by little the women who’d kept the home fires burning were being let go and sent home to care for their men. This naturally included the transport infrastructure, and 8 April saw a major social change. It was the last day a woman would punch the tickets on Bradford’s corporation trams – they wouldn’t be seen again as conductors for many years.
8 April was also a defining day for Annie McArdle. Eighteen years old, she had weathered (and often enjoyed) the war years, but today she was about to embark on a new journey. Today was the day that she’d walk up the aisle of St Joseph’s Catholic Church and vow to love, honour and obey her handsome beau, Reginald Harold Hudson, and their personal battle was about to begin.
‘Aww, Annie, love,’ Doris McGuire yelled as she threw a handful of rice at her old school pal. ‘You know what? You look like the cat that got the cream!’
‘Silly bugger!’ Annie replied, ducking to try and avoid the next shower of grains winging its way towards her. She hitched up her wedding gown to save it getting blackened in the dirt. She loved her dress – it had taken her mother weeks to sew up and she felt like a queen gliding around in it. She gave Reggie’s arm a quick loving squeeze. ‘Here, Doris,’ she joked. ‘It’s this fellow here that should be the one grinning. Luckiest day of his life, this is.’
‘Don’t show me up, woman!’ Reggie snapped as they made their way down the church. ‘And hell fire! I wish they’d knock it off with that bloody stuff!’
Narky bugger, Annie thought. And on their wedding day as well. Not that she was overly bothered. She knew that where Reginald was concerned she could give as good as she got – always had, always would – so he was just going to have to get used to it. They were married now and Annie intended to be just as brazen a wife as her mother had always been; not taking any nonsense off him ever.
She glanced at Reggie now, and her hand went immediately to her stomach. It was flat now – she was a slim girl – but it wouldn’t be for much longer. Which was okay – their hasty marriage wouldn’t seem unusual, not with all the servicemen coming home and rushing to wed the girls they’d been reunited with. But it had also shown her the kind of man Reggie was in that department; a man, to use her mother’s parlance, who expected to be serviced on demand. She’d have to nip that idea in the bud quick smart.
It was amusing, though, watching Doris and the rest of her friends giving her cheeky winks – implying that she was in for a great surprise tonight. Annie snorted at the thought. She’d already had that; the surprise being that, contrary to what everyone had told her – about it being a chore and a bind that she’d just have to get used to – she’d actually enjoyed it, rather a lot.
No, she thought, the surprise would come in seven months, near as good as. But hopefully it would be a late arrival so it wasn’t too blindingly obvious that she’d been such a wicked, wicked woman.
The wedding breakfast, which actually took place in the afternoon, was held at the McArdles’ house. Like the Hudsons, they lived on the Broomfields estate, and in the same row of small terraced houses that they rented from the corporation.
Usually a bit of a hovel, it had put on its best face for the day – swept out and cleaned sufficiently to be smart enough to receive guests, of which there were now 30 or so, all piling in through the narrow doorway, and falling hungrily on the feast of bread and dripping Annie’s mum had prepared, washed down with cupfuls of her dad’s mead.
Billy McArdle’s mead was a legendary tipple locally. Mostly because it was potent enough to be the cause of many a sore head, even after downing just a couple of cupfuls. Well, in today’s case, as was the case when there was any sort of occasion, jarfuls – many would be drinking from washed and scrubbed jam jars, there being far too few cups to go round.
But Billy’s mead was also famous because he was a bit of an enthusiast, often experimenting with flavours, depending on what kind of fruit he could nick from various gardens. Sometimes it was raspberry flavoured, other times scented with blackberry, but at this time of year there was little to add, so the wedding drink was just made with the usual honey.
‘A toast! A toast!’ he cried now, as he swung his mead upwards, and Annie felt her heart swell with love. She never really understood why her mam was so mean to him. To her he was a very fine man. ‘To our little Queen Annie and her prince charming, Reggie Hudson,’ he continued, beaming at them. ‘Long may they reign!’
Annie’s mum, Queenie, picked up her husband’s pipe from the stone fire top and puffed on it. ‘And good luck, my girl,’ she called across to her daughter. She roared with laughter then. ‘Because you’re gonna need it. Mark my words!’
‘Oh, Mam, give up,’ Annie chided. ‘You know he’s not a wrong ’un. Well, not half as bad as some of them, anyway. And at least we’ll have a roof to call our own over our heads.’
This had been a great source of pride to Annie. But an even greater source of relief. Two of her friends, Doris and Florrie, had already been married for a couple of years now, and were still living with their in-laws, all crammed in together. Hardly the most romantic way to start married life. And though she got along with Reggie’s family, she certainly didn’t want to live with them. She was 18 now, and sick of being treated like someone’s child. No, she wanted to be in charge now – rule her own roost.
Queenie tutted and pointed over to Reggie. He was standing by the window, laughing and roaring with the other men. ‘Really?’ she said. ‘Look at him! Drunk as a lord already, he is, pound to a penny. And it’s not yet six o’clock.’ She then smiled, giving Annie a nudge on her arm. ‘Mind you, girl,’ she whispered, ‘if he carries on like that, at least you might miss out on a bit of how’s yer father.’ She winked knowingly. ‘Now that you can do without!’
Annie felt her cheeks redden. How could her mam say things like that? She moved away from her. She certainly didn’t want to talk about that sort of thing and definitely not with her mother. Not with someone who didn’t have a good word to say about the man she’d supposedly once loved. No, she’d find more agreeable company with her friends. She caught her new husband’s eye as she went over to join them, pleased to feel the same flutter of excitement she’d always done as their eyes met, remembering what he’d said earlier about how he loved the way she looked with her hair up, how she looked like a painting of a goddess. Slightly less agreeable was the lewd, suggestive wink he responded with, specially when he followed it up by grinning at Doris and Florrie, causing them to dissolve into a fit of giggles and blushes too.
They knew him too well, she thought, as she joined them. But then, that was probably to be expected. All four of them worked at the local Punch Bowl pub and had done for over a year now – Reggie as a waiter and with Annie, Doris and Flo serving the drinks.
‘Right ladies’ man, that one is,’ Doris warned, as Annie took a sip from her drink. ‘You’ll probably have to keep him on a leash.’
The mead tasted warm in her throat. Pleasant. She took another gulp, almost downing it. ‘Oh, don’t you worry,’ she said. ‘The bugger’ll be wearing a leash, more like.’
Flo clearly didn’t want to linger on such a depressing line of thought. She stroked the arm of Annie’s wedding dress and sighed. ‘Aw, your gown is lovely, Annie,’ she cooed. ‘You look the bee’s knees, you really do. Like a princess. I wish I’d had a dress like that when I married my William. We had bugger all, us, compared to this. Still don’t!’ She sighed then, and looked across to where her own husband was. ‘And you know how folk say things like “It seems like it was only yesterday when you married him”?’
Annie nodded.
Flo stopped stroking the soft material and looked wistfully at her friend. ‘Well, it doesn’t. Not to me. It seems like a million years ago that I felt like a princess.’
‘Even more reason for me to make the most of it, then!’ Annie said quickly, not wanting to spoil the happy mood that was overtaking her now the mead had started taking effect. ‘Look,’ she said, doing a twirl so her friends could