Family Of Four: 31 - Summer Celebrations
...Liquorice AllSorts; walnut whirls; Turkish Delight; small round boxes of chocolate drops, tidily arranged into rings; and among this selection nestled thin belts of ribbed liquorice, a great favourite of mine. On the shelf behind, displayed in tall, glass jars with heavy knobbed lids which made a sucking noise as they were inserted, were aniseed balls; pointed gipsy kisses; sticky brown bull's eyes and many other delectable sweets now, for a little while, beyond our reach!...
Mrs Viven Hirst recalls the allure, experienced in childhood, of a sweet shop window.
Mrs Hirst's childhood memories were gathered into a book, Family Of Four, by her nephew, Raymond Prior. To read earlier chapters click on that title in the menu on this page.
Summer, with all its ecstasies of long, happy days, and the annual holiday by the sea, followed swiftly on. After school hours, at week-ends and holidays, tea in the garden, outings in the open air, picnics and tennis became a part of our lives.
Three of us, Doreen, Bobby and I, celebrated our birthdays in the summer, Rex having to wait until November for he was born on King Edward VII's birthday and that was why he was christened Rex. Doreen's and Bobby's followed one another on two consecutive days in August, and mine was in July. This sudden rash of birthdays made things very complicated, for presents had to be bought out of Saturday pennies and the contents of our money boxes, which were counted over and over as though this delay would make the small pile grow larger! For days we looked at the windows of the small stationers at Marsh, called Hills, until finally deciding on our choice. Unfortunately, the shop next door flaunted a display of tempting sweets, and it was hard to deny ourselvs our favourites.
On the floor below the window rested open boxes, the flaps garishly representing the contents lying within: Liquorice AllSorts; walnut whirls; Turkish Delight; small round boxes of chocolate drops, tidily arranged into rings; and among this selection nestled thin belts of ribbed liquorice, a great favourite of mine. On the shelf behind, displayed in tall, glass jars with heavy knobbed lids which made a sucking noise as they were inserted, were aniseed balls; pointed gipsy kisses; sticky brown bull's eyes and many other delectable sweets now, for a little while, beyond our reach!
I wakened on my birthday morning with a sense of excitement and expectancy. It was to be a very special day, all the household joining in league to make it so. It was Daddy's express wish that the birthday for each child was to be an entirely happy one, no word of wrath or reproof fell from anyone's lips, and in this contented atmosphere each one of us glowed at our best on our birthdays, enjoying all things together. We usually had friends in to tea, and games in the garden, and for years I found them quite delightful. Sad it is to touch disillusionment as the years flow on.
There was a further counting of pennies for November 5th, although Daddy provided most of the fireworks, we just adding a few of our own choice.
We always made a "Guy" and preparations in the nursery lasted for some time. We cut out cardboard for the head and face, which, of course, must be painted to look fierce, managed to cadge an old bowler hat and a jacket, and perched all on an old broom handle. Bobby's friend, Geoffrey Stead, always came to the fire and his father presented us with several skeps, which completed the large bonfire made up of the heaviest limbs and twigs of trees we had been searching for, and bringing home for weeks, "chumping" whenever we had an opportunity.
We were quite proud of our odd looking "Guy" perched rakishly on the top. The fire was built up in the back-yard, rather close to the coalhouse and scullery doors, so that a line of buckets, filled with water, was placed ready for Daddy to swing them every now and again to save the paint, nearly always blistered after each event in spite of this precaution.
