All The Difference
Eileen Perrin tells of ripe language in a British immigration queue.
Home | As Time Goes By
April 05, 2011
March 19, 2011
Sweet Tooth
...There we could buy sherbert dabs or sherbert fountains, licorice pipes or strips, licorice boot laces, pink and white sugar mice, rhubarb and custard, sweets shaped like chops, peas and potatoes, Pontefract cakes, tiger nuts, gob-stoppers, or Palm toffee, which came in slabs and the lady would break it up with a small toffee hammer...
Eileen Perrin tells of childhood delights of yesteryear. A sweet treat of a column!
March 10, 2011
Into The 21st Century
Eileen Perrin brings her life story up to date.
To read earlier episodes please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
November 13, 2010
Traffic Jam
Eileen Perrin recorded these musings while sitting in a traffic jam 18 years ago.
October 23, 2010
Friday The 13th
Friday the 13th turned out to be an unlucky day for Eileen Perrin.
October 02, 2010
To Be Or Not To Be
...In July 2005 we celebrated our Diamond Wedding with a lunch party for our family at a hotel in Stratford-on-Avon. We received a card from Her Majesty...
Eileen Perrin continues her engaging life story.
September 11, 2010
Early 21st Century
...I remembered the freezing foggy day when we had gone out to have a look at the Foxton locks on the Grand Union Canal system. The main party had gone along the road, but as we were way behind the rest as usual we took the sign-posted Nature Trail route, as looking over the bridge the towpath looked deserted. So we took the rougher, lovelier way and avoided the traffic.
But.....pretty soon I was sliding slowly down the mud on the steep grassy bank and Les grabbed me to pull me upright again...
Eileen Perrin recalls a day of muddy knees.
August 28, 2010
Eightieth Birthdays
...Returning to the bus stop, and waiting at the zebra crossing, the man in front of us was quietly conversing with a green parrot perched on his shoulder. It was answering him in short squeaks and squawks...
Eileen Perrin continues her engaging autobiography.
August 14, 2010
Spanish Holiday
Eileen Perrin recalls in hilarious detail some of the folk she met on a holiday in Spain.
July 24, 2010
First Year Of 21st Century
...I found that I was able to trace farther back to the Coans in the fifteen hundreds in Suffolk including yeomen, thatchers, cordwainers and a travelling showman connected to Chipperfields Circus...
Eileen Perrin tells of researching her family history in this latest episode of her autobiography.
June 12, 2010
Reaching The Millenium
Eileen Perrin and her husband Les enjoy another busy year filled with travel and new experiences.
June 05, 2010
All My Eye And Betty Martin
Eileen Perrin recalls a frustrating afternoon of futile instruction on how to run a University of the Third Age course.
All My Eye And Betty Martin
Eileen Perrin recalls a frustrating afternoon of futile instruction on how to run a University of the Third Age course.
May 22, 2010
Last Year Of The Century
Eileen Perrin continues her vivid account of busy and throughly-enjoyed retirement.
To read earlier episodes of Eileen's life story please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
May 08, 2010
Remembered Pleasures
Eileen Perrin tells of runningt a writing class as she continues her account of happy reti9rement years.
April 17, 2010
Fifty Years Married
...Let me tell you the tale of Grenville Rees from Pontypridd. He was spending his retirement circling round the Saga hotels on the Iberian peninsular. Through the years he had got to know most of the staff and resort guides in La Manga, Malaga, Marbella, Almeira, Denia, Benidorm, Salobrena, Bilbao, Santiago de Compostella and Barcelona to name but a few.
The Welsh valleys might have been green, but the mining villages in winter were grey, wet and cold. He loved Spain – so vibrant – so hot – so cheap – well, it was when he first went out there. ..
Eileen Perrin and her husband Les encountered a splendidly entertaining character while holidaying in Spain.
