known, I'd have said, "Come on, love, let's do the off to the Antipodes together."Lou to Kenny: If we told you she was up the spout, you'd have been off like greased lightning.Kenny to Lou: I never even argued with you when you told me to leave.Pat: You scuttled off to New Zealand as soon as your mother opened her mouth.Kenny: In them days, you did what your mother told you.Pat: Only if it suited. Why didn't you come clean instead of sneaking off to New Zealand?Kenny: He was my brother. I thought it was the best thing for everyone. I thought it was best for you if I did what my mum said and ducked Down Under.Kenny to Lou: It was my way out. You handed me the opportunity and I took it. It was what I wanted. The truth is, I don't know if I'd have had the guts to just up and go myself.Kenny: I went, meek as a lamb. Twenty-four going on twenty-five, and my mother has me off on a convict ship to the colonies. It's a wonder Dad didn't throw in a box of oranges in case I got scurvy.Lou: You was better off out of it.Kenny: Didn't feel lucky then. As a matter of fact, it didn't feel lucky for a long time.Pete Beale to Kenny: I was actually really upset when you went away, the big brother leaving home. I was heartbroken. I mean, heartbroken.Lou to Kenny: You must have known it took our every last penny to take you to New Zealand.Pat: You didn't care what I was going through. I just wasn't good enough for [Kenny].Lou: You had my Pete.Pat on Pete: Slobbering and drooling over me, he was. And me with another kid on the way. What else could I do, eh? Not two ha'pennies to rub together.Pete: Once me elder brother gave up the stall, I took it over. Family business, solid. To tell you the truth, I enjoyed it out there. Free and easy, cash in hand, and twenty quid was a lot of money then. Those were the days.Arthur Fowler to Kenny: You left us to cope. At twenty-five, you couldn't stand up to your responsibilities. At twenty-five, I was a married man.Kenny to Lou: Arthur Fowler - don't you think Pauline could have done better than him? Well, of course she could, but maybe someone else would have wanted her to go and live in their house, take her away. You couldn't have that, could you? You need people to domineer, Mum.Pete to Kenny: Just after you left, Pat gave birth to what I thought was our second son.Kathy Beale: Why did you assume he was yours in the first place?Pete: I don't know. I just assumed. It could have been.Pat: How could I be sure? It might have been Pete's. It might have been Kenny's. I just didn't know. You do the best for the sake of the baby. When Pete wanted to make another go of it, I went along with that. What else could I do?Simon Wicks: You used both of them.Pat: Oh no, they used me.Pat to Simon: I just used you. You were like a helpless little pawn in a grown ups' game. You weren't important, I was. You see, I've known allalong who your father was. There was only one man in Walford then. Brian Wicks.Pat: You make your bed, you lie in it. I learnt that at an early age. But in the end, whatever happens, it's just you and that little mite. You got to do right by it, the best way you can.Cindy Beale (née Williams): Is that what you did?Pat: Yeah, I think I took the best deal. Who knows? But what I did know is that Pete would take care of the kids until they could take care of themselves. They're like that, the Beales.Pete to Pat: You was my wife and I loved you.Kathy: Hey presto, I had a baby. It was adopted. It was the best way. I knew even then I would have made her suffer for it somehow. I didn't want to look at her.Kathy to Donna, her daughter: I did what I thought was best all round. It wasn't an easy decision. You were my baby. I let you go, but I didn't forget you.Kathy: At first, it was a big upset obviously, but later on I think it made me tougher, funnily enough. I had to get meself over it and I was determined it wasn't going to ruin me life. I sort of made meself put it right out me mind, but it was still there, niggling away in the background. I suppose it taught me to bottle things up and all.Kathy: I don't think I ever allowed myself to get into what I really felt. I dealt with it too easy. I never grieved for her properly. It was a horrible part of my life. When it happened, I felt like I just wanted to die.Kathy: I used to have nightmares about it for years, right up until I met Pete and we got married.Peggy Mitchell: You know Grant? He didn’t speak till he was nearly three years old.Tina Stewart: I was born somewhere like this [Albert Square], you know — Devon’s Road, Bow.Pat: Roman Road Market.Tina: Just takes one of two smells to take me right back there, pie and liquor or jerk chicken.Arthur: Pauline, you remember Bertie, don't you? Bertie Botham? We went to the funfair with him — with him and his wife, Janet.Pauline: Skinny fella.Arthur: Good footballer. Do you remember when we were engaged and I went to Clacton with Bertie? It was summer of '65, in July. We went to Clacton on Bertie's Panther. Oh that was a lovely day. It really was a great day — roaring along the front there. We were kings, like we didn't have a care in the world. We were about to get married and that day in Clacton seemed like the last day we were going to be kids.Pauline: Didn't you want to buy a bike, just after we were married?Arthur: Yeah. We talked about it, but