I have often been asked to write the story of my life but have never thought much about doing so because I never had the time to sit and write. I was always too busy, and anyway I didn't think anyone would be interested enough to read my memoirs. Now I've all the time in the world so I hope whoever reads this is not too bored.
My earliest recollection is of seeing my father bedridden in the front parlour of our house. I was then 4 years old and I remember him calling my mother "PEM" when he wanted to (use the toilet). She had to lift him out of bed - with the help of a neighbour - a man we used to call Uncle Wilf. I was one of eleven children. My mother had fifteen altogether but had already lost three in childbirth and one a girl of fourteen with meningitas.
I well remember the day my dad died. I had to go to a neighbours house with my sister and two brothers all very small children. We stayed there all day and were repeatedly told to keep very quiet as mother was too poorly to look after us and all my older sisters and brothers were too busy. Then a few days later the same thing happened but the lady next door allowed us to watch the funeral through the window. The big black horses and carriages were a bit frightening to me.
My mum always seemed to be too busy to sit and talk to us. It was a routine for her shopping washing ironing cleaning. She seemed to have set days and even set hours for these tasks. I know Monday was wash day when the big wooden tub wold come out on the back and she had a ponch and would bang hard on the cloths for ages. Then the great big iron mangle she used to put the cloths through. The old copper in the kitchen would be lit and the "whites" as she called them, put in for a good boil. There was bowls full of starch (for stiffening) and "blue" to make things whiter. Such hard work I often wonder now how on earth she coped with all the children as well. But poor mum always seemed as if she never had a rest at all.
We children were always in bed by six O clock at night. We had to sleep two and three in one bed. I well remember mum always used to come to tuck us up in bed then she would sit with us for about half an hour (with the candle on the shelf in the bedroom) she would get out a small white pipe and cut up some tobacco and smoke it before going downstairs. That's the only time she did that and we children were told never to tell anybody about it.
Monday night for mum and perhaps Tuesday and Wednesday nights too (depending on the weather) were spent ironing the clothes and putting them on big lines strung across the kitchen to air for a couple of days. One of my older sisters used to help mum a lot. She would wash the dishes and help with the cleaning after she'd finished work. We had plenty for her to do on monday, especially as it was stew day. We had a big round pot which hung on a chain over the coal fire and on Mondays mum would put all the leftovers from Sunday dinner into it and it always had a bone from the joint of meat. We each had a basin of stew for dinner Mondays. It was lovely too as there was suet dumplings as well. We who had to go to bed at six had to go into the big tin bath with the water out of the copper first. Then a cup of cocoa.
I remember Tuesdays well. It was the day my younger brother and I went shopping with mum to the co-op. It was lovely she used to buy loads of things and butter lard cheese and the like. We would get in about 8 or 10 lbs at a time and they didn't sell it in packets like today. It was loose just weighing as much as we wanted. My brother and I always got a packet of sweets and were made to sit on a stool inside the shop while mum was served.
The co-op baker used to call at our house every day he used to come round the streets in a horse & van at the back and he'd have all sorts of bread and cakes. We had 4 loaves and 4 cakes every day from him. My brother and I always had fun choosing the cakes.
The floors of our house were red and black square bricks and every day they were scrubbed mum would put sheets of newspaper down to let us walk over it till it got dry and she would black lead (polish) the firegrate till it shone.
She used to brasso all the curb that went round the fire and there was a poker and other fire irons which needed brassoing as well.
The hearth in front of the fire was clean with whitening. Also the front door step and windowsill every other day. The toilet was outside at the other end of our small yard. It consisted of a wooden seat with a hole in it on which we had to sit. It had a round piece of wood (the lid) which would be put on afterwards.
adjoining the toilet was the ash pit (nowadays the dustbin) which was a hole in the wall which underneath did join the toilet. I well remember the ash pit men coming to empty this (mess) every Sunday night about 12 o'clock. They used to wake us up dragging tins about. They had to wear masks and special suits and climb into the ash pits and shovel all the (stuff) out - horrible. Then they would put special powder all over the inside to take the smell away.
When I was five years old I started school. I thought it was lovely. I had a white pinnafore on with little sleeves that was stiff and looked like two tiny wings. My hanky was pinned on the front and I carried my lunch (bread & dripping) wrapped in newspaper with my name on it. At school we all had to put our lunch in a lunch box at the corner of the classroom till play time then the teacher would call our names and give us the lunch to eat. My brother started school about six months after me and I felt so big because I knew things that he didn't. We had such fun in those three or four years before mum died. I remember swinging round the lamp posts on a rope and a few of us children would often tie two door knobs together then knock on the doors and watch people struggle to get them open. Or we'd go paddling in the local brook and catching tiddlers (as we used to call them) that's really small fishes or getting frog spawn in a jam jar. Every Easter I used to get and enormous Easter egg and a whip & top we would chalk all sorts of colours on the top and see who's looked the best. We played at skipping in the street (about a dozen kids would join in). Sunday night was the best though. We were allowed to stay up till 8 O'clock and we'd really live it up. Lots of our relations would come for Sunday tea and after that we were allowed to go into the front room. There, one of my elder brothers would play the piano or organ or another would put the gramaphone on and we'd have a sing song. Sometimes a neighbours little girl would come and do a dance (she was learning ballet). We'd have sweets and nuts and the grown ups would have glasses of beer. Of course we were restricted to lemonade.