To read earlier episodes of Eileen’s life story please visit http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
March 27, 2010
French Holiday
Eileen Perrin tells of a memorable holiday in France and other holiday visits which added to fulfilling retirement years.
March 06, 2010
Woodworking
Eileen Perrin and her husband Les were busier than ever in their early retirement years. Here Eileen tells of some of the events in 1992/
January 30, 2010
Our Early Retirement Years
...The government announced that there was to be no more advertising of tobacco and cigarettes, which had always for years appeared on television, on roadside hoardings, in newspapers and magazines and on large billboards surrounding football and cricket fields. It was the start of a national ‘No Smoking’ campaign...
Eileen Perrin continues the account of her life and times.
To read earlier episodes of Eileen's story please visit http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
January 16, 2010
An Eventful Time
...An amusing tale he told was one when his party had to put up at a roadside hotel after their coach had broken down late in the evening, far from their intended destination.
The guests were given drinks, and went to bed. Next morning at breakfast they noticed with great surprise that other guests coming into the dining room were in their ‘birthday suits’ – not a stitch on...
Eileen Perrin presents another chapter in the events of her life and times.
December 20, 2009
Forty Years On
...I noted that January started bitterly cold with snow and icy pavements. The Salvation Army was appealing for blankets and clothing for the homeless. Southend hospital in Essex wanted people to return obsolete crutches, as due to the number of fall fractures they had run out...
Eileen Perrin remembers another bitterly cold spell of weather forty years ago.
November 21, 2009
History Holidays
...Old parish registers and Census returns revealed facts about my ancestors and my distant relatives. Letters, meetings and phone calls all recalled memories, and I became aware of half-remembered tales of an uncle going to Australia, of shoe makers in Norwich, cabinet makers in Shoreditch, concert parties and carnival floats raising money for charity, piles of fruit on a stone kitchen floor in Enfield to be made into jam by the cook (my aunt Doll), early photographers working from a tent in Saskatchewan, and the aluminium foundry in Islington...
Eileen Perrin follows a fascinating trail in search of her family history.
To read earlier chapters of Eileen's autobiography please visit http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
November 06, 2009
The Bee-Keepers
...I recall that before the 1980’s it was not done for the female office workers to wear slacks. I recall Mrs. Godfrey the office manager speaking to one girl who came to work in trousers, pointing out that for the office she should wear a suit or a dress...
Eileen Perrin continus her life story. To read earlier episodes please click on
http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
October 31, 2009
Finding The Family
Eileen Perrin goes in search of her family's history - and for good measures throws in some facts about the history of marmalade.
To read earlier chapters of Eileen's autobiography please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
October 10, 2009
Months Of Turmoil
Eileen Perrin tells of a year of industrial unrest and soaring prices.
To read earlier chapters of Eileen's story please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
September 26, 2009
New Neighbourhood
Eileen Perrin tells of the trials and headaches caysed by moving to a new home in the late 1970s.
To read more of Eileen's account of her life and times please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
September 12, 2009
Events Of 1976
...In June with temperatures over 95 degrees F. for four consecutive days a heat-wave began. On a Bakerloo train, delayed under the ground outside Baker Street station for an hour and a half, frantic passengers stripped off much of their clothing and smashed the train windows...
Eileen Perrin recalls the long hot summer of 1076. To read more of Eileen's life story please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
August 29, 2009
Notes From My 1975 Diary
Eileen Perrin recorded the good, the bad and the ugly in the pages of her 1975 diary.
To read earlier chapters of Eileen's life story please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
August 15, 2009
Good And Bad In 1974
...At the start of 1974 my weekly shopping bill in Sainsburys came to around £6.75 whereas previously it had been in the region of £3. A large loaf was 14p, and milk was 15 pence a pint. Petrol had gone up to 50 pence a gallon. A first class stamp cost 4p.
That spring we bought a Black and Decker lawn-mower from Woolworths for £18.50, and I bought three summer dresses at C. & A. for £11.40 – (£3.80 each). A bra was £1.25...
