Re: Stories to tell

I once worked with a real character, no one was sure how old she was but she was getting on and single. We worked occasional nights together .

She lived with her father who was 90 and he had a girlfriend.
The daughter was scandalised at the relationship and did not like her father driving at night to see this woman and made him promise not to take the car out when she was at work and not there to watch him.

She came in to work very cross and said her dad had broken his promise and been out to visit his woman, I asked how she knew. Apparently she had put an egg under the wheel of his car

Re: Stories to tell

Clever move - wonder what happened when he got home
Scrambled egg for breakfast .............

Re: Stories to tell

I enjoyed reading the tales and have many to tell myself which are all true.
Many things have happened during my 86 years on earth both bad and good plus some very comical ones and my son asked me to write all my tales down for the family to keep.

If anyone is interested I will put some on here.

Re: Stories to tell

And I am so pleased to have played my part Patsy.
I bet my posts get mentioned a lot!

Re: Stories to tell

Definitely

Re: Stories to tell

Would love to see the comical ones Maywalk

Re: Stories to tell

Hi Patsy.
Here is one that happened well over 64 years ago. I hope you enjoy the trip back in time.


The Clock
This is a tale of something that happened in 1952.

Cliff my husband used to work shifts and as my lad was just coming up to 18 months old I did not go to work.
We lived in a three bed-roomed house that belonged to the firm that Cliff worked for so it was what as known a tied house.

My son was old enough to sleep in his own bedroom and I used to take his potty upstairs every night. He always used it before going to bed and I made a habit of waking him at about 2a.m to sit him on his potty so that he would not wet the bed.
Unfortunately this particular time my son had caught a chill and this made my little boy who was teething to wet his bed and the resulting smell of ammonia was overpowering. I changed him and the bed and settled him down to sleep again for a couple of hours before I got him up.
I went down and got the washing done and cleaned all my downstairs while my toddler was still fast asleep.

I had got a big fire going downstairs to warm the room for him before I went to get him up. NO central heating in those far off days.
Cliff had been at work since 6am and it was now 10am.

I went upstairs with “Prince” the dog following at my heels to carry my lad downstairs. I did not want to go upstairs too many times so I carried as much stuff as I could and this meant carrying the potty plus the clock and also carry my baby down winding stairs.

I got out of the bedroom and “Prince” decided to walk between my legs which in turn made me drop the clock into the potty.
Oh My Gawd! what a tata as I managed to get down the stairs and put the baby down in his high chair.
As we were not well off and only had the one alarm clock the clock was taken either upstairs or down depending what time of the day it was.
I flew out into the kitchen to get a cloth to retrieve the clock out of the piddle.
The smell was atrocious and I got the Jeyes Fluid and put some in the bucket to soak a floor cloth in it to wipe the clock.

After a while I decide it was OK and after wiping it dry I put the clock
back on the mantlepiece over the fire.
I washed my hands well and I then bathed my baby and gave him his rusk’s and milk. By this time it was getting on for 11am.

Cliff used to pop home for half an hour on his break at 11-30am until 12 noon for a cup of tea and a snack then he used to go back to work for another four hours.

Cliff duly came in to have a snack and a cup of tea and he said " What ever can I smell Maisie? Its taking my breath away ”
I said I had no idea but I knew what he meant because I could smell it too.

It was the clock drying out.
The heat was making the ammonia come to the fore and My God it was ruddy awful.
It wasn’t too bad when I first put the clock on the shelf because it still had the smell of Jeyes Fluid on it and I loved the smell of that.
Deep down inside of me I was hoping that the smell would gradually fade but I knew that it was hopeless.

A few minutes went by and I noticed hubby staring at the clock as though mesmerised by it with his sandwich suspended halfway between his mouth as though he had been turned to lead.

I asked him if he was alright and he said with very much incredulity “ I cant believe what I am seeing with that clock because the minute hand has shrivelled up and dropped off.!!!!!!! LOOK there goes the big hand curling up at the edges.”
Sure enough as I looked a the clock the No1 also dropped off.
Hubby went to it and said to me. “ The b***dy smell is coming from the clock and something has got into it making the numbers drop off. ”

I had to confess then that I had dropped it in the potty face first and I had tried to wipe it well before putting it on the mantlepiece to dry out.

