1987

So I packed up the Mini and headed off to Lancaster University full of excitement and without a moment of hesitation, I stopped in to see Nanna Dunn on my way and then headed off up the M61. With the University term starting a few weeks later than 6th form I had been able to pick Jackki up after college a few times and we had spent a lot of time together but we were both very matter of fact about heading off into the next chapter of life and so began a more long-distance stage of our early relationship. I say “long-distance” with a smile these days since I was less than an hour’s drive up a usually quiet motorway and with all the life re-locations that would happen in the following years it was actually round the corner comparatively, at the time it felt like I was a pioneer setting off from Salford to take over the world.

We started to write letters to each other and those letters have been kept safe in the 35 years since and will provide a factual basis for much of this episode of our little story. I headed back home every 2-3 weekends and continued the friendships with our little group and spent more and more of the time with Jackki, she was having driving lessons and would confidently provide a forecast of being able to borrow her Dad’s car and drive up to Lancaster. Although we were in touch through letters and phone calls we were both still very much doing our own thing, Jackki’s letters talked about lots of revision and optimism for her A-level results and I was full of tales of university life. At some point during my first term Jackki did come up to Lancaster to visit room A71 in Pendle College, I must have talked about her arrival a little too much to the other lads such that when I opened the door to show Jackki my room it had been somewhat sabotaged while I was out picking her up from the station. Crucially the bed was completely missing!

I took Jackki to Maine Road to see City v Palace on the 5th Dec 1987 since she had never been to a football match. This went well for 70 mins with a Paul Lake goal giving the blues the lead, this was followed by goal keeper Erik Nixon being sent off, conceding 3 goals and Paul Stewart missing a penalty. A lot of shouting and swearing about referees was the result and Jackki now understood the noise, passion and cluster fuckery that was being City in the late ’80’s.

1988

Our letter writing after the Christmas holidays confirms that we were both beginning to accept that this was something more than just a couple of starry eyed teenagers with the hots for each other, we were both working hard and wanting to spend more time together. By the 1st March 1988 my letter to Jackki ended with the words “your letter about love really impressed me and I hope with all my heart that our love will last forever in the form of the worlds best ever relationship and never will we be alone again”. Reality meant we both had a serious chunk of exams to work for and unless we were spamming each other for effect the entire time in our letters then we must have been putting in the hours at our desks.

Things were changing quickly at home, my parents had put the house on the market and my Dad was already working away in Scarborough, quite when the move would happen was unknown. They did purchase a static caravan to fill the gap which provided a convenient holiday option at Easter where we spent a full week together for the first time as well as meaning that Brook Street was empty of parents during many weekends at home during the summer term.

During the last term of my first year in Lancaster a plan emerged for a group of us to go Interrailing across Europe in the summer, I was on and off about whether to do it or not and one by one the group of friends dwindled down to just Jason and I. I couldn’t afford the trip and with Jackki and I missing each other so much it didn’t seem fair to spend a month of the summer apart as well but after much deliberation I decided to go. Jackki was upset and feeling a bit discarded but we talked it over and agreed that for us to stay strong as a couple we had to support each others dreams and ambitions and trust in our relationship to stay strong. The dialogue about that holiday and how we felt set a pattern of confidently dealing with periods apart that would be a feature of our partnership for many years to come. It really was the trip of my dreams and set me on path to loving overland travel that remains with me today, Jackki and I travelled together a lot but the solo wanderer remained a “thing” we would discuss, sometimes heatedly, for many years.

Jackki failed her 3rd attempt at her driving test while I was away and then was less than pleased with her A-level results a few weeks later but with a hurried push and a lot of compromise through clearing secured her university place in Liverpool studying Chemistry. We both worked through the summer, Jackki flitting between libraries in Eccles, Winton and Patricroft, I always called the Winton library a public toilet block since that was the look of the building when I was sitting outside n the car waiting for her. I managed a 4 week stint at Campbells Foods in Trafford Park stacking frozen burgers into piles on a conveyor belt all day, I was doing the 6-2 shift so we were able to spend afternoons and evenings together and with friends. Late in that summer we cobbled together the cash for week away in Majorca with Arkid and his girlfriend Andrea which was a fabulous holiday and a lot of fun and from where the photo at the top of this post is taken.

Our letter writing continued on our return to university in October, now corresponding between Room C119, Rankin Hall and Belmont Holiday Flats, Morecambe and having to be very organised to phone each other. Jackki had 1 public telephone available in the reception area of the halls of residence and I had a public phone box on the corner of the street opposite. I took Jackki and all her stuff to Liverpool and dropped her off before heading back to Lancaster, it seemed the natural thing to do at the time but does beg a few questions looking back. Since my parents and Dave had moved into a rented house aka Rat Farm, without a phone I also was restricted to calling them via my Dad’s office number only during his working week. Letter writing and phone boxes, no email, no text, no mobile, no internet, even though I lived that life it is hard to imagine how we did it.

During that first term we had a trip by train across to Rat Farm and enjoyed our first taste of visiting my parents as ‘visitors’ rather than going home, it felt very grown up and we had a great weekend. Jackki purchased what I still consider to be the favourite item of clothing she ever owned, some black leather thigh length boots in which she looked absolutely stunning. We had trips back to Manchester and I was even brave enough to visit her in Liverpool at least once and as the first term was drawing to a close I was trying to persuade Jackki to spend the week before Christmas with me in Lancaster instead of going home, we had pre-xmas plans to help my parents move from Rat Farm into their new house but I selfishly wanted her to myself when she wanted to see her parents.

On the 15th December 1989 I picked Jackki up at Brentwood for our trip to Scarborough where we planned to help the move and spend xmas together before returning to Manchester. Jackki’s mum, Rosaleen, had been suffering with shingles and hadn’t been well but she seemed much better that day and while Jackki was packing her bags upstairs I had a really nice chat with her about our plans. We drove over for a last night at Rat Farm and then helped with the removals day unloading boxes from storage and getting everything into 11 East Carr before I drove my Mum and Dad into Scarborough, trusted to drive my Dad’s Sierra because I was such an adult now, for the Plaxton Xmas Party. All was great with the world, and then there was a knock at the door, the Police, looking for a Jacqueline Smalley who needed to call her Dad urgently. The world changed with the news delivered in that telephone box in Cayton Village, RIP Rosaleen x.