Eileen Perrin recalls the way we lived in the 1970s.
August 01, 2009
Off The Grays Inn Road
...A teacher in the Secretarial dept. brought in grape vine cuttings. I took two. One thrived and the vine is still growing outside our dining room window....
Eileen Perrin vividly recalls life in the early and mid-1970s when she was working at the Kingsway College of Further Education.
To read earlier episodes of Eileen's life story please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
July 18, 2009
The Melting Pot
...Once I recall I had a poster on my office wall featuring English apples, which was at the time when our shops were being swamped with French Golden Delicious. Chatting to a group of Chinese boys I tried to tell them about it, and emphasised buying English apples for their lunch. To make it more clear for them, as I thought, I pointed to the Union Jack in the corner of the picture and asked what it meant. To my dismay their unexpected answer was –‘National Front’, Mrs Perrin. ..
Eileen Perrin recalls her days working at Kingsway College of Further Education.
To read earlier episodes of Eileen’s life story please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
July 04, 2009
Happier Times
Somewhere about this time we had a holiday on the Gower peninsula in Wales. We visited Dylan Thomas country and drove far along the Pendine sands, where the sea went out for quite a long distance. We had driven down to be nearer the edge of the sea but not knowing the tide came in under the beach and the car began to sink into the sand and we had to be rescued by an R.A.C. jeep.
Eileen Perrin vividly remembers life in the 1970s.
To read more of Eileen's engaging life story please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
June 20, 2009
All Change.
In a diary of 1969 I noted that shopping at Ealing Sainsburys I bought a joint of pork at four shillings and fourpence per pound, which was not as expensive as Scotch beef at eight shillings a pound. On shopping trips to London, a cup of tea was eightpence at the Ceylon Tea Centre in Lower Regent Street. This was before we changed to Decimal currency.
Eileen Perrin recalls what life was like in Britain five decades ago.
To read earlier chapters of Eileen's story please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
June 06, 2009
The Day We Went To Lundy
With a memory as clear as spring water Eileen Perrin recalls a family outing to the isle of Lundy in the 1960s.
To read more of Eileen’s detailed and fascinating memories please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
May 23, 2009
Scene Shifting
Eileen Perrrin and her husband Les become increasingly adventerous in their choice of holiday destinatinations.
To read earlier chapters of Eileen's autobiography please click on
http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
May 09, 2009
Into The Sixties
...One year we rented a bungalow at Doniford Orchard just outside Watchet. One evening, we walked into town to the Odeon on the quayside, their only Cinema. As we stood outside looking at the photos, a window directly above us opened and the projectionist stuck his head out. He called down that he would wait until we had finished our walk round the harbour and would start the show when we returned...
Eileen Perrin tells of her busy life in the Sixties when she enrolled for a teacher training course but wondered if she was doing the right thing.
To read earlier chapters of Eileen's autobiography please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
April 25, 2009
Coming Up Roses
Eileen Perrin and her husband buy their first car – a Ford Popular which they name Oggy the Pop.
Eileen continues the story of her increasingly busy life. To read earlier chapters of her engaging autobiography please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
April 11, 2009
A New Life
...My parents were staying with us: Dad had taken little Val out for a walk ‘to see the trains’ and when he came back we told him to look in the cot in the corner of the bedroom, to see the little sister that Father Christmas had brought him. He didn’t seem impressed...
Eileen Perrin continues to record her life and times in fascinating detail.
To read and enjoy earlier chapters of Eileen's story please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
March 28, 2009
Old Time Remedies
Eileen Perrin recalls how illnesses were routinely treated before the inauguration of the National Health Service.
March 14, 2009
Living The Years
...After we were married I had given up working at the Port of London Authority to find a local job in Queensbury, working as a book-keeper clerk at Rotaprint in Honeypot Lane. No more long tube train rides, just a short walk round to work every day. I learnt typing, and caught on to the quick way of adding up, for which I have been eternally grateful.
