School Days
Girls of about eleven to
fourteen took cooking lessons at school, which
would be commandeered by the teacher in charge
and I was at that age group. Most of the
dinners were made up of soup and two slices of
bread plus some kind of fruit. At least we
were fed every day and were luckier than the
younger children at home.
My poor mother would give
me a paper bag and say "only if you don’t like
or want your cake, bring it home with you". I
nearly always did, I hate slab cake to this
day.
I was at the Co-op one
morning getting some food for my mother and
saw Mrs. Cross.
She owed me three pence for
looking after her children for her. I was
supposed to have my earnings paid once a week
but somehow she always had no money or no
change.
I felt very bold and said
to her "you owe me three pence don’t you Mrs.
Cross". She seemed to be so made at me and
said "you won’t bloody well get it now for
your cheek". Needless to say my Mother saw to
it that she looked after her own children
after that.
When I was about twelve
years old my sister Jennie (who had already
left school), was spending her days before
"going into service" looking after twins of my
Dad’s friend. She used to spend the whole day
there and come home each night to sleep. This
particular night she was late coming home. It
was dark and when she came in we all had to be
very quiet as our dad was working on his
crystal wireless set. He had made it himself
and was very proud of it.
My sister Jennie asked me
to go down with her to the outside loo (which
was at the bottom of the garden, but no way
was I going to go out in the dark with her.
Jennie said she wasn’t
afraid of the dark and would go on her own.
The next thing we heard was my Mother jumping
up and running out of the house. She said that
she had heard Jennie scream. Jennie was found
on the garden path with her hands and legs
tied together. A man had sprung on her coming
out of the loo and after the commotion there
was pandemonium in the valley.
All the miners not down the
pits on shift from roads around were out
looking for the man with the Police, it was
quite something. My Mother was always
convinced it was the relative of the house
next door who was staying there at the time.
Jennie wouldn’t say much about it afterwards,
she was so frightened but what I didn’t know
was that our Mother was expecting another
child at the time and about a month after this
event nearly lost her own life because the
shock had killed her unborn child.
In those days we didn’t
have the technology to help detect such things
happening. I’m sure it helped my Dad more than
ever sure in his own mind on the girls at
least leaving home.
During my last months at
school a delivery of hob nailed boots arrived
at the school and each family was given a
pair. I was the one to be fitted with them
first and they were then passed down through
the family regardless of sex or size, the
reason for this is that they never wore out.
The noise from those boots, it sounded like
the valley had been taken over by the army.
They were certainly made for walking.
I was now fourteen years
old had just left school and knew it would
soon be time for me to leave home. We were a
very large family with lots of mouths to feed,
my turn had come to serve the family’s needs.
My eldest sister (Phyllis) had already married
and left home, my second sister was installed
in domestic service in a country house in
Surrey as a ‘Tweeny’ and now I was next in
line to leave home.
When I was about twelve
years old my sister Jennie (who had already
left school), was spending her days before
"going into service" looking after twins of my
Dad’s friend. She used to spend the whole day
there and come home each night to sleep. This
particular night she was late coming home. It
was dark and when she came in we all had to be
very quiet as our dad was working on his
crystal wireless set. He had made it himself
and was very proud of it.
My sister Jennie asked me
to go down with her to the outside loo (which
was at the bottom of the garden, but no way
was I going to go out in the dark with her.
Jennie said she wasn’t
afraid of the dark and would go on her own.
The next thing we heard was my Mother jumping
up and running out of the house. She said that
she had heard Jennie scream. Jennie was found
on the garden path with her hands and legs
tied together. A man had sprung on her coming
out of the loo and after the commotion there
was pandemonium in the valley.
All the miners not down the
pits on shift from roads around were out
looking for the man with the Police, it was
quite something. My Mother was always
convinced it was the relative of the house
next door who was staying there at the time.
Jennie wouldn’t say much about it afterwards,
she was so frightened but what I didn’t know
was that our Mother was expecting another
child at the time and about a month after this
event nearly lost her own life because the
shock had killed her unborn child.
In those days we didn’t
have the technology to help detect such things
happening. I’m sure it helped my Dad more than
ever sure in his own mind on the girls at
least leaving home.
During my last months at
school a delivery of hob nailed boots arrived
at the school and each family was given a
pair. I was the one to be fitted with them
first and they were then passed down through
the family regardless of sex or size, the
reason for this is that they never wore out.
The noise from those boots, it sounded like
the valley had been taken over by the army.
They were certainly made for walking.
I was now fourteen years
old had just left school and knew it would
soon be time for me to leave home. We were a
very large family with lots of mouths to feed,
my turn had come to serve the family’s needs.
My eldest sister (Phyllis) had already married
and left home, my second sister was installed
in domestic service in a country house in
Surrey as a ‘Tweeny’ and now I was next in
line to leave home.