When I was eight years old my mum died. She was on 49 years old. I thought the bottom dropped out of my life then it was awfull. I didn't know till a long while after that she died of cancer. She was taken to hospital one night and died the next morning about 6 am. I'll never forget the date it was 6th August 1930. It changed my whole life though. There was my younger brother who was 7 years old, I was 8 and another brother was 9, and my sister was 11. We were all spilt up completely. There was 11 of us brothers & sisters altogether but only 4 of whome were married
So it was decided that the smallest children would have to live with the ones that were married or go into an orphanage (which they said was out of the question). I went to live with my brother Fred whose wife had a little baby 6 weeks old. My younger brother went to my eldest brothers home and my nine year old brother went to an elder sister. My other sister who was 11 stayed at home with a brother and sister who were not married. and another brother who was engaged got married quietly right away.
Its such a long story after that. So different from the life I knew.
My brother Fred (where I went to live) lived in a small cottage adjoining a farm no modern conveniences. I was made to do lots of work I'd never done before. such as minding the baby and helping with the washing and cooking. Many is the time that I've had to lift a bucket of washing on and off the coal fire. We had to boil the babys nappies and other things as there was no copper boiler like at home. Coal for the fire used to be delivered in a ton at once and I had to help shovel it inside and stack it in the cubby-hole under the stairs. My weekly chore was to brass all the knives forks and spoons and to clean the windows (with aparrafinn rag). We had a lamp hanging from the ceiling which needed parrafin too and Ivee often had to fetch a gallon from 2 miles away at the shop. You see we lived 2 or 3 miles from the nearest village. I had to walk to school as there were no buses just country lanes. But the teacher would let me come home early so it wouldn't be too dark when I got back. I'd take my dinner (sandwiches) with me and a bottle of cold tea for dinner time and sit in the class room when everyone else went home for dinner.
Of course I did enjoy some days. My brother would sometimes take me with him when he went to catch pheasants or partridges and get rabbits which he set snares for. We had many a chicken from the farmer next door when I used to help him do the milking or clean out the chickens and pigs. We were never short of eggs or milk either and blackberries and mushrooms. This life for me went on for about 2 years then another brother decided he wanted me to live with him. How I wish I'd said NO but I didnt and I just had to get used to a new life again.
Geoff my brothers name was. It was lovely at first when I moved in with him and his wife (Dolly) as we called her. She was expecting a baby and there was nothing she wouldnt do for me treated me like a queen.
That all changed though when the baby was born. I was the unpaid servant all over again. What a life washing, cleaning, changing nappies, shopping they kept moving from lodging to lodging and rooming houses to different places. My brother was alway out of work. It was horrible but I just couldn't do nothing about it till my auntie (mums sister) came to stay one day and said she would like me to come and stay with her and she'd never had any children and I would be company for her and my Uncle. So about a couple of weeks later off I went again. another changed life.
Auntie Ede and Uncle John were very good at first to me. They had a beautifull home and everything was marvelous. Auntie taught me many things too and she would sit and talk to me for hours about her past life and about my mum. But things got awfull I was nothing but a servant after a couple of months. I was up at six o clock and I had to make the fire and clean the kitchen peel the potatoes for dinner and take a tray of tea & toast for auntie and uncle by 8 o clock. Then I had to chop wood for the for and do other chores like making my bed up and cleaning windows etc before getting ready for school which I had to go to by 9 o'clock.
This went on for quite a long time till one day I met an older sister. Emma was her name. She had a little boy about 2 years old and she lived not far away from auntie. Of course I told her how I was and she said she wanted me to live at her house with her husband and her mother in law and the boy. She came to see auntie and I don't know what she said but a few days later there I was installed with Emma.
I lived there for 2 years. I was so happy there. But of course I was the nurse maid and servant just the same but I didnt mind really. They treated me fine in other ways.
They brought a house brand new in Alveston Derby. and it was so grand I went to a new school too and had lovely friends. I had to go to church on Sundays and in the afternoon I would take Maurice (the boy) with me. We went to the seaside in the summer and to lots of outings by coach. I was on top of the world.
But it was not to be. I had to leave as another brother wanted me. So I was back to square one again. The brother was Geoff with whome I'd lived before. His wife (Dolly) was expecting another baby and they wanted help and said I'd be alright as I was nearly 14 years old then. It was the same routine as before though. They'd never got a 'penny to their name he was still out of work. We had to get our clothes from jumble sailes or from what anybody gave us. I'd always got holes in my shoes it was awfull. But soon after the baby was born I started work.
