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From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday 25
December, 1953.
Licensee's Golden Wedding
SHE was the girl with the pigtails and he, the boy with the two
circular patches on the cheeks of his pants, who lived next door. They
shared each others toys, went hand-in-hand to Sunday School and became
boy and girl sweethearts.
More than half a century has passed since then. But Sam and Ann
Whitehouse are still together, and this Christmas Day will be
celebrating their golden wedding anniversary.
As glasses are raised in the little bar at the Butcher's Arms,
Studdle, which they have kept for 23 years , Sam and Ann will be turning
back the pages o their book of memories.
"He's a great lad," sighs Ann. "The only boy-friend I ever had."
"Ane she's a great lass," says Sam.... and winks.
"This is the wedding present he gave me," says Ann, and proudly
produces a silver heart-shaped brooch inscribed "Mizpah."
"Yes," muses Sam. "You know lass, that cost me four and six."
"And the silk muffler I got for you cost me five bob," says Ann.
These will be some of the memories Sam and Ann will recall as they
celebrate their anniversary - and for full measure, Sam's 72nd birthday
as well.
Back to the days when Sam, a youngster of thirteen, began work at a
pit in Staffordshire - hard days, long hours, and 1/3 a shift.
On to Christmas Day in 1903 when he and Ann - she was then Miss Plant
- were married at Walsall, and to the years which followed as they
struggled to make ends meet with a growing family and a meagre wage
packet.
On again to the year when the First World War broke out in 1914and
they came to Kent, setting up home in Shepherdswell. They began a
smallholding there, and Sam went to work at Tilmanstone Colliery.
Time moved on until, in 1932, they took over the Butcher's Arms, but
Sam was still at the pit. "That was always my real job," he says.
Altogether, he gave more than fifty years' service to the mining
industry before he eventually had an accident at the pit and retired,
and one of his proudest possessions today is the N.C.B. Long Service
Certificate.
Now, as host and hostess at the Butcher's Arms, they are among the
oldest licensees in the district. "They're wonderful folk, our
customers," says Mrs. Whitehouse. "In all the years we've been here
we've never had a single squabble in the house."
"That's right," says Sam. "We're ordinary folk , and we enjoy having
the company of ordinary folk."
A great old couple, Sam and Ann Whitehouse. A very happy Christmas to
you both - and to all others who will be celebrating their anniversary
this Christmas tide.
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