my parents "celebrated" their start into retirement - my father worked as a baker for more than 50 years and run his own bakery for more than 30 years and my mum worked in the bakery as a sales woman. Believe me or not - running your own shop is a really hard thing - and working as a baker is a hard job. My father went up every night at 02.30 in the morning - at weekends he went up at midnight or so. And social life - I cannot remember that my parents went away for a lunch or a glass of wine during the week as my father had to be in bed at 07.00 p, - to be awake at 02.30 in the morning. Weekends almost the same as the work in the bakehouse was a lot of more then - for that reasons I adore my parents as they practically never complained their life. Of course my father didn't jump out of the bed in the middle of the night and thought: thank god night is over and I can go downstairs into my bakehouse - and of course my mum sometimes thought she would love to be in her former job (which was a secretary and normally is a much more stressless job). But they did their jobs great til the last day and honestly they were a little sentimental when lots of cusomers came on their last day and lot of them brought a present and good wishes and some of them very sensitive words.
We had a great party on that last day and when we closed the doors the last time I think about 80 people sat around the bakery and we talked and chatted - lots to drink and to eat. We expected the end of the party around 04.00 in the afternoon but it was such a nice company and we sat there til 08.00 o clock in the evening. We had some musicans who played for hours (my dad engaged them for two hours - in the end they stayed for 5 hours). It was such a fun.
I am soooo proud of my parents as they managed really every situation - in the late 70th the night before new years eve our oven exploded - my father had lots of orders for some special breads or rolls - he managed it to get most of the things done. Years later the main street where our bakery is located was closed due to some road works for many months - my parents coped with that and did special offers - for example bring bread and rolls and danish home to the customers. And then more and more markets opened in our little town and every marked has/had its own bakery. But due to the fact that my father baked "the best bread in town - well known in places around our town" he always could run his bakery. But I think now both are very happy not to stand that competitions and trade rivalry any longer.
so that was my little story about my parents and our bakery...
