General Chat

You are so gifted at writing your recollections down Bridget its a pleasure to read them, the sad as well as the humorous ones. :-) Keep them coming. Thank you as always. Pat x

Bridget i've read your two threads back to front, (part 2 then 1) but i am gripped and saddened by what happened to you and your sister. I hope that you writiing this down has helped you in some way and i await part 3 Hugs for you, Annie x

Nudge for Ann

Nudged for Ann in Spain X

What Lemon said

If this was a book, then from the start I would not be able to stop reading XX

omg bridget,keep going .im ready for the next installment.xxxxxxxxxjoy

Controversial but true, I am just writing the next part of the story. Bridget x

Bridget, Thanks for another instalment. Hugs Sue

Wow bit controversial Brigitte but well done Davex

Looking back sixty years I now realize, even then, amongst the poverty of our tenement houses “class system” played a small part in our daily lives. It would seem such a contradiction to make in relation to a place where children went hungry, folk did not know where the next meal would come from and rats overran the overcrowded rooms. Would respect and yes, even envy be a better term to use? As a small child I would not have been aware of it then, but with age a lot of things become much clearer! Almost all the men in our street were without a trade and thus depended on any casual work they could get to bring in a wage, if they were lucky. A man with a trade and a regular wage would be looked up to and in some cases, envied. Others would refer to him and his family as “Living on the pigs back” meaning they were well off and comfortable! Of course they were not well off; it just meant they could provide for the family without having to go to the pawn shop. Another example of this, most of the women wore shawls so a woman wearing a cloth coat would be looked upon as well off, she would most likely be the wife of a tradesman. In all honesty, I only knew of four families in our street that fell under this umbrella. As explained in previous threads, the tenement houses were four storeys high, each floor having a landing with two rooms to each landing, a family to each room. If you were one of the lucky ones, you had both rooms on a landing. We were one of the lucky ones as we had two whole floors; my mother had taken over her parents rooms after their deaths. One toilet and a water tap in the back yard served a whole house. Mums best friend and neighbour lived on the top floor of our house. Jenny and John were childless and John was a tradesman earning a good wage. Jenny, a good business woman ran all sorts of clubs issuing dockets for different shops and earning good commission. This couple, both in their late forties were classed as really well off and duly earned the respect of all the neighbours in our street. Jenny always looked a picture going off down the street in her maroon tailored coat set off with a real leather handbag and matching gloves, all the other women I knew just carried those accordion type purses. They had no use for handbags as they did not have anything to put in them! While in no way a snob, she would never stop to talk to any of the other women, just politely bid them “good night” or “good morning” even though these women were her customers getting checks/dockets from her to dress the family on the “weekly” She was a brilliant friend to my mum, helping her out on many an occasion. Sitting with mum having a natter over a cup of tea, she would glance at the clock, jump up and dash to the top of the house to “Get John’s tea ready” despite the fact that he would not be due home for another two hours. Perhaps because she had no children she fussed over John like a mother hen seeing to his every comfort and need, in fact she waited on him hand and foot. One could set the clock by John’s coming and goings to and from work, out every morning at 7o’clock and home in the evening by 6o’clock. I must add here Jenny was a devout and deeply religious woman, not only in attending church services but also in charitable acts. I have set the above scene and given a description of Jenny and John to illustrate the shock and deeply embarrassing position we girls were put in by John’s sexual abuse. This will be a pretty large thread and I am not sure how I will fit it all in so will have to put, To be continued. Bridget x

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