I've Been Back Home Part 2

I went back home for 2 days, and Sunday was the 2nd day. The day started off OK, with me waking up early in the hotel room, and the plan was to go to Bushbury Crematorium to put the first bunch of flowers on my Grandmothers' grave.

It was the first visit to Bushbury for me for almost 26 years or so. The Crem was ever so vaguely familiar and I soon found my bearings again. The problem was though that I couldn't find my Grandmother's grave.

I walked around for hours, up and down the rows, trying to find her grave, but just couldn't see it anywhere. I know Bushbury lay out it's residents differently - Catholics in one part, C of E in another, Polish in yet another and so on but I walked around what must have been half the massive cemetery but just couldn't find her.

Main admin office at Bushbury Cemetery, including the Memorial Room

The Book of Remembrance, held in the Memorial Room

I remember this part of the cemetery from childhood.
There used to be a fish pond here with a bridge over it

I'll definitely try again next time I'm up there. Hoping to go back again in March, or thereabouts, but on a weekday, when the office will be open. Just sorry I couldn't find her grave.

Time had ran away from me at Bushbury. I just happened to glance at my watch and saw it was 11.30am - I had to meet my special friend G. at 12. I met her in the end at 12.10, after having got lost on the Birmingham New Road!

I picked G. up and we drove to Cannock Chase, through James Bridge so I could put the flowers on my parent's grave. Must say, doing so made me feel a little better, I've taken a note on their plot number and I'm aiming on getting the gravestone cleaned up and resited with my mum listed on the stone under Dad's name.

So, having left James Bridge, we drove through Willenhall, where I called into Tesco's to top up my mobile phone and discovered the Neptune Inn was not an inn anymore! Then, onto Cannock, watching out for a decent pub serving dinners on the way. We didn't find any, so we settled for a place in Cannock town centre, the name of which escapes me - the Longford I think. We broke the rules here - we didn't settle for Sunday dinner - we opted for the ("Usually unavailable on a Sunday") Fish & Chips!

Dinner at Cannock - Is this the Longford?

Then, after eating, we headed to the centre of Cannock Chase, where we visited a World War 1 training camp museum and had a walk, and a photoshoot, through part of the massive forest.

Then, from Cannock, we drove back to West Bromwich where the weekend, that special weekend, ended, I said goodbye to G, and left my Homeland - the West Midlands at 6.30pm, getting back home in Norfolk at 9.30pm.

And now, it's back to business, I have a future to plan and ensure I earn enough to pay for. I now have the start of a new future, and whether I end my life back in the West Midlands where I started out back in 1964 remains to be seen.

Let's get my life sorted out first, shall we? I don't know what the future holds in store, or where I'm going to go, let alone end up. This blog - and the book -  will record will record my journey, every step of the way.

Exciting, isn't it?

I've Been Back Home

I've been back home. Although I now live in Norfolk here in the UK, I was actually brought up in the West Midlands, notably, in Darlaston, to be exact. And, for the first time in 21 years, I went back home.

It was a trip that took a long time to plan, was fairly expensive to go, but it was worth it as I made contact with an old friend at the same time (which was the original reason for going in the first place.)

I booked into the Premier Inn at West Bromwich slightly earlier than planned on the Saturday, so, to kill time, I went Darlaston, the town I grew up in.

I don't know really what I was expecting, but I do know I felt an overpowering sense of loneliness as I got there. I guess I've still got to get used to doing things on my own (I've only been separated 12 months). Everything's changed as well of course.

My first port of call was James Bridge Cemetery, where my parents are. I was already feeling delicate and the sight of my parent's grave (with just my Dad listed on it - my mother died much later) was a terrible sight.

Part of my plan for this weekend was to buy flowers for my parents grave. Upset, I dove to Darlaston  where I parked up on the ASDA car park in Darlaston Town Centre. This is where I used to work on the nightshift in 1982, starting work about 9 weeks before that Christmas, being laid off December 24th, then recalled back to work there in around February 1983 as the store decided to take on a permanent night shift. I can't remember how long I worked there, I guess it was something like 4 or 5 years until I left home (and the job) at the same time.

So, I parked up on the ASDA car park. They've sort of opened up Darlaston town centre now, so it looks as if ASDA is the focal point, making the main front entrance off the main town centre now, making it more viable I guess for ASDA to say they're supporting the town. It was far different in my time there, where ASDA, as a self contained unit, was largely responsible for killing off the town - before it, also, closed. I'm not sure how long the renewed ASDA, complete with it's new entrance, has been open again.

I walked up and down Darlaston town centre, shops that were there have now been converted into flats, the Midland Bank on the Bull Stake is now a wine bar, and, having walked up and down, I recognised only one shop which is still in it's original position on the High Street, Middleton's chippy, opposite St Joseph's Roman Catholic church.

The walk around the town centre, which used to take an hour, now takes only ten minutes or so, and I walked back to ASDA. Of course, I had to have a look around. I brought this years edition of the Black Country Bugle annual as a self brought Christmas present, a garden pot of Spring bulbs (I now have a bit of Darlaston in my Norfolk back garden) and flowers from my parents' and grandmother's graves.

Afterwards, I drove to my childhood homes - firstly, in Rough Hay Road, then, turning left at the top of Addenbrooke Street, I drove to Darlaston Green where I picked up and drove down to the bottom of Booth Street, which is devoid of the shops it used to have.

Happy memories, and I planned to take photos the next day before I left to go back to my (present) home in Norfolk. Sunday's another a chapter, another blog post.