"...this guy turned up. He must have been 80. He had a cardigan on and a pair of slippers and he didn't have a ticket. But all he wanted to do was walk on the dance floor one last time because it was where he'd proposed to his late wife."
Norman is 64 years old and lives in Abbey Hulton, Stoke-on-Trent. He has 3 sons and 1 daughter. In his spare time Norman loves gardening and dancing. He is a British Boxing Board of Control Official (Timekeeper) and is now retired (ex-BT technician).Since Trentham Gardens Grand Hall was closed and demolished I've felt I needed to tell the story about people's memories of Trentham Gardens during the 1940s till 1980 because it meant so much to the people of the Potteries. I found Inside Lives to be enlightening and inspiring. I met five wonderful people and listened to some wonderful experiences.
I remember Trentham Gardens in its Hey Day.Me and the wife would go and dance the night away in the Grand Hall to the big bands. But by the 1980s there were no more dances. Then I heard that the hall was going to be demolished I was devastated. It meant such a lot to me--30 years of good times. First as a bachelor, then with Barbara, my wife, and then with my family. I decided to try and organise ONE LAST DANCE. We arranged it for August 3rd 2002. 1000 tickets sold out within 16 days with people coming from everywhere. My phone nearly melted. Barbara and I knew how much Trentham Gardens had meant to us, but we hadn't realised just how much it meant to everybody else too. On the night of the dance I was setting up in the hall, which was all decorated in the style of the early 40s, when this guy turned up. He must have been 80. He had a cardigan on and a pair of slippers and he didn't have a ticket. But all he wanted to do was walk on the dance floor one last time because it was where he'd proposed to his late wife. It was quite dark inside so I held his hand to help him to the dance floor. He was chattering away, but he wasn't talking to me. I might as well not have been there. He was talking to his late wife. Before he left he said 'oh, sweetheart, we had some wonderful times down here'. I was choked--how many memories were left in this Grand Hall? When the band struck the first note the dance floor was full. We were all 18 again and never stopped dancing the whole night. It was a fitting end to a magnificent hall and The Last Dance really was the End of an Era.
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