11-08-2009, 01:10 PM
1
Me Nans
Me Nan's
“I’m going to me Nan’s,” my frequent Saturday morning call to my Mum.
Nan lived just over a mile away. Four stops on the bus route. Not that I would ever waste money on such a short journey. I’d got this system learnt in the wolf cubs. You run from one bus stop to the next, then you walk to the next stop, then run again and so on. It worked well, mind you when you approached a bus stop on a running phase and the conductor had held the bus for you and you didn’t get on he wasn’t best pleased. But that was only a minor hitch and being young I didn’t know what half the words he used meant anyway.
I would reach Nan’s road passing the bike shop on the corner where no doubt I would later take the accumulator to be changed for a freshly charged one. This was to power the wireless. But now I’m getting ahead of myself.
Nan and Granddad never had much money not that anyone would say they were poor. Well I mean judgement was by the neatness of the front garden and the whiteness of the step. No one had much money so other standards had to be set.
Nan was a roly-poly lady who did truly waddle. She bound her legs every morning in surgical bandages but she was my idol this lady could do no wrong. Granddad I admired, he could, and did, make me catapults and acorn firing popguns. He taught me one thing which I tried to stick to, not I will admit always successfully, and that was if you make a promise keep it.
Back to the description. Nan’s front garden was all of six foot from wrought iron gate to front door. Well at least there was a wrought iron gate and railings to for that matter up to the early 1940’s when they were taken to make Spitfires or so we were told. The path was of the traditional black and orangey red diagonally laid tiles. This was edged by the brown rope styled casting so loved by the Victorian age which was when Nan’s rented house was built.
The front door was a splendid front door. It was varnished and shiny. It was varnished with the use of a blowtorch and a ball of rags on a stick to enhance the grain of the wood. Surrounding the downstairs front window was a well clipped and shaped Japonica. And in the window on the inside was a row of potted Geraniums prevented from falling by curtain wire.
It might be appropriate to say at this point that Nan did not go out to work it wasn’t the done thing. Mind you she worked hard, damned hard and so did Granddad he was a gardener at a big house, he had two allotments, one to feed his family and one to grow plants and cut flowers to sell which is what we did on Saturday mornings. He was also a watch and clock repairer, mainly casement clocks, alarm clocks and hunter watches, and this was how he got his blood shot rheumy eyes you see their house only had oil lamps for lighting.
The front door led directly into Nan’s front room. There was a spindly sideboard, a double bed and a large tile sided fireplace. I don’t suppose it was that large but the size of the room made it seem large. The two most memorable things about Nan’s front room was the smell of Lily of the Valley mixed with moth balls and Nan’s best hat complete with hatpin ready for any emergency outing. Nothing much ever happened in this room. It had served as an extra bedroom when Nan’s three daughters and one son were children for there were only two bedrooms upstairs.
The next room was located passed the narrow passageway that held the staircase to upstairs. This was the main room of the house. It was dominated by a large scrubbed deal table which was used for everything. Food preparation, pastry making, work table for Granddad, sewing table for Nan and dining table. In the middle of this table stood the oil lamp. Down one side was a well battered, well used chaise longue. Along the opposite were placed the remaining chairs, it is not fair to call them dining chairs because they were used for so much more. The backs were used for winding wool, the whole chair was used to support the weight when cutting up old clothes and so on to make either rag rugs or quilted bedspreads. Granddad’s chair which no one except me was allowed to use even when he wasn’t there was a carvers style chair with a bentwood back and wooden arms. Nan’s chair, the other side of the fireplace, was far less imposing it was square with a padded oil cloth covered seat and caster wheels. There were no easy chairs in Nan’s house.
Cooking was done, to a very high standard I might add, not that I am biased you understand, on a cooking range heated by the fire. This, I now realise, suited perfectly the slow cooking of stews, beef, lamb and the favourite rabbit. Suet puds were made with most things. They were serve with stews to fill you up cheaply and again with apples and custard or treacle as “afters”.
The fourth side had one huge chest of drawers. Its drawers contained all Nan’s and Granddads bits and pieces. Linen, material, clock parts, spare cutlery all had their designated spaces. The top was piled high with tins of buttons, small cogwheels, spare balance springs and Nan’s sewing machine. Now to get out this sewing machine necessitated dismantling this pyramid of tins and boxes which explains why Nan sewed most things by hand.
In Granddad's “corner” was the rough homemade unit in which was kept all “The Important Papers” insurance policies, rent book, payments to the Christmas club and so on. On top of this unit was the wireless. Only Granddad was allowed to touch the wireless, well my Aunt Daisy did as well but no one ever told Granddad.
The next room was called the kitchen, it wasn’t really it was a laundry room and scullery. One third of this small room was taken up with the concrete copper. Another wall by Nan’s mangle and the last remaining wall by the stone sink. Wash day was on the traditional Monday.
Nan would get up early to light the fire under the copper and by the time she had finished the washing, mangling, hanging out and bringing in of the washing it would be early evening. Remember this terraced house had no electricity and the ironing was done with a set of three irons heated by the fire.
