Cast your minds back to March 1975 and picture the scene. Lady Ann and myself where out for a romantic meal as it was then at our local restaurant.
People think that eating out is a fairly recent invention but I can assure you that it was very popular but a completely different experience to what it is now.
It was in a time before globalisation and the food was very basic and mainly consisted of Prawn Cocktail starters with very large well cooked steaks with chips and garden peas followed by Black Forest Gateaux . All washed down with either a bottle of Blue Nun or if you wanted a particularly nice candle holder for the house a bottle of Mateus Rose.
It was a time when it was quite acceptable to be smoking whilst at the table and all the guys had pints of Bitter and the ladies bottles of Babycham.
Very sophisticated I can hear you say but then it was a simpler world and people had just been introduced to this pastime through watching James Bond movies.
Now I know I’m going off topic a little but even after forty-two years it somehow seems like it was yesterday. So why am I remembering this now.
Yesterday myself and Lady Ann on our way back from Manchester decided to do Lunch, (normally its Monday but somehow this week we have been particularly busy). Lady Ann suggested lets see if we can get in at The Black Ladd in Shaw. So this is were you now discover what I am going on about.
As we entered to see if we could get a table, all the memories from years ago came flooding back. It has changed a little and still has all the charm of an old English Pub and it was packed which I found surprising with it being Thursday.
We sat down and ordered our lunch and whilst I was waiting for it to arrive I looked across the room towards a little table that sits in a small alcove, an ideal romantic corner if ever there was one.
I said to Ann do you remember what happened in that alcove all those years ago. She said “yes you spilled wine all over the table”. I said “besides that”. “She said yes and it doesn’t seem that long ago does it”.
It was the place I proposed to her and luckily for me she said yes, it was the best decision I ever made. I have wondered if she feels the same but I don’t think I will ask, as my Dad used to say never ask a question that could give you an answer you may not like.
If only David Cameron had listened to similar advice we wouldn’t be leaving Europe!
John d eccles 