Sunday 22 December 2013

Advent Diary, day 22 - Gardener’s Christmas Tales (3rd of 3)



"Mrs. Dollor had us on the step when we was kids, telling us the time, she teached, she taught us the time, she learned us she did, all of us.

Best time was when we come home from school. We’d wait for the bus then, about half past four. The bus driver used to get the papers for people and he’d chuck them straight through the window like, somewhere where we lived, and us boys would all line up and see who could catch the papers. Whoever caught them, took em, you see, 'cause we’d get an apple or some sweets if we took the papers that night. There’d be fighting between us who’d get to take the papers. It’s a wonder they got their papers all in one. Of course the furthest away would give you some apples and then you’d eat 'em all before you got home because you dinna wanna share 'em. You’d take your time coming back. We used to have to walk, didn’t have pushbikes or anything, always had to walk to take 'em.

We used to pick all the apples around our way, and the blackberries. There weren’t no blackberries round our way we didn’t pick. And hazelnuts. The only thing dad ever did with us was when we were sledging, he used to come sledging with us, and the other time was when we were picking hazelnuts.

Our mum, we'd go on the road with her, like, with the big pram and the baby would be in there and another one sat on the side like,  and another one in her tummy likely. and we’d go down the road like and her’d say pull the sticks out of the hedge,  and her would fill the pram across like and you couldn’t see the baby in the pram  because these sticks is all across, We’d get 'em home like and we’d saw em up for firewood for her. Wonder the farmers didn’t curse us for taking the sticks from the hedge. And she’d have this sack round her and go in the fields to help pick potatoes for the farmers and the pram’d stand in the middle of the field and when we got home like the pram was full of spuds. We had to pull the pram off the field some days when it was really wet. The farmer came round and mother got payed like; mother had the money, we never had any of it.  If she saw big ones, mother‘d say 'cover 'em over', we’ll have them later on.

Them were days them were. We never sat in the house, we was miserable when it was wet because we couldn’t go out, be under mother’s feet.  Good days they were, everybody the same. You’d leave your back door open. Monday morning was wash morning and everybody have their washing out on the same day. We’d just have a bath on a Sunday night. all of us in a cold bath. You’d fill it up with hot water from the boiler like and we’d all get in there,  we all had the same water, three in a bath like. Mother then put all the clothes in and soaked em all, to get most of the muck off like and then fill the boiler again and boil the water again and put all the washing in the boiler  and you’d have a big stick like and stir it all up. Then you’d rinse 'em all out and put 'em in this old mangle. We’d turn the handle for her and then Monday morning out on the line they went. Bloody great line about half mile long, nappies, nappies all the way.

Yes three of us in a bath. and we’d all try to get in first, because it was hot then, by the time you got out and the next lot went in, the water was cold. so you’d all be willing to get in quick like, girls or boys, be first to get in like, and it’d be clean water then.  There’d be an old scullery, somewhere at the back and everybody’d be shivering like mad, once you got out of the warm water, be bloody cold, shaking like, specially in the winter. In them days there was no heating. You’d run into the kitchen to the stove to dry off, and we never  had colds, we was hardy. It’s that entral heating you get colds from, innit,  have it too hot and then go out in the cold. That’s what does it.”



Postscriptum
Some commenters have assumed that Gardener must be a very old man and that his stories tell of a time long gone. Not so. Gardener is in his 60s and he was a boy in the 1950s when times in rural England and Wales were still very hard for the peasants and birth control was unheard of.




27 comments:

  1. ha. again some memories for me...
    we were always out...never around the house, that meant mom would find something for you to do...it amazes me at times to think how far from home we roamed...we always knew to be home by dinner but it was miles....

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  2. Just read them all, boom, boom, boom. I remember taking baths with my two brothers when we were 2, 4, and 5.

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  3. Some of Gardners tales are alien - and others so very familiar. Shared baths, and being outside as often as possible. And the incredible labour of the woman of the house...
    Thank you so much for sharing this.

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  4. I did think that Gardener was in his mid 70s. I went to England the first time in December 1953 at my penpal’s home to spend Christmas. There was no heat in the kitchen or the bedrooms. I do remember looking at all the ice drawings on the windows – it was very cold in that kitchen, but it was tiny and I avoided it … I enjoyed your gardener’s tales but I can’t say that apart from going to London in the 50s, it rings a bell with me – we did have a small apartment in Paris, but I had no siblings so I took my shower alone.

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  5. Interesting...and I'm in my fifties...grew up with eight siblings...and my grandmother lived with us as well....I remember two in a bath.

