Spotlight

I was born Yorkshire lass in Guisborough, a market town on the edge of the North York Moors National Park just before Kennedy was shot. In my family, there was Mam. Dad, Yvonne (my sister), Timmy (the dog), Squeaky (my guinea pig) and Beauty (a psychopathic rabbit). We had a small bungalow with a pretty rose garden, which was Dad’s pride and joy, and a fruit plot nurtured by Mam. Dad’s family lived in the surrounding villages as they have done for generations, whilst Mam’s family were more worldly being spread across the North (true North non of this Watford Gap definition i.e. further up than York) with a cluster in Carlisle.

Every Sunday we ate Roast Beef and Yorkshire pudding, always as separate courses and for holidays we once had a week caravanning in Wensleydale, all other years we had days out. Whitby was our favourite destination, next best a 10-12 mile hike up the hills climbing Roseberry Topping or picking bilberries on Captain Cook’s Monument.

At school I discovered hockey. From my first time of picking up a stick at age 8, I have been hooked and barring time off for pregnancies I have played ever since. Currently I spend my Saturdays running down the left wing for New Milton 2nds, coach an U14 girls squad on Wednesday evenings and manage their games every third Sunday. All three of my daughters have inherited this passion completely of their own free will of course and play for their schools and the various junior teams of New Milton.

My other pastime as a child was a part time job with the RSPCA. I didn’t even hear about Brownies until I was too old to join so when my friend Sally joined 1st Guisborough Methodist Guides I tagged along one evening to see what it was. Soon I was enrolled; the proud holder of Fire Fighters and First Aid badges and on my second childhood holiday; guide camp in the hot summer of ’76. We stayed in a farmer’s field near Ingleby Greenhow and had a day out by the NY Moors Railway to Whitby.

The following year life changed drastically for my family as Dad died from cancer and Gran had to move in with us because she needed ever-increasing care due to Alzheimer’s. Mam suffered with the strain and ended up in hospital for a while herself so I had a quick lesson in growing up. Jobs were very scarce in the NE at that time so after my A’ levels results came out, rather than facing the dole (I hadn’t even applied to university) I made a last minute phone call to Teesside Polytechnic and spent the next 4 years doing a Business Studies degree. One of those years was industrial experience, which I did in the accounts department of ICI Wilton. After graduating I had a choice of jobs and chose to be a trainee accountant with Plessey Defence Systems in Christchurch. It was the New Forest that sold this job to me. Part of my interview was lunch in the ‘Three Tuns’ in Bransgore so how could I resist?

Leaving the NE was a huge step but I was determined to be a career girl. I rented a room in a teacher’s house in Bournemouth behind the Hampshire Centre and started work on 22/7/85. There were a lot of new graduates in the gate house that morning, many of us are still close knit friends and one, John, I ended up marrying so the career girl didn’t even make it to her first office before meeting her sole mate! John and I worked there for 3 years, he as an engineer and me in accounts with day release to Southampton Institute to do the CIMA exams. It was there that I first met Karen Staff, Division Commissioner for Itchen Valley, sitting together at the back of the class. We both looked very different then compared to now, me with padded shoulders a mass of 80’s hair via a spiral perm and Karen in her black leathers!

In 1988 John got a new job for NATO. He was a civilian employee and based at SACLANT (The Supreme Allied Command of the Atlantic) in Virginia USA. We rented a house in Virginia Beach on a fresh water lake and only a few minutes walk from the Chesapeake Bay. I did some contracting work then along came our daughters Simone and Elyse and the Berlin Wall tumbled so defence was no longer such a secure industry to work in. John changed jobs to work for Goldman Sachs, an investment bank on Wall Street. We moved north and lived on E 72nd Street in New York City before getting a house in Short Hills, New Jersey….part of the leafy commuter belt. The bank moved us home in 1994 and we settled in Brockenhurst so that John could commute to London. Sophie arrived soon after this final move and Simone began Rainbows. We had another few months’ stint in New York in 1996. We were allocated an apartment on the 30th floor with fabulous views of the Hudson River and Twin Towers. However it was like living in an airplane as in bad weather you cannot see out of the windows due to the clouds. I had to go down in the elevator to see if it was just dull or actually raining then return upstairs to dress the girls. We soon moved to the 16th floor, which was always below the clouds!

Back in Brockenhurst again, the Rainbow unit was facing closure due to lack of leaders so I volunteered and here I am, having done 5 years as a Rainbow guider, nearly 2 as Assistant Guide Guider and currently Division Commissioner for NFA. One of my favourite photographs is of my three daughters and I in our uniforms during the year when between us we were a Rainbow, Brownie, Guide and Guider. Gradually as the girls have grown I have taken on paid work, running my own accountancy practice from home for 2 days per week and running a holiday letting business. John has become a serious tri-athlete, which involves a mile swim, 25-mile cycle and 6 mile run. Look for him in Winchester on summer evenings when he alights the train from London and cycles home to Brockenhurst as part of his training. Our only pets are three cats now that the last of the guinea pigs has died…no rabbits!

In the future I would like to put something back into the forest as my family gets so much joy from it, ideally becoming a Volunteer Ranger. Also, I eagerly await the day when Simone, Elyse, Sophie and I play for the same hockey team … if my old legs can keep going!
Jackie Paulson
New Forest Avon Division Commissioner