/VALEROADALLOTMENTSOCIETY/documents/hedgehog_020[1].jpg
Hello Mick - just taking a look and noticed the above VALEROADALLOTMENTSOCIETY/documents/hedgehog_020[1].jpg I'm afraid it's not possible to link to a picture which is how you got that long link......
I've taken the liberty of deleting the picture in the documents' file and putting it in the image file and just placing it within the page as the other ones are?
"click here" links are mainly for documents......... but don't feel "down" about it - you managed to link to it which is TREMENDOUS !!!!!
Keep up the good work :D
mick mick mick
THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF A WARTIME MUM.
BY
MICK BOTTING
“You`ll just have to lock me up that`s all, I can`t keep my eye on them for every
second of the day.” I can distinctly remember my mother`s words flying down the
hallway of our large terraced house directed to a policeman standing at the door
with notebook in hand. My three elder brothers and our evacuee Patricia who was
the same age as me. We were standing in the kitchen waiting to find out what we
had done wrong this
I was around five or six years old and we were frequently in some sort of
trouble. This time it was Jack who was six years older than me and he had been
caught round the back of the Fox and Hounds public house just down the road
from us, stealing the empty beer bottles and trying to get the deposit for them from
the fuming landlord. He had finally tumbled as to how he had got them.
My mum was a cheerful and kind lady who despite having to wield a stick at us
from time to time must have been in despair as we were definately a trial and
tribulation to her. Our father was away in the war and serving in the Royal
Artillery. She was trying to bring up four boys and without a father.
THE FOUR MUSKETEERS
“I`m at the end of my tether you don`t know what it`s like. I just can`t cope with
them any more without their Father, you will just have to lock me up.”
I clearly remember my mother`s words echoing down the hallway of our large
terraced house, as I waited anxiously in the kitchen with my three elder brothers.
A policeman was standing at our front door with notebook in hand. He was a
frequent visitor.
This time it was Jack the eldest who was in trouble. He had been caught
sneaking round the back of the `Fox and Hounds` public house which was just
down the road, and stealing the empty bottles. He had presented them to the
suspicious Landlord for the money on the returns. He had finally tumbled our
favourite trick. We were always in some sort of trouble and my mother was at her
wits end trying to manage four boys aged 12, 10, 8, and 6 years old.
Long summer school holidays were spent roaming around the fields and woods
at the back of the house. We fished for hours in streams for Stickle backs and
caught newts and minnows in jam jars. I remember one day Joe who had had
dentures fitted at a very early age was standing on a bridge over a river whilst
fishing and he shouted something, and his teeth fell into the river. We searched in
vain for them all day.
Mum was devastated, as she had saved up for a long time to pay for them.
There was a Canadian army camp not far from us and we often paid them a
visit. The soldiers would give us errands to do and then invite us to stay for
dinner. There was also an American camp at the top of a lane near by, and later an
Italian prisoner of war compound was put up about 200 yards from our house.
The Italians were friendly and they would make wooden toys for us, and I thought
that they were very clever.
My mother was a cheerful lady and was popular around the village and she did
house work and baby sitting to help clothe and feed us. Not only did she have to
cope with us, but I remember my mother had several lodgers during these war
years, and an evacuee from Folkstone named Pat. She was the same age as me so
we played together a lot. Pat`s mother visited from time to time and one Christmas
she made me a lovely rag doll which was stuck in the top of my stocking at the end
of the bed. I thought it was the best present ever, as we didn`t get too much in the
way of toys. We considered ourselves lucky having an orange or a few nuts. The
lodgers I suppose helped pay a few bills, and they were always put into our front
room. The trouble was they had to share our kitchen and our primitive outside loo,
so had to troop through our living room frequently.
I would go to the shops with mum and she would buy broken biscuits and
cracked eggs, which were cheaper but tasted just the same.
;l;l
PAGE TWO / MUSKETEERS
For breakfast we had bread and milk sops and we took dripping sandwiches to
school. Our Other favourites were dried egg and bread pudding. One day I was
sent to Sainsburys on my own and the stony faced Manager said, `You`d better
send your mother along to see me`. Poor mum had resorted to rubbing out the
pencil lines in the ration books in order to My father eventually returned from the
war. He was a stranger to us after five years away. Things didn`t get that much
easier for my mother either because he was out of work.
Some of his time was spent catching rabbits with ferrets and nets. Jack and
David would go out with him and if they were lucky they would come home with
as many as thirty rabbits to sell to the Butcher for a half a crown each. The
trouble was that their innards were removed in front of the fire in the lounge. It
was an unforgettable smell.
I used to go with mum to jumble sales and we would push our way to the front
for the best bargains. Once she bought a h00000
preference was `Dick Barton special agent`. That was exciting.
Friday night w0000000000000000000000000000000
