Open Writing

I was born in Lancashire, and we lived near Belle Vue, the pleasure park and speedway. Every Saturday my playmate and I would sit on our front door step with something to eat, chips probably, and watch the firework display. Of course we could only see the ones that went high in the air, but what fun we had. It didn’t cost us anything and we were at home.

We lived out in the country, and making heald rugs was the great thing to pass away the hours. My mum and dad and I used to get all sorts of things like coats and skirts, cut them up into strips, get the rug on our knees and peg them through. A great day when we got a frame to put it on. That was marvellous because we could sit alongside each other.

I started with measles which went on to whooping cough which went on to pleurisy which went on to bronchial pneumonia, and I was off school for a full year. I had chicken pox, and the doctor said, “And how’s my little spotted leopard this morning? It might be scarlet fever and I’ll have to bring a medical officer of health from Wakefield.”

When I was seven I had diphtheria and was taken to hospital near Manchester. I was the youngest in the ward and was looked after very well.

My parents were not informed when I was to be allowed home. Then suddenly a call came to take me home. I was eagerly looking forward to seeing them and broke down in tears when my Uncle Joe came to say Mum and Dad were removing to Dunford Bridge that day, as they had not been told I would be able to go home.

My bed had already been allocated, and the nurses found me a fold-up bed to sleep on in the middle of the ward. I had to stay two nights, and it seemed a very long time. Wasn’t I glad to see my mum and dad when they came to take me home!

I had always been very good at school. I mean I did the right things. On this particular day a friend of mine had a book which we passed along. The teacher caught me. Out in front, and I got the cane. Oh, I never lived it down because I’d been such a good girl.
It did upset me, not just the hurt of the cane but the fact that I was caught and got it.

The discipline has changed in the fact that such a lot of parents go out to work, and they are not at home to discipline the children. My daughter is a teacher, and she said that such a lot of children come to school with their keys round their necks. The children have everything but love. They’ve got it all. They’ve got television in their bedroom. They’ve got computers. They’ve got everything. But when it comes to the parents being there disciplining them and telling them the right things to do, it just isn’t there. They get children running away from school because the teachers try to discipline them, and they’re not used to it. So they don’t like it.

When I was a young girl it was sacrilege to hang washing out on Sundays. We had a large garden, and when Grandma came for the day, she took my mum to task.

“I’m surprised at you, Lily, having washing out on a Sunday in the garden.”

My mum was puzzled and asked Grandma where she had seen the washing. We all had a good laugh when the ‘washing’ actually was some old curtains spread over the blackcurrant bushes to keep the birds from eating them.

About forty years ago not many ladies wore trousers, except perhaps in the forces. I can well remember my mother-in-law being very indignant when a young couple came to live nearby. The wife actually cleaned her front steps wearing trousers and had no pinny on! You couldn’t clean properly unless you wore a pinny, according to my mother-in-law.