One of their directors, Mr.Thomson had once had a pet lion named Rota, kept in his back garden in Pinner. Because of war-time danger should the lion escape in an air raid, they had presented it to Winston Churchill, and it was housed in the London Zoo...
The war ends and Eileen Perrin and her husband Les settle back into civilian life.
To read earlier chapters of Eileen’s engaging autobiography pleasae click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
February 28, 2009
Good In Parts
...Les’s mother arrived with a suitcase full of homemade meat patties and a couple of spare sheets for tablecloths. His young sister Lorna was my third bridesmaid. I wore a dress borrowed from the niece of my godmother, and carried red carnations. It was a rainy day, but all went well at the church. I still remember that when the vicar asked Les to repeat the words –‘with all my wordly goods I thee endow’, I thought to myself ‘that means I’ve a half-share in his bike.’...
Eileen Perrin tells of getting married in austere times. For earlier chapters of Eileen’s engrossing autobiography please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
February 14, 2009
Love Blossoms
Love bloomed while the war continued on its bitter and bloody way. Eileen Perrin tells how she started to go out again with Les, the boy she had met while working in her first job at Odhams Press in London.
“One Saturday evening we went to St.Stephen’s church to hear his cousin Ron Perrin, an organ scholar at Oxford, playing a programme of classical music including Handel’s Messiah. Ron later became Choir Master and organist at Ripon Cathedral.’’
To read earlier chapters of Eileen’s engrossing autobiography please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
January 31, 2009
I Remember It Well
...One September day we office girls helped with a street collection for the very first Merchant Navy Day. I recall shaking my tin very briskly at the lunch-time office workers who tried to pass by. We had lost many merchant ships and crews on convoys bringing supplies from the Commonwealth and across the Atlantic. Today the collection still continues and on September 3rd the ‘red duster’ the merchant Navy flag, flies over City buildings...
Eileen Perrin's wonderfully detailed account of London in the war years brings an extraordinary time in British history back to life.
To read earlier chapters of Eileen's story please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
January 17, 2009
You Are What You Eat
...People managed to make ends meet in those days of poor pay, and after the experience of shortages and rationing in two world wars my parents never liked to see food wasted. My Dad, a prisoner in the first war, always made a point of eating every scrap and Mum would say ‘Come on Fred, leave the plate!’ My mother was a good cook, and my husband said he only married me because my Mum made such good Yorkshire pudding...
Eileen Perrin recalls in mouth-watering detail the tasty treats of her younger days.
January 03, 2009
A Medley Of Memories
...I’ll never forget my visit, where I endured a dinner of boiled fish with cabbage and something with custard. Food was rationed, so perhaps that was all she was able to provide. After that episode, I became unavailable. After all, you know, poor Alf was no taller than myself...
Eileen Perrin recalls wartime boyfriends.
To read more of Eileen’s thoroughly enjoyable life story please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
December 20, 2008
Enduring War
...I remember one night of air raids, being called out of our bunks, when the Duty Officer told me off roundly for not wearing my tin hat, but as I had my curlers in at the time I felt I would look silly....
Eileen Perrin continues her vivid account of life on the home front in Britain during the grim days of World War Two.
To read earlier chapters of Eileen’s engaging autobiography please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
December 06, 2008
Fires Down Below
...Because of the raids which had continued, and being too dangerous to go up to London visiting relations, we spent a quiet Christmas at home, listening to the radio, reading and myself with my everlasting knitting. More and more we listened to the radio for some relief from war, and enjoyed the regular High Gang shows with the American stars Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon. We never missed ‘ITMA’ (It’s That Man Again), the renowned comedy show, which started in 1939 and went on to the end of the war, and Band Waggon with Arthur Askey. Every Saturday night at 7.30pm we still turned on ‘In Town Tonight’ which had been going since 1933...
Eileen Perrin tells more of the war years in London.
