Chapter Seven

Home

We lived in Easton in a cul-de-sac.  There was a lamp post outside the front door. The house was built in 1909 and felt very old fashioned, but Mum and dad were always decorating and that made it feel more up to date. Every year they decorated at least one room in the house with wallpaper. Dad hung it up after mum pasted it. They worked well together and did a good job.

We always had a bathroom in our house, just off of the kitchen, but it only had a toilet and a bath in it, no wash basin. We had to use the wash basin in the kitchen to wash in and we used a plastic bowl to fill with water; so if anyone was having a strip down wash they would use the bolt on the kitchen door, for the sake of privacy! Later on, years later, a wash basin was fitted in the bathroom by dad.

I can remember when I was about 9 years old, some of my friends saying to me "We're having a bathroom fitted soon." The government of the time intended that all homes had their own bathrooms to bring the housing up to a decent standard and probably offered a grant for the works.

Most homes had outside toilets in their back yards/gardens, but at least had their own toilet and not having to share communal toilets like many in large cities at that time, apparently. I asked my friends how did they bathe, if they had no bathroom? They told me a tin bath was brought inside the house and put in front of the fire and then filled up with hot water, using jugs. Can you imagine it? It seems very primitive now. How lucky was I!

We had a gas boiler in the bathroom which was really dodgy and I think it gave off carbon monoxide. The wind used to blow out the flame sometimes. It made my sister and me feel faint when we were each having separate baths on a couple of occasions and my mother made sure we had a new electric immersion water heater as soon as they could afford it. I don't know whether to laugh or cry about this. Ha, ha.

My paternal grandparents had a proper plumbed in bath, but it was in part of their kitchen which was just a cupboard or two, cooker and a sink. The bath was covered over with a board and used as a worktop. They still had an outside toilet, but in later years my grandfather put a door on the inside so that they could use it from inside the kitchen. Not very hygienic, but there you go.

There are still many houses in the north of the UK with bathrooms adjoining the kitchen. Houses are not allowed to be built like that now, of course, and who would want to? If a house was built like that originally, it is allowed to stay as it is. Some people turn one of the three bedrooms upstairs into a bathroom, but the house is devalued with one less bedroom.

We used to play in our street. It was a street of ten houses. Honestly, they were the most ugly houses in the whole world, (still are) although I didn't think that at the time.

We were on the left hand side and although they were terraced houses, we were semi-detached, but the other houses were terraced on the right hand side. The railway ran across the side of our house and the side of the house across the road at an angle. So at the top of our small cul-de-sac there was a 15 foot retaining wall over which the railway ran.

The house across the street at the other side was number eight and my friend lived there. We went to school together until we were eleven. We never spoke to one another again after we started going to senior school. He changed a lot at the age of thirteen and I didn't like him after that. It was one of my first lessons, to learn that life doesn't always turn out how you would like it to, but as smaller children we played in the street and had a lot of fun.

Another railway line ran alongside the opposite houses on the street, but this railway line was down below by twenty feet or so, but the railway line by our house was a few feet above us. Just around the corner was Easton Road bridge where the railway ran over the road. It is still there today.

I loved climbing as a child. We had a small area outside of our front door surrounded by a small wall in which was a front gate. My mother called this little area the 'barton.' My mother used several obscure words not found in the dictionary so I think they were local words only.

Everyone had privet hedging in the 'barton' as privet was very much a plant of that time. We just had one plant which looked sickly and struggled to survive and should have been pulled out. I think my mum must have felt sorry for it! It was in the front area for all the time we lived there.

The wall at the side, which divided us from next door, had a small railing on it and would you believe, a spike in the front! I often climbed on this wall as a small child and once caught my lovely dress on the spike and ripped it. (Girls wore dresses a lot more in those days, although I did wear shorts sometimes). We had a garden at the side and I used to climb over the corner of the front wall. I used to stand on the wall then onto the railing and climb over into the garden and then back again to the front. I did this for years, unnoticed by my parents, until I got too big and lost my confidence. Ha, ha. It was one of my favourite pastimes.

There was a shrub in the corner of the garden where I climbed over which was always buzzing with bees in the summer, my mother always called it a 'Golden Rod' but I think it's proper name is Solidago. I kept away from it when the bees were around.

For years, dad's car was the only one in the street. Later on our friends Jenny and Kay's dad parked his car at the top of the street. It was safe for children to play in the streets in those days and I can remember playing outside until 9 pm in the summer holidays and it was almost dark. It is a great shame that children can't do that now, it is one of the biggest changes. Children have a lot less freedom and cars have taken over the streets where children used to play. 'Obese' was a word which was never heard as children were all healthy from plenty of exercise and playtime. Certainly, I can't remember seeing an overweight child in my school.

My dad built his own television set when I was about a year old. It was very small and had a green picture. It was supposed to be black and white. It blew up whilst he was making it and pieces of it flew all around the room. I was sitting on the floor at the time and missed being hurt I am happy to say! My mother was cross with my dad about that. This is not my memory, but I can remember the television set and watching a children's programme on it called 'Rag, Tag and Bobtail' which was a story about a hedgehog and a rabbit and some other critter. The picture of them is etched into my mind. We probably had that 'green' television for a few years.

Later on we had a bigger television set, in proper black and white and we loved it! Saturday evenings in particular were spent watching films or shows. As I always came downstairs after being put to bed, I was often found on my mother's lap watching the television and sucking my poor thumb. I sucked it so much when I was small that it had a large lump on it which went a bit weepy, so I suppose I had to stop whilst it healed up. I sucked my thumb until I was 11years old. I also used to bite my nails until they bled, but I grew out of this horrible habit by the time I was ten. My mum and a neighbour were talking about my bad habit and they mentioned something called 'bitter aloes' which could be painted onto my nails to stop me biting them as it tasted bad. That is what put me off biting my nails anymore. My nails have always been very weak and split easily and I wonder if it is because I bit them so much when I was small?

I was a terrible bed wetter and wet the bed until I was about ten. My poor mum, it must have driven her to distraction, all that extra washing. Fortunately, even then you could buy rubber sheets to put under the proper sheets which protected the mattress. I am not proud of this part, but it is true! Ha, ha.

I can remember mum trying to sit me on a cold, ceramic chamber pot at night, to try to do a 'wee' before I went to bed. I never would, as I hated it so and I used to go stiff! Stiffen my body, arms and legs so it couldn't happen. I mean to say, why on earth would you, given a choice. Ha, ha! I was only 2 or 3 at the time, but I can still remember. Oh, what a funny memory this is! I'm chuckling now.

Nowadays, you can get more grown up nappies for child bed wetters which look like pants. So much better for all concerned.

It goes to show, even when small we have our own thoughts and our own minds. Parents do need lots of patience with children, for if you are too stern with them you can break their spirit and that should never happen. I am glad to say, mine were very patient and loving and I feel so blessed having had their love and support for so many long years.

Books and reading, were a big part of our life at home. Dad always went to the library and had a pile of books to read each week. He read a lot to me when I was small. When I was in my teens we used to go to the library together, now and then. Even now, I think there is nothing in the world like a good book. The funnier the better.