Chapter Three

Early Memories

My very first memory is of sitting in a push chair. It was raining, so the hood was up. My mum was pushing me and we were going out, down the street. It must have been bin day as the bin men were emptying the bins, which were galvanised steel and made lots of clanging noises.

I can also remember wet napkins (nappies/diapers) which were obviously mine and my dad carrying them into the kitchen to soak them in a bucket. I can remember my first visit to Santa, which is mentioned later on. I was about two and a half years old.

Another early memory is of a large tank of gold fish in the Nursery (I was about four years old). My mother thought it would benefit me to go to Nursery and mix with other children before I went to school, at the age of five, as I was a bit of a loner. I didn't like Nursery, however, and only stayed for a week. The head mistress of the nursery was a large woman of about 50 years old who wore tweed suits. Her name was Miss Ausch (my sister thinks she was Jewish) and she had a moustache. I liked her and I followed her around clinging to her skirt like a limpet. I must have been such a nuisance!

During part of the morning/afternoon I can't remember when, all of the children were made to lie down under a pale green blanket on a little folding bed. Me, being the child I was with a mind of my own, I couldn't understand this at all and I refused to do it. They also tried to feed me with food I didn't like the look of, so that was that. I found this difficult at the time, but now it's quite funny! I expect Miss Ausch wondered what to do with me, fortunately for her I didn't stay long enough to fray her nerves further, but I can remember how kind and patient she was. My mother's idea of me mixing with other children, came to nothing. Ha, ha.

I can remember seeing large galvanised milk urns at the bottom of the street, I'm not sure why. One of the neighbours was a milkman, but that still doesn't explain it. A milkman came to us every day with fresh milk in glass bottles. We used to have coal fires and the coal man delivered coal on his horse and cart. He used to sling the sacks of coal over his shoulder and bring them through the house and my mother used to grumble. (Although we had a side entrance with a garage door, it was never used and was in a poor state of repair).

Rag and Bone men used to roam the streets with a horse and cart too, calling for rags and bones. I have no idea what they did with them. There were so few cars on the road then, if we saw one going along at the bottom of the street it was quite a novelty. That same road now has no peace at all and traffic is endlessly travelling along it one after the other, all day long.

My dad was no gardener, but mum kept our garden tidy and I loved playing there. We had a crazy paving path running down the middle. When I was seven I can remember finding a tin of green paint and painting my doll's pram in the garden and making a bit of a mess on the path; I was always very enterprising! The house was right next to the railway line and steam trains chugged past, now and then. Large ferns, two or more feet high (I think they were poisonous) grew on the top of the retaining wall on our side of the high fence between us and the railway line. I didn't like them much then, but really they were quite beautiful.

My sister was five years older and it was really too big a gap for us to be close. We didn't often play together, although I can remember us sliding on the linoleum, which mum kept well polished, on an old, soft, black dog we called 'Bonzo.' He had a lead around his neck and we attached it to the door handle and slid across the floor pulling the lead. We also had a clockwork toy each, which wound up with a key and turned this way and that across the floor. Mine was 'Little Bo Peep,' complete with a little lamb and my sister's was a Spanish dancer with her arms above her head carrying castanets. We played with them for hours.

We had linoleum all through the house with the odd rug here and there. There were no fitted carpets in those days. We had an old enamel sink in the kitchen which later on was changed for a nicer stainless steel sink in a unit, with cupboards which was set under the kitchen window.  Mum had an old washing machine with a roller attached to it, we used to call it the 'mangle.'  You fed the washed clothes through it to squeeze out the water.  I'm not sure how efficient it was, but it was very primitive compared to today's washing machines.  The worse thing for any woman is having her washing machine break down!  I have a real love affair with mine!  Ha, ha.

At one point mum had a 'Flatley' clothes dryer, which was a square metal box.  Along the top were rods of wood to hand clothes on to dry.  The heater was at the bottom.  It was really very effective and probably more so than these modern tumble driers which seem to take ages to dry anything.  I'm not sure how energy efficient they were.  You can buy something like it even now.  It is a plastic cover over a hanging metal structure to hang damp washing on and the heater is at the bottom.  This is okay, but it takes up room, I certainly could not find space for one in my apartment.

Packaging for any goods bought in the shops was very simple. Brown paper bags were used mostly. A pat of butter would be put into greaseproof paper and then wrapped up like a parcel. Vinegar was dispensed into the customer's own bottle from a wooden barrel. A piece of cheese would be cut on a wooden slab with a wire and also parcelled up. It seemed like very simple times looking back on it. There was no plastic packaging then.

I think when I was small there was still rationing on food. I grew up on orange juice and cold liver oil which was recommended by the Health Authorities at the time. Some poorer children had rickets which were due to malnourishment which, I am glad to say, I never suffered from and never saw any child who did. The NHS was founded in the 1940's and was the best institution ever thought out anywhere in the world and everyone in the U.K. is very proud of it.  However, at the moment it is falling apart due to bad management and lack of funding, just like anything else you care to talk about here in the UK.   We are not in a good way!

My paternal grandfather had a concrete air raid shelter in his garden, lots of his neighbours did as well. Next to his house was a large space which we called the 'bomb' site. Several houses had been bombed during the war and demolished. There were several 'bomb' sites about when I was a child. We called every little scrappy bit of land a 'bomb' site whether it was or wasn't.

We had a piano in our 'front room' and Grandma and Grandad did too, I think Grandma played it at their house. This was another hang over from the Victorian days when everyone learned to play and people created their own entertainment as there was no television. Our dad was a musician and could play the piano and he was also a church organist. He had a natural talent, as he first played without any lessons and could pick out a tune on the piano. Later on, he did have lessons and could play very well. He played for church services, weddings and funerals. I was a bit upset that he couldn't play for my wedding and I had to put up with a second rate organist at my wedding service.

Both my sister and myself learned to play the piano. I got as far as two sharps and two flats and she got as far as four or more. She played in several 'Eistedfods' (concerts) and took exams. She could play better than me. I never took any exams, but I can remember playing the piano at Sunday school sometimes, if the person who played the piano was not there. I wasn't very good, but you could just make out the tune! Ha, ha. I think I had piano lessons for about three or four years and gave up when I went to secondary school.

My mother had what she called 'utility' furniture which was the plainest furniture you could imagine. It was all that was available straight after the war when she and dad married. There was nothing at all fancy in the shops. All the furniture was very plain and served a purpose. My mother's deepest desire was to have a lovely 'sideboard' and later on in the 1960's she had her wish. She bought the most fancy sideboard she could find. It had a padded cupboard door both sides with a golden handle in the middle of each door. In the centre between the two doors were sliding glass doors with glass shelves inside. Above the sliding glass doors was a small drawer. The top of the sideboard was shiny laminated wood. It seems quite funny now, thinking about it. My mother loved it and cherished it for the rest of her life.