My first trip outside of Ireland was in July 1946 when my brother in Lincoln sent me the money for my fare to visit him and his wife whom I had yet to meet. I had just completed my first year in training college. My uncle, when he heard about it, wrote a nasty letter to my father, accusing me of planning to sneak through Dublin unknown to him. He had organised a summer holiday job for me as live-in nanny to a family in Waterford, something I'd have hated. My father's anger on receiving the letter cast a shadow over the trip but I soon put that behind me. Ted was always there when anything nasty like this happened to me.
I travelled by boat to Holyhead and then caught a train to Crewe from where I would catch a connection to Lincoln. It was just over a year since the end of the war so everywhere there were soldiers returning from their war duties to their homes. Rationing was still very much in force. I remember taking a joint of lamb with me but it didn't travel well so was a waste of money. The journey was slow and tedious.
Ted and Elsie then lived in a flat before moving to a pre-fabricated bungalow outside the city and they both were out at work all day, but Elsie's sister, Janet, would look after me during the day. I remember when word got around that there were grapefruit for sale in a shop so we made our way there and queued in a long line. When we reached the sales point, we were rationed to one grapefruit per person.
Ted worked in Foster Gwynnes at that time and one day I waited for him to meet me after work. He had a motor bike and my mother had expressly forbidden me to ride on it with him. Ted persuaded me that I'd have to make my own way across Lincoln if I didn't accept a lift from him so I rode pillion but never told my mother I'd done so! He and Elsie and Elsie's family were very kind to me. It was my first real lone adventure. The next would be in 1950.