I remember I left school on Friday and started work in a factory the following Monday. I had to get there at 7.20am and leave at 5.30pm, We had an hour for lunch and 15 minutes break in the morningd and afternoons. For that I was paid 8 shillings and 10 pence per week. Of which I had to give my sister in law 8 shillings and 4 pence. 6 pence was mine.
This state of affairs went on for a long time - about 18 months or so. Then I went to live with a friend I'd met at work (with my brothers approval). That was a disaster as her brother tried to rape me one night and I ran away to another friend nearby. After a couple of months those people made it clear that there was no room for me. SO I had a third friend come to the rescue. Even there it was clear I was in the way of the family so I went to see my eldest brother (who had recently married) and he let me go and live there.
I was still working at the same factory and my brother and sister in law were very strict. I had to be home at 9 o clock when I went out at night and 10 o clock Sat and Sun. It was while I was living with them that I met my first hisband. I was 16 years old at the time. "Meynell" his name was and he was nearly 34 years old. He had just come out of the army having served 12 years. I got along with him fine at first. Looking back now I think I was attracted to him by the way he treated me. He would buy me boxes of chocolates and presents in fact I'd only got to mention anything I wanted and it would be there the next day. He used to meet me when Id finished work and walk home with me. He took me to meet his mother and all his family.
I was seeing him for about 3 months when I had to go into hospital for an appendicitas opperation. As I had an abcess which burst during the opperation I was in hospital for 6 weeks. I was very ill. Meynell came to see me for the first 2 weeks then I never saw him till I got back home. I learned after that he was seeing a former girl friend to whome he'd been engaged for 7 years whilst in the army.
While I was in hospital and just before my discharge the doctor told me I was pregnant. I kept it to myself but was so worried. When I eventually saw Meynell he didnt want to know. But as time went on before I started back to work one of my sisters found out and told the rest of my brothers. They got together and threatened Meynell he had to marry me or else suffer the consequences. Well he came to see me and eventually we did get married. That was about 10 weeks or so before Maureen was born.
At first after the wedding everything wasnt too bad. We rented a small 2 bedroomed house and got it comfortably furnished. He started work at the local pit But after about 5 or 6 weeks he'd had enough He just wouldn't go to work. Things got tough we'd never any money or much food in the house. He would go to his mothers and borrow money and she'd give him food for me. After Maureen came he swore he'd alter but he didn't we had one row after another.
When Maureen was about 3 months old Meynells father died. He was a nice old man. I went to the funeral of course with him and met lots of his relatives. One in particular which I will never forget.
it was a cousin of his and he asked Meynell if he could come and stay with us for a couple of weeks as he was looking for a job in the district. He was a lovely man about the same age as Meynell and I got on with him very well. We were like brother and sister. He used to be on my side when Meynell and I had arguments and I felt really safe with him
Then one day he said he was going back to Nottingham as he couldnt find a job. I was determined that I wouldnt stay with Meynell so I put Maureen in her pram and followed him. He kept trying to persuade me to go back but despite walking behind him for about 8 miles I finally got to Basford.
He didnt know what to do with me so he took me to a friends house. The couple were very nice but had 4 children of their own all very small and it wasnt very clean but I stayed there for quite a while. They made Maureen and me as comfortable as they could. I didn't see Meynells cousin ("Bill" was his name) for ages But in the meantime I got some money from the (PARISH) "social security" and I got myself and the baby a little house to rent. By then I was pregnant again and though I didnt realise at the time I got pregnant BEFORE I left Meynell.
Sheila was born soon after I got the house I well remember all Id got in the place was a bed a crib a table and 2 chairs. Neighbours gave me lots of baby clothes and I bought some bedclothes at jumble sales. I managed to buy a pram for 5 shillings and as the war had started I got a pension for myself and the two girls of 36 shillings per week.
During the war Meynell tried several times to come back to me but I didnt want his life. As the girls grew older I got a nice little home together. I got a job myself and used to take them both (in the pram) about a mile away to a nursery while I worked. I fetched them at night when I finished 5 days a week.
The war was well on by this time. We had black-outs and sirens air raid shelters and food rationing to cope with. But life for me was made easier when I got friends with a neighbour who had twin daughters. She used to live with her mother her husband was already in the army. Like me she went out to work and eventually we arranged to have a night out together now and again. I would put my girls to bed and her mother would bring the twins and baby sit. But mother soon got fed up of that so we started to go out on our own. One night she would go and I would look after her girls. Another night she'd do the same for me. We both had some lovely (nights out)
Yes I must admit - untill the war started and I lived on my own with the two babies Id never been with another man but my husband, But what a difference the war made did I live it up? I just didnt care as long as my kids were safe and well nobody was going to stop me. I always went to work. I paid to have the children looked after while I was at work At one time I worked at munitions from 7 am to 7pm - But as well as having a good time I did get a lovely home together.