Читать книгу Lost Voices of the Edwardians: 1901–1910 in Their Own Words - Max Arthur, Max Arthur - Страница 63

Our chief fun was dressing our father up – we used to dress him up in all sorts, and he used to sit there and let us. Proper silly games, but there was nothing else to do.

My father was bothered with gout a lot, and was off work, so I had to start working when I was thirteen. I felt awful in that mill, it was horrible. It was at Kinder's and I was with a woman by herself in the basement – she never used to talk to me. I used to cry every night. After six weeks my father said, ‘You're not going there any more,’ and he got me in at Bocking – and I was really happy there. I gave my mind to it – but I knew I could have done something better if I'd had the chance.

We used to look forward to the Christmas tea party, which was held at St Mary's School – each school had their own party. We used to make our own entertainment – dialogues and singing and recitation and dancing. And Whit Friday we used to get up at six o'clock in the morning to get ready, then we'd assemble at school and go on a walk, then come back at dinnertime for tea and buns. Then we had sports in the school field and then we came in for tea. The sports were running, racing, three-legged races, wheelbarrow races, skipping rope races and egg-and-spoon races.

We had a maypole, but not at school, at the band club. The band used to parade round the village with a horse and cart all dressed up – and once a year there was the bike parade, and the bicycles were dressed up with flowers. This was for May Day, and the May Queen and Princess would be on the parade too. They had to vote for the May Queen – and there was a lot of jealousy. I was never May Queen – I was on the retiring side – a bit shy.

We never sat down for a meal. My mother and father sat down, but we had to stand round the table – and we couldn't leave until we'd asked permission. And we hadn't to speak at the table – if we spoke he'd say, ‘Let your meal stop your mouth – that's enough.’ We never answered back. No matter how tired we were, we had to stand, and we went to bed at half past eight every night.

At Christmas we used to hang our stockings up on the mantelpiece and we would get an apple and an orange and a thruppenny bit, and one little toy – then it was filled up with carrots and things.

An aunty of mine bought me a doll, and as I was very fond of sewing I used to make this doll little clothes. I think my sister poked the doll's eyes out with a pin when she was a baby – and I cried.

When I was about twelve I helped out at school teaching the little ones ABCs and counting. There was a teacher there – I was just a helper. I'd wipe their noses and take them down to the lavatory, that sort of thing.

We used to have slates tied round our necks with two strings, and the school provided slate pencils. We'd sometimes say, ‘Please sir, I can't write because my pencil wants sharpening,’ and he had something to sharpen them. Then, when we were older, we started with copy books, and we had black lead pencils. When we got pen and ink, it was glorious, we made a lot of blotches, but we thought it was great. The ink was in inkwells set in a little hole in one corner of the desk. That was a great day in our lives when we got inkwells.

We always wore all sorts of clothes. First a vest, then a chemise over the top, then a liberty bodice, then a flannel petticoat and a cotton petticoat, then your frock, and a pinny over the top. And knickers – and woollen stockings that Mother knitted herself – she used to make all our frocks too. We kids were sweltered to death in those days. We had clogs and shoes for Sundays. I had to have buttoned-up boots and we had a button hook to fasten them. We had to take our Sunday boots off when we came back from Sunday school and put our clogs back on. You'd take your frock off while you played, and then change back to go to school in the afternoon.

My father used to dose us with castor oil every so often, whether we needed it or not. He would stand us in a row, the three of us, with a spoonful of jam in one hand and the castor oil bottle in the other. If your stomach was out of order Mother used to brew gentian root, wormwood and camomile flowers – and we used to have to have bitters – that put your stomach right. Every spring, we had a jar with black treacle and powdered sulphur in it, and we would have a spoonful of it every morning, whether we wanted it or not. That was to purify your blood. If we had a cold, it was black treacle, butter and linseed tea. We didn't go to the doctor's unless it was absolutely necessary, because we had to pay.