For more of Eileen’s wonderfully-detailed memories please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
November 22, 2008
The Blitz
...The blitz on London began at 4 pm on Saturday Sept. 7th 1940. It was recorded that there were 348 bombers and 617 fighter planes, creating a 20 mile block of aircraft filling 800 square miles of sky. This horrific ‘blanket’ bombing of London lasted until 6 pm. Then two hours later, guided by the fires set up by the incendiary bombs, a second group of raiders commenced an attack which lasted until 4.30 am the next day. The whole of the city was ablaze, lighting up the sky, turning the barrage balloons pink above the flames and smoke...
Eileen Perrin recalls the horror of the worst days and months in the long history of the great city of London.
November 08, 2008
Careless Talk
...There were posters with the captions ‘Turn that Light Out’, ’Lend a Hand on the Land – join the Womens Land Army’, and ‘Dig for Victory’. Allotments sprang up everywhere - in parks, recreation grounds and on open green spaces. The end of our garden had become a vegetable plot, and Mum kept chickens and rabbits. From time to time she would ask the milkman to come in to kill a chicken, and my cousin who worked in a butcher shop would deal with a rabbit when its time was up...
Eileen Perrin remembers in vivid detail events unfolding in London, and throughout Britain, in the early days of World War Two.
To read earlier episodes of Eileen's life story please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
October 25, 2008
After The Phoney War
Eileen Perrin recalls the early days of life in London after the outbreak of World War Two.
To read earlier chapters of Eileen's story please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
October 11, 2008
Take Cover
Eileen Perrin vividly remembers the day World War Two began.
To read earlier chapters of Eileen's richly-remembered life story please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
September 27, 2008
Seeds
Eileen Perrin recalls her first hesitant encounter with a new taste.
To read more of Eileen’s wonderfully detailed memories please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
September 13, 2008
The Passing Of Great Grandmother Pearson In 1926
Eileen Perrin recalls a conversation between her morther, Kitty, and her Aunt Annie which evokes the past in vivid detail.
To read more of Eileen’s memories please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
Continue reading "The Passing Of Great Grandmother Pearson In 1926" »
August 30, 2008
When Peanuts Came In Shells
Eileen Perrin remembers glorious nights at the music hall and the early days of radio.
To read earlier chapters of Eileen’s enchantingly detailed autobiography please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
August 16, 2008
High School Girl - Part 3
...But at the end of 1938 we moved from London to a semi-detached house with a garden in Queensbury, Edgware. For the first time we had a bathroom with a deep white bath; wonderful, after years of wash-downs in the zinc bath in front of the kitchen fire...
Eileen Perrin's richly detailed autobiography brings a vivid impression of life in London, and other parts of England, 70 years ago.
To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/as_time_goes_by/
August 02, 2008
High School Girl - Part 2
...In the Gym, divested of gym.slip, in blouse and navy knickers, I finally managed to turn myself upside down on the wall bars, to leap over a horse from a springboard, and to heave myself agonisingly half-way up a rope. It was a lesson not eagerly anticipated...
Eileen Perrin recalls her high school does in vivid and appealing detal.
To read earlier chapters of Eileen's enjoyable autobiography please click on As Time Goes By in the menu on this page.
July 19, 2008
High School Girl - Part One
Eileen Perrin tells of becoming a high school girl in the days preceding the onset of World War Two.
To read more of Eileen's memories, recorded in vivid and absorbing detail, please click on As Time Goes By in the menu on this page.
July 05, 2008
On The Pier
....She was in a dream. At the end of the pier life was transformed.
On the pier a mile and a half from the shore, there was freedom, fresh air, ice creams and sixpenny deck chairs to lounge in, listening to the orchestra playing selections from Noel Coward and Ivor Novello, with Jack Upton on the piano and Mr Seagrave the conductor in his white gloves. What bliss!...