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  6. Well, we are of the same generation and I remember in America some of the same things!!

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  7. This is fabulous history!
    ALOHA to YOU
    from Honolulu
    Comfort Spiral
    =^..^= <3

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  8. My Mum is in her late 60s, and although her childhood was spent in a different setting, there are some similarities with Gardener's stories.

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  9. I can just imagine three in the bath at the same time! It's amazing that the siblings never even caught colds. I also enjoyed learning about Gardener's childhood. Very well done! Happy Holidays!

    Julie

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  10. ja in de Tijl voldaan Negen Kinderen uit dat werd Geen pretje eerst de meiden sterven Hadden Het Warme water, brrrrr.

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  11. Love these stories
    and yes
    this one in her 20's
    with 3 under 5
    would put them all in the same tub.
    Saved time,....

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  12. Lovely story, Friko ... Froehliche Weihnachten und ein gutes Neues Jahr :) Love, cat.

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  13. Absolutely splendid retellings!

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  14. Love Gardener's stories and so glad that you've written them down

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  15. I see your comments on a number of blogs, so I've come to learn why you're so popular. I already know from reading one post.

    Love,
    Janie Junebug

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  16. Friko, thank you for those lovely stories! Ich wuensche Dir von Herzen ein frohes und schoenes Fest! Mit einer lieben Umarmung, Yael.

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  17. Friko, best Christmas wishes to you and your husband. Also hoping that Gardner will have a fine Christmas. Perhaps he knows where to fine mistletoe?

    His recounting of memories are quite wonderful to read as you have written them up. As someone in her own late 60's, I also remember playing outdoors as part of childhood joy.

    xo

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  18. Great series, Friko! Read 'em all at one go; thoroughly delightful. What a storyteller Gardener is!

    Wishing you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas. Love and best wishes, today and always.

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  19. As I loved the others, I love this. In fact, I had Rick read all of them in order while I re-read! I send you beautiful wishes for a very Merry Christmas!

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  20. Hallo Friko,
    Heiligabend ist bei uns nunmehr vorbei. Die Geschenke sind ausgepackt, Morgen und Übermorgen geht das Weihnachtsfest in der Verwandtschaft weiter. Wünsche ein frohes Weihnachtsfest 1

    Gruß Dieter

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  21. Not so very long ago, but the speed of change has made it seem like much longer. Like everyone else, I have thoroughly enjoyed this series and could picture the hedgerows and blackberries. What a life it was for a married woman. I wonder how much joy there was in all that toil?

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  22. Hi Friko - Gardener certainly has lots of tales to tell - the salt of the earth ... and they were 'clever' in those days and made do with what was around .. and just got on with things - we're way too soft now, and can't mend to repair easily, no independence .. and we certainly didn't have colds back then ... it's all the insulation that's keeping the bugs in ..

    Still I do love these memories .. they are a rich tapestry of what life was like, and still is for some ...

    Wonderful .. cheers Hilary

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  23. enjoyed this tale very much, now going back to catch some more.
    My childhood was spent very much outdoors too, hanging round the house meant you'd get jobs to do! And yes, I remember 2 or 3 in the bath at the same time too, and I'm only in my 50's!

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  24. I grew up in rural Lancashire in the 1950s and we too had water from the well, no bathroom and bathed in a tin bath in front of the Rayburn. In our case this was one after another and the water was topped up with hot in between, so we were lucky. Gardener is speaking for a lot of county folk in his splendid reminiscences..

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  25. Funny! I grew up in the 50s in a suburb of Minneapolis, but we also all three had baths together for years and ran wild all over the neighborhood--barefoot and dirty all summer long. There are some things that are similar and some so very different. He sounds like he'd be so interesting to sit and listen to at the kitchen table...for hours! :)

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  26. Reading these stories was a great treat. I could hear the cadence of my great-grandmother's voice in this. I barely remember her. She came from Wales and died when I was only about three or four, but I remember the rhythm of her words. I loved reading about the chapels and about the baths and about his childhood. It was a rough one. That is for sure. And yet, for those of us born in 1945, even in the US, much of it is familiar. We were not in anyway poor, but we did not have central heating, and we all took our baths on Saturday night and then scampered to the stove. These stories are priceless.

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  27. wow. the 1950's! Thank you Friko. I had always adored your writing - always enthralls me and leaves me wanting more. I wonder, how do you recall the details? Do you take notes as he tells the stories or does he allow you to record him? Either way, well done.

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