It was the ammonia that we could smell from my lad’s water that had seeped into the face of the clock and was bringing the hands and numbers off as it dried out.

Cliff did no more than pick the clock up and say “There’s only one place for that b****r and that’s in the dustbin.”

I was by this time hysterical with laughing while Cliff was stamping about like a bull in a china shop while washing his hands ranting and raving about how we were going to get another one with money SO tight.

It made my mirth worse to see hubby going bananas over a ruddy clock although I knew he had to have one to get him up for early shifts.

He went to work in a very sombre and sour mood but I still kept tittering about it.

I put my thinking cap on working out how I was going to get the money for another clock because it was essential Cliff had one to get up for work each morning at 5am.
We were extremely poor when first married but that never bothered me as long as we had enough to eat and keep clean.

I did get another clock by the time Cliff came home though because we had a gold half sovereign that was in the drawer that Cliff found some years previously.
It was never claimed after he reported it at the Police Station.
It became his property after about six months I believe it was.

I took it to the jewellers and got 30 bob for or £1/ 10s or £1-50p in today’s currency.

I also bought a clock from the jewellers with some of the money I got from the sovereign and got something knocked off the price of the new clock because I had taken the sovereign there.

The clock should have been £1/10s but I only paid 15shillings for it so I finished up in pocket.
It saved the day.
Where there’s a will there’s a way so they say.

Re: Stories to tell

Great story - I laughed and also felt a bit sad - those sure were hard times
Pleased you could at least replace the clock xx

Re: Stories to tell

Thanks Patsy.
Here is another one.

A FISHY TALE.

To tell about this story we have to go back well over 57 years ago.

My son ( Barry ) was just 8 years old at that time and he came in one day from school asking me if he could join the Parish choir because they were looking for choirboys.

Hubby and I were not church goers but we decided that if this would help our son to mix with people as well as help to keep him occupied at least three times a week with practising and then the Sunday services then we could see no harm in it.

We lived in a council flat at that time and were NOT allowed pets of any description but Barry asked us if he could have a couple of goldfish so we bought a lovely big aquarium to keep Bill and Ben in the rather large gold fish that my son picked.

Unfortunately Bill the smallest one of the two was not to be with us for long because he was sold to us and already had some sort of fish disease so when he was taken to the vets the vet said it would be better for him to be put down or words to that effect because the disease was too far gone so the vet did the deed and Bill was left with him.

This left Ben on his own and strangely enough I think either Ben was missing Bill or he too had this mysterious disease because a week or so after Bill died Ben was found floating on top of the water in the aquarium.

Anyway my son was most upset and to crown it all we had no garden to bury Ben with living in the flat so I suggested the only thing we could do was to flush him down the toilet.

Barry was insistent that we say a prayer for Ben so just imagine the scene of Mum, Dad and son holding hands round the loo and Barry starting to sing the new hymn he had learnt which was "Abide with me." He insisted that hubby and I had to join in as he ceremoniously pulled the toilet handle to flush poor old Ben down the loo.

I was trying hard NOT to laugh and to get Barry out of the toilet I had to tell him I needed to go to the loo and he would have to go with his Dad.

As soon as they went out of the bathroom I sat on the stool and rolled up with laughter trying to stifle my giggles in the towel. My son must have heard me because he was still on the landing with my hubby because I heard him say to his Dad

"See even Mum is upset because she didn't want us to see her crying."

My giggles must have sounded like sobs with me trying to choke them back and when I heard that it set me off again.

I still titter about it now especially when I hear "Abide with me."

Re: Stories to tell

Many years ago I reluctantly accompanied a friend and my 4 yearold goddaughter to the Sudring which was a vast hypermarkt.

Having done what we went there for... my goddaughter then promptly went missing.

We both hurtled through the places we had been too at a speed that would have shamed Roger Bannister but still no child. By this time my friend was understandably in hysterics and fearing the worse. I being me was wondering how the hell do you explain you have lost a child to a doting Father and Grandparents.

Stopping for breath we could hear cheers,laughter and clapping coming from the kiddies department..and there in the Main Window totally unconcerned by the huge crowd that had gathered was our little one, stark naked, holding a dress she had stripped of a mannequin and about to try on herself.

The crowds outside enjoyed the situation. my Goddaughter got to keep the dress she had stripped off for and we both had a stiff drink before going home.

And now you know why I don't like Supermarkets .