Eileen Perrin recalls delicious 1930s holiday days in Westcliffe-on-Sea,
Eileen has the gift of being able to bring the past to life. To read more of her life story please click on As Time Goes By in the menu on this page.
June 21, 2008
Entertainments In 1920s Islington
...With no radio or television in the 1920s, Mum would take me to the Dalston Picture House where I sat on her lap until the lights went down and I could slip off and find a vacant seat..
Eileen Perrin tells of the days when folk found richly varied entertainment outside their own homes.
For more of Eileen’s engaging memories please click on As Time Goes By in the menu on this page.
June 07, 2008
The Bones Of The Matter
…On Sunday mornings, out would go Mum to the man with his barrow at the T-junction of our road with Canterbury Terrace. He sold winkles, shrimps and watercress. She would buy two-penn’orth of watercress, a pint of winkles and sometimes half a pint of brown shrimps - and that is how they were measured out, in pint and half pint tankards…
Eileen Perrin recalls getting to grips with a wide variety of measures and numbers.
May 24, 2008
Dress
…I might have grown up with a different attitude to dress if I had been tall and slim. Choosing a dress is a nuisance to me; I abhor shopping for clothes, so the title I chose for this piece of writing certainly gave me pause for thought….
Eileen Perrin writes on the subject that occupies many a woman’s thoughts.
To read more of Eileen’s engaging words please click on As Time Goes By in the menu on this page.
May 10, 2008
Food And Fashion In The Thirties
...As most small girls I liked to dress up, and remember finding Mum’s small amber-coloured cigarette holder, which she had used when cigarette-smoking became all the rage in the 1920s. I put it in my mouth and was instantly revolted by its horrible stale taste. Since then I have never wanted to smoke. And thank goodness Mum never became an inveterate smoker. She lived to be 96...
Eileen Perrin recalls what life was like in the 1930s.
Eileen's vivid memories are the stuff from which history is made.
April 26, 2008
St Jude's School
...Each May 24th on Empire Day the whole school went out in the playground to witness a set piece with children dressed to represent countries of the world, gathered around the proud girl chosen from the top class to be Britannia. We sang patriotic songs, like Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory and marched round the playground saluting the Union Jack, ending with God save the King....
Eileen Perrin vividly remembers her school days. To read earlier chapters of Eileen's autobiogrpahy please click on As Time Goes By in the menu on this page.
April 13, 2008
Paraffin And Pilchards
...To save coal Auntie Alice lit a paraffin stove to keep us warm. I can still see the light shining through the openwork around the top making shadowy patterns on the wall and the rosy glow showing through the little square red window on its side. My cousin Vera and I would sit on the floor either side of the stove, playing with our dolls, making them medicine with cups of water in which we stirred the licorice sticks from our sherbert dabs until the water turned brown...
Eileen Perrin continues her evocative autobiography. To read earlier chapters of her story please click on As Time Goes By in the menu on this page.
April 12, 2008
Paraffin And Pilchards
...To save coal Auntie Alice lit a paraffin stove to keep us warm. I can still see the light shining through the openwork around the top making shadowy patterns on the wall and the rosy glow showing through the little square red window on its side. My cousin Vera and I would sit on the floor either side of the stove, playing with our dolls, making them medicine with cups of water in which we stirred the licorice sticks from our sherbert dabs until the water turned brown...
Eileen Perrin vividly recreates bgygone days. To read more of her wonderful words please click on As Time Goes Byin the menu on this page.
March 15, 2008
Penny Paddle Steamer
Eileen Perrin, continuing her life story, tells of an idyllic day out on the River Thames.
To read earlier chapter of Eileen’s life story please click on As Times Goes By in the menu on this page.
March 08, 2008
Through The Weeks In The 1920s
In this wonderfully evocative slice of autobiography Eileen Perrin recreates daily life in the 1920s.
