Friday 28 October 2005

In Bare Foot days

Yesterday, Jeannette gave me some food for thought with her entry about early memories ,Iwas born in a village in Northamptonshire ,as was my life long friend S,who is five months older than me,and did she pull rank because she was older!I had a  brother who was three years younger than me and  my sister was six years younger,S came from a big family,there were ten of them .S and I were about eight I suppose,and we were charged with the job of minding our little sisters ,whilst our Mothers were busy,I can clearly remember us pushing our little sisters in their pushchairs as we as intructed took them for a walk !It was a warm summer day,and our walk took us about a mile from home ,along a country road towards the next village,(not much traffic in those days) just before a bend was a wide verge ,where I remember we parked our little sisters ,who were sitting in their pushchairs,strapped in of course ,we ducked under the barbed wire ,across the field to the bottom where the Willow brook ran,off came our socks and sandals and we had a lovely time paddleing in the brook.Afterwards back we went to were wed left our baby sisters ,both were howling their heads off as I remember !(Sorry Jean ),the babys had been sitting on pram rugs ,which were ideal for us to dry our feet on !! ...........Id rather you didnt point out to me how many things could have gone sadly wrong!!! They didnt! as we are all here to tell the tale .

At around about the same time,I suppose I ran all the errands ,both for my Mum and my Granny .I dont think we had electricity at that time and our "wireless",ran on a battery and what used to be called an accumulater I think!this thing was like thick glass enclosed in a metal cage about the size of a house brick,with a handle and sort of terminals that attached to the wireless ,well I was frequently sent to get it charged up at a house two streets away ,it seemed a long way as I remember,with the instuction to hold  it away from you (it was heavy ),and mind your coat!............Imagine a kid today walking the streets wth a container of acid !!!Good old days . 

My Dad was the village barber ,part time only .I used to be sent down to his little shop to collect his scissors , (Dad always pronounced it sithers)and take them on to my Grandad ,who would sharpen them for my Dad,.........Dad would give me his bunch of keys ,thats the shop key he would say ,he also gave me a news paper to wrap them in so I didnt "stick "myself with them !I was always told to make sure I locked up on leaving,and to keep out off the cupboard!!hed have been better not saying that because off course I looked ,didnt I ?this was a barbers shop !!!..........Any thing for the weekend sir ?

They are some of my memorys,or one might even say confessions!So maybe Id better stop...............Have a good day folks         Jan xx

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jan, enjoyed you entry today oh we are delving deep just now. I remember accumulators but I seem to remember our radio plugged in to the mains. Have missed you all week are you well. Love Joan.

Anonymous said...

I too enjoyed your entry today.That bought back some memories, not that I can remember the pushchair ride!!  Its funny how one memery can trigger off other ones........ Love JeanX

Anonymous said...

I have a lifetime friend as well, she is 6 weeks older than me and boy, did I know it when we were growing up and it did not help that I was a timid little thing! We are still in touch even though she is now in Isleham,Cambs., and I am here

Anonymous said...

Hi Jan - loved reading about your memories, ..(confessions) ....Can picture you having a good old time, and your poor little sisters crying their eyes out ...lol...Ally

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing your memories here.  Like you say couldn't do all that today.

Jo xxx

Anonymous said...

It was safe in those days, couldn't do it any more! I used to walk miles over fields on my own when I was about six, my mum never worried about me. Jeannette.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting Jan, wonderful memories.  I think I may be older than you and of course we here in the US did many of the same things.  We always had electricity in the houses my folks lived in, however.  We had radios but they did not buy a TV until I was in the 8th grade (I would have been about 13 yrs).  I'll have to dig back in my memory and post an entry this weekend.

Anonymous said...

I know people say you can't let kids out on their own anymore but i think you can...It does depend on where you live...My young nieces and nephew go out to play on their own where they live, same as me and my sis did...There's too much headlines in the media about kids being kidnapped and killed but they are still the exception...That did happen long ago too just there wasn't the publicity...Wonderful memory even though you did *abandon* yer little sis LOL.......Caff xxx

Anonymous said...

Loved reading your memories Jan.  Good old times I say, you can't let kids roam too free these days.  I think for freedom to explore we had the better times. Rache xx

Anonymous said...

Really enjoyed reading about your memories :o)
Sara   x

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing them with us :-)