On the 12th July 1961 it was my 21st birthday. 21
was the 'age of consent' and I was to get 'the key of the door'.
I was working as a typist
in Manchester at an Insurance Brokers. Most of the girls worked on the Cheshire side and seemed very sophisticated in my eyes.
Mr Brocklehurst, the boss, threw a party for myself and another girl 21 in the same week. We were bought Revlon
vanity cases as a present and I remember we were both thrilled with the attention.
Outside
in the city something entirely different was happening, we were told that Yuri Gagarin the Russian Cosmonaut was arriving
at the Town Hall and would we like to go and see him. It was a very rainy day but all the girls grabbed their coats
and umbrellas, dashed out along the streets which were crowded with people hoping to catch a glimpse of the famous Russian.
Yuri was the first man to venture into space in his spaceship Vostock 1 and had captured the imagination of most people,
particularly the young. It was during the time of the 'Cold War', before the Beatles and even before rock music had
any real impact. His visit had been organised by the local 'Trades Council' in the hope that it would encourage economic
co-operation between East and West.
Whatever the outcome of his visit as far as politicians were concerned,
Yuri dressed in his bright green uniform, waved and smiled to the crowds lining the streets, brightened a dull day and gained
the admiration of everyone, young and old. On his visit to Trafford Park even the Manchester United players broke off
their training to stand outside the ground to wave.
On 12th July 1961 - I
was 21 - I was fully grown up and I had seen Yuri Gagarin the first man to enter space - that was an exciting day.
In 1968 Yuri Gagarin died in an air crash, never having made another journey into Space.
Beryl Clarke, 2010