February 23, 2008
Time For School
... Our school day started with the Lord’s Prayer and at the end of the afternoon we had a ‘Thank you’ prayer and blessing. Every Friday afternoon until we were in the top class we were allowed to take in one of our own books or toys. Sometimes we had a story read to us. Brer Rabbit bored me. I got fed up with him always landing in the briar patch...
Eileen Perrin has the clearest of clear memories of her schooldays.
To read earlier episodes of Eileen's vividly-remembered life story please click on As Time Goes By in the menu on this page.
February 09, 2008
Whispers
Eileen Perrin tells of her life-long infatuation with words.
To read earlier episodes of Eileen's life story please click on As Time Goes By in the menu on this page.
January 26, 2008
Wet Weekends
Eileen Perrin tells of the indoor fun and games of childhood. .
To read earlier chapters of Eileen's endearing autobiography please click on As Time Goes By in the menu on this page.
January 12, 2008
The Muffin Man
In the gloaming of a Saturday evening, the muffin man, his tray of muffins balanced on his head, came down our street ringing a bell, just as the lamplighter came round with his long pole, turning on the gas lights at the top of every lamp post.
Eileen Perrin recalls her 1920s childhood,
December 22, 2007
My Grandmother
...Once for a special surprise for us children at Christmas tea time she had helped her daughter Alice to wrap up little gifts to put into a big pie made from a cardboard box and crepe paper. Each gift was hidden under the paper ‘crust’ and had a string attached. The children had to choose a string and at the shout of ‘Go’ pull hard so that the paper pie burst open and they each had a present...
Eileen Perrin presents an affectionate portrait of her grandmother.
To read earlier chapters of Eileen's life story please visit As Time Goes By in the menu on this page.
December 09, 2007
The Christmas Family Gathering
...One Christmas they all came to our home in Islington; also an upstairs flat. My Dad always tried to make us laugh by pretending to walk into the edge of the door, banging his foot on the bottom as he held his face and rubbed his nose.
Dad had dressed up as a white-faced clown, in a costume made by Mum on the sewing machine out of an old sheet. He had a frill round his neck, and black pom-poms down his front. I didn’t recognise him as my Dad with his big red nose and his large red lips, painted on in greasepaint. When he rolled around the floor with my cousin Stan on top, jumping all over him, I cried. It wasn’t because I was frightened that he looked strange - although it had been a shock when I first saw him - but I thought he was being hurt, as I knew he suffered rheumatism badly after his time in the trenches...
In this wonderful episode of her life story Eileen Perrin tells of the never-to-be-forgotten delights of family Christmas gatherings. To read earlier chapters of Eileen's story please click on As Time Goes By in the menu on this page.
November 12, 2007
Spit And Polish
….On the short, narrow mantelpiece where every scrap of space was utilised, there was such an assortment of things, the alarm clock with its two bells on top, a box of matches and a candle, a small paraffin lamp, in case the money in the gas-meter ran out. In a chipped shaving mug no longer in use, were several pairs of black bootlaces, a tube of Seccotine, and a button-slide used in polishing the silver buttons on his uniform jacket. On a wire spike were receipts and bills, next to a small framed photograph of uncle and aunt on their wedding day…
Eileen Perrin, with a keen eye for detail, continues her engaging autobiography. To read earlier chapters please click on As Time Goes By in the menu on this page.
November 10, 2007
Wrapping It Up
Eileen Perrin tells of the day she "lost'' her Mum on a shoppping expidition.
To read more of Eileen's vivid memories please click on As Time Goes By in the menu on this page.
October 27, 2007
A Bit Of Breathing Space
...From his jacket pocket he took his old packing knife to sharpen, ready for the job he was in hopes of getting tonight in a Fetter Lane warehouse or up Long Acre, where he would be parcelling up stacks of newspapers, tied in string, ready to be taken in the paper vans to the big London stations, for delivery next morning in all parts of the country...
Continuing her family story, Eileen Perrin paints a vivid picture of hard times in the Twenties.
