Moving In the Past

I have no idea why my Mum decided to use a recent letter to describe how it was that she and Dad came to live in the house in Bournemouth that she still occupies, but it seemed worth recording for posterity. Here's what she said, with her own approach to capitalisation as that seems important to me, too: 

I was 26 years when we moved in. We had a Cooker a Bed an old TV & Settee. Mum & Dad [hers] Bought us the Table & Chairs. Dad [mine] laid the Paths all round & mixed cement & Carried it in a Dustbin Lid haha Couldn’t afford a WheelBarrow.

We had £200 put Back to Buy things But. They charged us £200 for Road Charges So that was that. Still we got there in the end. I’ve bought a New Washing Machine cum Tumble Dryer. I’ve got to laugh as it was a quarter of what the Bungalow cost, 8 Times Dad’s Wages.

Before this, Mum and Dad had had a caravan in New Milton, their home from their marriage in 1962 until the bungalow came up. In the past Mum's related how Dad's employer agreed to inflate his wages so they could successfully apply for a mortgage, and how because the street was newly carved out of a chunk of waste land the gardens of the bungalows were an expanse of mud and the road hadn't been properly laid out, hence the 'road charges'. The 'table and chairs' are an Ercol set which is still serviceable 57 years later.

Of course these are all challenges and delights that modern couples in their 20s are never likely to encounter at all ... !