we were broke, weren't we? Bertie [Botham] had to sell his for a double bed.Pauline: What happened to Bertie?Arthur: He died, Pauline. It was just after our second wedding anniversary. He fell off the scaffolding while painting the brewery. Lovely footballer.Arthur: I didn't get drunk on my stag night.Mark: Yes you did. Mum said you were paralytic.Arthur: No I wasn't. I was just tired. I'd been at work all day and when I collapsed, people assumed that I was drunk, but I wasn't.Mark: Mum says you were singing under her window.Arthur: All right, all right, I may have had one or two.Pauline: I remember the night before I got married, I was so keyed up, Mum had to make me a hot toddy to get me off to sleep.Dot Cotton: Nervous, was you?Pauline: Yeah, but only about silly things like tripping up going down the aisle. Not nervous about marrying Arthur. When I think how young I was and how little I knew about life, that's one thing - I wasn't worried about the man I was going to share the rest of my life with.Pauline: I knew my wedding dress was the right one the moment I saw it.Pauline: Mum gave me this [garter] when I got married to Arthur — you know, for good luck, something blue. You should have seen Arthur's face!Pauline: I was spot on time for my wedding, not a second too early or a second too late. Made a point of it.Ian Beale: Why was that - worried Uncle Arthur would do a runner?Pauline: It's common courtesy, isn't it?Pauline: When I made my vows, I meant every word of them.Pauline on her wedding ring: I’ve never ever taken it off, not once since the day he slipped it on my finger.Pauline: I did all the clearing up on my wedding day. Mum was in a right state. I was too busy to feel anything, I think.Arthur: That was a great day. I'll never forget it.Pauline: All right, it wasn't the most lavish or stylish of weddings, but it was lovely. It really was a special day. Everyone was there, and it warmed my heart to think that people cared so much to give us that good a send off.Arthur on Pauline: She always says I married her because I felt sorry for her, but she never did know what she was talking about. I married her because I fancied her.Pauline on Arthur: When we got married, I knew he'd need propping up. I knew I was stronger than him, but I didn't mind.Kathy: Is that why you married him?Pauline: Yeah. I thought, "I've got the brains, he's got the brawn!"Michelle Fowler: Did you love Dad when you married him?Pauline: Well yes, in time. Mind you, I was a bit struck on Stewart Granger, but he didn't propose to me. I used to write him [Stewart Granger] love letters. I never posted them. I used to hide them under me mattress. Then one day, Pete found them. Him and [Den] made my life a misery after that.Michelle: So you ended up with Arthur?Pauline: I ended up with a man who was good and kind.Big Mo on Omar Sharif: I used to love him in that Dr Zhivago. Wrap me up in furs, Omar, and carry me away on your big train.Pat: I met Cary Grant once.Kim Fox: The judge on Fame Academy?Pat: No — film star.Arthur to Pauline: When I first met you, you were full of life. You didn't have a bad word to say about anything or anyone. And that's what I married.Pauline on 'Needles And Pins' by the Searchers: We used to dance to it all the time, do you remember?Arthur: Yeah, in Eastbourne, in that dance hall down at the front. The Something Palace, wasn't it? Yeah, we went there for our holiday.Pauline: Honeymoon.Arthur: I tell you what, we cut a fine figure on that dance floor.Pauline: Yeah, you and your two left feet.Arthur: I was all right.Pauline: I've still got the bruises.Pauline on Arthur: He couldn't even do [the Twist] properly. Used to tread all over you. Mum always said he had two left feet.Pauline: Do you remember that picnic we had on our honeymoon on the pier?Arthur: We sat in one of those shelters, didn't we? Freezing to death.Pauline: That was when we went to the dance hall. I remember going in the ladies'. My nose was all red.Arthur: Ah, you looked smashing.Pauline: Didn't look so bad yourself. Still trod all over my feet though.Arthur: Not surprised. I couldn't feel them.Pauline: Do you remember that caff we used to go to?Arthur: Yeah, we had fish and chips and we'd talk till all hours.Pauline: Well, till half past ten at least. Everything closed at half past ten in those days.Pauline: You know, when we were [in Eastbourne] — before the children, before everything, really — I remember thinking, "I've never been so happy in my whole life."Arthur: No, nor me.Pauline: We did say we'd go back.Sylvie Carter to Stan: You’re always saying you’re going to take me [back to Bournemouth], always waiting on some horse to come in.Pauline: Arthur, do you remember those little "I love you" notes you used to leave for me all over the house? Mum found one in the laundry basket. She thought we'd gone potty!Pauline on being a wife: When you first get married, you think that you can do it better than anyone ever before. Soon wears off though. First time they come home moaning and groaning and telling you they're too tired to do a bit of washing up.Stan Carter on Sylvie: That woman is a vindictive cow, always was. Should never have had anything to do with her.Patrick Truman: I took Judy Jericho to the Kitchener Calypso Show at the Palace in 1965. Boy, that was a date and a half!Charlie