October 06, 2007
A Different World
...The day we moved from there it was raining, and I wore a mackintosh cape with a gathered hood, and was told I looked like Little Red Riding Hood, only my hood was blue.
I had to say goodbye and kiss Maskell, who had a moustache. She was wearing her usual plain blue coat-overall and matching mob-cap.
Lifted into the back of the lorry, Mum and I sat on kitchen chairs, guarding the bowl of goldfish...
Eileen Perrin, continuing her life story, vividly evokes bygone days.
September 22, 2007
A Long Wait For A Wedding
...In the little house in Islington the three sisters shared a bed and sometimes for a treat on Sunday mornings their father Bert would bring them glasses of cream soda.
At table they were always being scolded for their incessant giggling...
Eileen Perrin tells of her mother's younger days.
September 08, 2007
Childhood Wonderland
Eileen Perrin, recalling her 1920s childhood, awakens hundreds of memories in one luxuriously well-packed paragraph.
Look out for more from Eileen in a fortnight's time.
August 25, 2007
Down To The Roots
Here's a welcome to a new contributor to the pages of Open Writing. Eileen Perrin has been digging down into her family roots - roots which reach down to 1759. Episode by episode, in fortnightly installments, she will tell us what she finds there.
In her first offering Eileen recalls the surprising answer given when a girl was asked why she and her sisters had clean and shiny hair.
Categories
- A Clutch Of Pearlies
- A Court Of Fowls
- A Diary of Innocence
- A Fistful Of Stars
- A Geordie All-Rounder
- A Life Less Lost
- A Lovely Shade Of Blue
- A Potter's Moll
- A Shout From The Attic
- A Spitfire Pilot Remembers
- A Tale Of The Unexpected
- A Writer On Writing
- About A Week
- About Our Words
- After Work
- Alaskan Range
- All That Was
- All This Jazz
- American Pie
- An Englishman In New York
- Ancient Feet
- And Another Thing...
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- Around The Sun
- As Time Goes By
- Away With Worry
- Backwords
- Beijing 2008 Olympics
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- Bradford Lad
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- David Marsh Cartoons
- Day After Day
- Delanceyplace
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- Eric Shackle Writes
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- Family Of Four
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- Flood
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- Got The T-Shirt
- Harry's Tales
- Here Comes Treble
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- I Didn't Belong
- I Only Came For The Music
- Illegal Entry
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- In Good Company
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- Interludes
- It's A Great Life
- Jambo Paulo - Jambo Mykoli
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- Laugh With Lisa
- Lest It Be Forgotten After I Am Gone
- Letter From America
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- Life Is Too Short To Drink Bad Wine
- Living On Three Continents
- London 2012 Olympics
- London Letter
- Luddite Spring
- Man Bites Talking Dog
- McCaffrey On Fishing
- Mullin' It Over
- My Week
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- Open Features
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- Roses Aren't Everything
- Sam Pepys – His Diary
- Sandy's Say
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- She's Back Again
- Shooting the Breeze
- Simply Sue
- Skidmore's Island
- Smallville
- Spanish Secrets
- Tales from Tawa
- Tasmanian Words
- Thai Girl Tattle
- The Day Before Yesterday
- The First Seventy Years
- The Fourth Wish
- The Great Cley Floods
- The Kingdom Of The Blind
- The Last Star Trek
- The Limit
- The Melody Lingers On
- The Museum Mystery
- The Reyrolle Story
- The Scrivener
- The Shepherdsville Times
- This and That
- Thoughts From The Coast
- Through Lattice Windows
- Time Witnesses
- To War With The Bays
- Two Rooms And A View
- U3A Writing
- Useful And Fantastic
- Views And Reviews
- Visions Of Hope
- Visions of Glory
- Walking the Tightrope
- Walnut Wisdom
- Western Oz Words
- Western Walkabout
- When The Crocodile Smiles
- Word Acts
- Words From Adelaide
- Words In History
- Yorkshire Dialect
- Yorkshire Lad
