Dianne has been involved in the wool trade almost continually since leaving school when she started at Peaches Wool Shop in Peterborough. Sadly it was closed down many years ago. After giving up work to have our children she continued her love of yarn by starting up a knitting business with her Mother. They bought 2 knitting machines and did Knitting Parties where they took orders for garments - they even had live models .. I vaguely remember Jerry in her bra getting changed .. umm .. back to the story. They did that for quite a while and eventually graduated on to buying and selling knitting machines.
Dianne also got many trophies, diplomas and certificates for her hand knitting skills in various local shows and competitions. I however have no such skills; I once tried my hand at knitting a pair of socks and gave up after a few rows. It was suggested that I should have started with something easier like a scarf, but that's me, always doing things the hard way. Thank goodness I did not give up so easily when CPU Enterprises was born.
Like many young families of that time we were struggling to make ends meet, Dianne did her bit with the knitted garments and I bought an old van. At weekends and evenings we toured the local villages going door to door selling anything from men's razor blades to ladies knickers; I am told that I was pretty good at selling the latter (I wish I could remember how I did it now).
The upshot of this was that in 1971 we decided to go mad and take a shop (general stores not wool at that time) and agreed that we would use my initials for our trading name; hence CPU Enterprises came into being 37 years ago.
There is much more to this story, but we do not wish to bore you too much, so we will continue next time [depending upon the feedback!!].
Chapter Two of the CPU Enterprises Story
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