Dear Ipswich, I hope you are well.
My Home, my Heart, my Town.
I bet you didn’t know this. You’ve shaped me. You have made me who I am today.
Ok, I appreciate it’s not a massive revelation, there will be others who will say the same, and so they should, you’ve influenced many. Our lives in your Suffolk hands, cupped and encouraged to fulfil.
Who knew that when I entered the gates of Broke Hall Primary School back then, that I would still be organising a dinner some 50 years later with those I met that day. I know that education is about learning and setting you on the right path, but for me, when I moved to Copleston and into secondary education, it opened the door to meeting some of the most influential people that continue to make my life full today. Thank you Ipswich. You introduced me to them.
How we have laughed and danced and our way through the decades. Enjoyed comedy and the music of the eighties. I remember my first ever single I bought at Parrot records. (Queen Street) – The Thompson Twins, Love on your side. I remember blasting that out on a record player bought from the Evening Star, much to the disgust of my soul-head, way trendier sister and brother!
Jumping on the Broke Hall 4 bus and heading into town. Just In, Dotty Ps (loved that sparkly floor!), Clockhouse, Denim City to name but a few. Pocket money and small earnings (from Cordy’s on the Felixstowe seafront) safely in my pocket, ready to spend on the latest item I could afford. ‘Meet you at the East Anglian Coffee Shop’ was how we arranged time out with friends in those days. Going up the small winding staircase of what is now Pickwick’s, nostrils full of the aroma of ground coffee, your head would arrive before you did, popping up, eyes searching the few tables that were crammed into that amazing little space, scanning for the familiar faces, did they get the bench seat you would wonder? Cappuccino and a slice of chocolate fudge cake or a sausage roll with a side of wholegrain mustard!! Cherished memories of huddled chats about love, life and music with the gang.
No one was more surprised than me when I got my first (proper) job at the age of 18. Branch Manager of Benetton in Carr Street. A few of my friends headed away to University, but I wanted to stay with you. I had decided retail would be my fortune. I’d held a couple of part-time retail jobs in the past and had really enjoyed it. I read about an opportunity in the paper, applied and never looked back. I worked my way along your ‘golden mile’ ….the pedestrianised high street. Benetton, Concept Man, Zy for Men, Dorothy Perkins, GAP and finally Fat Face. Moving brands, gaining promotions – even with later senior national retail roles, I still never moved too far from home, never too far from you.
I met my wife in retail, so you could say that indirectly, you introduced us. We now run our own granola business from a bakery just outside your Borough boundary.
A tractor girl since the Cup Final of ’78, sitting with Nan, wide eyed, scanning the crowds desperate to spot my parents. As an enthusiastic season ticket holder today, I’ve watched the fall and rise of our beloved blue army. The scenes of promotion will live long in the memory. Smiles on the faces of the young and the old, across all nationalities of our blue multi-cultural heart. We might be a Town but we really were United on that day.
Rachel Dalton-Thorpe
Founder and Director, Toatilly