Slater: Was it good?Patrick: Yeah, man. Back then your boy could move, you know!Patrick: Two-Eyes Cafe, 1965. Let’s just say that I had more than a frothy cup of coffee that night!Patrick on a ska LP, Legends of Blue Beat: I had a copy of this back in 1965. The thing got so scratched up I had to throw it away.Pauline: I was just twenty when my dad died. It was the year I married Arthur. I remember we were standing outside the church and he squeezed my hand. He said, "Remember, Pauline. I'll always be here for you." That was in the September. By the Christmas,we'd buried him.Ian: Pneumonia, wasn't it?Pauline: He'd never been really strong, you know. Not since the war.Lou: Father, mother and four sisters I've buried. And Albert, God rest his soul. When my Albert was took, it was as though everything stopped. I couldn't cry. I didn't cry till the funeral. There was a lump in my throat and I couldn't let it go.Pauline on Lou: She had the vultures descend on her when Dad died.Mo Butcher: It happened to my mother. A chap came round and said he was from the gas board, but he wasn't. He did her meter, nicked ten bob.Pauline on Albert: When he died, I thought my whole world would fall apart. It did for a while, but then it got better because I imagined he was in that special place that Mum's always talking about. And as long as I could imagine he was somewhere, well, it was all right. He wasn't gone forever.Pauline: My dad never met any of my children.Ian: Or me.Pauline: No, he didn't meet you.Lou on Albert: We had forty-two years of loving and loyal marriage. He was a marvellous man. He knew I never made idle threats. I always meant exactly what I said. And in my opinion, no relationship can exist without a kind of rule.Lou on Albert: He believed in making the best of your mistakes.Jim Branning: When my dad died, the night before the funeral, my aunty, she went in the front room, took off his good suit and put this old jumper on him he used to wear, put his shirt and tie back on him so no-one could see, and I said to her, "Here, Aunty," I said, "what did you do that for?" She said, "I can't bear the idea of him being cold."Stan Carter on his watch: It belonged to my grandfather, Reginald William Carter. Gave it me on his deathbed.Pauline on decorating the living room: Dad used to paper over the old stuff.Arthur: You don't have to tell me. The first time I stripped that lot off, we added six inches to the room.Dot, singing: “Angels up above you, smiling at my darling from the sky ...”Abi Branning, Dot’s step-granddaughter: Grandma Dot, did you sing that to your son?Dot: Yes, yes I did.Dot: Used to sing [‘Mockingbird’] to my Nick. Of course, it never done the trick with him.Dot on Nick: I only used to sing him lullabies. Mind you, there was one song he liked, ’Sleepy Joe’ [by Herman’s Hermits]. He used to make me sing it to him over and over again. It’s funny, isn’t it? Those moments, they’re so precious, but you don’t realise it till it’s gone.Dot on Nick: When he was a little boy, he used to say that I was his best friend and I used to say that he was mine.Dot on Nick: [He was a] little angel. He loved his mummy. He'd cry if I went out the room.Dot to Nick: You hated school. Tears all the way. I can still see your poor little face. When we got to the gates, you wouldn't let go. How you clung on to my hand, like your little life depended on it. I always had to be there waiting when you come out. Charlie would be furious when we got back — well, when he was there, that was — because his dinner wasn't ready.Dot, showing Nick a home made Christmas card: You was only six. It was the Christmas when Charlie nicked all your pocket money and you couldn't buy me a proper one. "Happy Christmas Mum. Love Nick." Happy spelt with one p. Charlie was supposed to be helping you with your spelling.Nick: I made this?Dot: Special, for me. There's the Angel of Goodness, see? Flying over the house, our house. "Driving away all the Devil's badness," you said, "making us all good." You was ever so good at drawing. That was the first drawing you'd done with a packet of crayons what I'd bought you. You sat at the kitchen table when I was making the puddings and you were shielding your drawing with your little hand so I wouldn't see what you was doing. It was a secret, you said. Such a fierce little grip on the crayons. They kept snapping.Nick: I remember the smell of them crayons.Dot: You should have seen my Nick at Christmas, he used to get ever so excited.Pauline: I can remember Christmases in the past with all of us, with Mum and Dad, Kenny and Ronnie and — all right, when Dad died, things changed and then Kenny and Ronnie went — but we all still carried on the tradition, didn't we? Michelle and Mark and Ian.Pauline: I can remember a time when you needed to hire Earl's Court for our family Christmas dinner.Arthur on carving the turkey: That's my job. Has been ever since Albert died.Sylvie Carter: Used to say that Stan could carve a cotton thread.Dot: I used to do a full Christmas dinner, all the trimmings, for me and my Nick — and Charlie sometimes, when he were around.Dot: My Nick told me [a joke] when he were little. "What does a chiropodist eat for his breakfast? Weetabix."Frank Butcher: I think you'll find that was cornflakes, Dot.</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?