Outside the back door was the passage way to the long thin back garden. In the open passageway was Granddad’s garden table on which seeds were planted in boxes, cuttings taken and plants re-potted.
The aerial for the wireless ran the length of the garden and attached to the house wall above the garden table was the aerial cut out switch to be used whenever there was the slightest hint of lightening. Next to this table was the soot box used as a soil mix for Granddad’s celery and as a deterrent for slugs.
Next along this wall between Nan’s and the neighbours was Granddad’s cuttings bed. Now granddad liked to show off his gardening with his Chrysanthemums and Dahlias and this was where it started.
The other side of this passageway was the brick built coal shed, the toilet and round the corner another brick built shed that Nan used to store all the stuff she had collected to light and burn in the copper. The back garden was enclosed by a waist high brick wall. Next door one side housed rabbit hatches. Mr Bullard was locally famed for his prize winning Blue Rexes. Granddad's garden was topped by the biggest Laburnum tree you have ever seen it was a triumph, an irresponsible triumph, but never the less a triumph. The rest of the garden was taken up with tomatoes, onions, celery and homemade cloches.
Beyond the back gate was a warren of back passage ways leading to three different streets. A children’s adventure playground. Was ever hide and seek and releaso
played in better surroundings.
We were poor then but no one ever told us and we the children never knew it. The grown ups were all in the same situation, except Mr Sabettala who owned the best fish and chip shop ever even though we did call him Scabby Sabby and as we got older lust after his lushest Italian looking daughter.
So I was poor as were my relatives in my childhood. Do I resent it? No not ever. Its only money and we rich in so many other ways. And I still need less cash than most to make a tasty meal.
Two expressions not of my Nan but of one of my wife’s Gran’s sums up my view of some people they are “all dressed up like a tupenny halfpenny ‘ambone” and “she’s all fur coat and no knickers”. This from a widow lady who took in laundry to put her son, my father in law, through grammar school.
11-08-2009, 01:26 PM
2
Re: Me Nans
Wow! Thanks for posting that VM. What a wonderful recall for detail you have. Times have certainly changed haven't they? I liked the dresser with everything ... reminds me of my Nanny and Pop's china cupboard which also contained just a length of wire I think, bent into a hook shape at the top, onto which all the important papers, like receipts and things, were threaded. And the seldom used front room, with a big cupboard which smelt of mothballs and must and contained not a lot more than a huge lockable family bible and an equally large 'medical book', which taught me a lot!
26-08-2009, 09:20 AM
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Re: Me Nans
Those are such wonderful reminscences; I look around my house here and can see much of what you speak of - albeit gentrified beyond recognition. The large dresser - the base probably an original 200 years old, the range (no longer used I hasten to ad), the remnants of where the outbuildings used to be, the huge larder now serving as a store cupboard, the bumps in the old horsehair plaster which disguise where gas pipes were ripped out to make way for electricity . . . we often sit here and talk about how former residents might have lived. It's lovely to hear a first-hand account of how a house such as this would have been used.It's also lovely to hear about the people who were so stoic and were able to survive by using their wits on what were, by our standards very limited resources.
22-09-2009, 09:27 PM
9
Re: Me Nans
Visits to my Nans were always "orgainised" when I was a child. My Nan lived in Smethwick and we lived in Birmingham Mom "emigrated" when she married Dad...or so Dad says.
and as we passed from B'ham to Smethwick, Dad used to shout out "get your passports ready"Anyhow we went nearly every Sunday which was a major visiting day at Nans as there were 7 children, 6 married and 5 with children (we were the youngest set well my little sister and cousin are the same age.... ) anyhow Nans house.
A middle row terrace which was built and at the turn of the 1900 and the only family rto live in it is my Mom's her grandparents took the house orginaly and brought it for wait for it £112 and 6 shilling we still have the receipt (and copies in the family) Mom's grandparents owned a bicycle repair business. Which went down to my Grandad who "turned towards a garage after or during the war but kept to bikes too. My Uncle took over the garage until he retired.
Anyhow my Nan and Grandad moved into the house too look after my Grandads Dad and Mom after I imagine a stroke in 1935 (details sketchy) and they passed away during the war Nan and Grandad kept the house.
The house had about 6ft between the path and the front door which had a well clipped hedge at the front think it was wrought iron pre war (but I am talking the late 60's-70's when I was a girl) and wooden gate painted black...the path was blue brick with rope edging. The door was also black but now unsure if it was a stain, but the door fuirniture was immaculate I recall my brother always looking at his reflectiion in the door knob. The front step was soaped and red....always immaculate and white white white nets in the front window. The front door opened directly onto the front room which was used for the Christmas tree...
..remember I was a child. It also had the gramaphone just inside the front door and the records lived to the side. There was a two seater sofa (really hard) and one armchair which was equally uncomfortable and a hard backed chair...in the room as well as a sideboard which contained "special things" picture albums and the like.
The front room went through via a door with a curtain (the front door also had a curtain over it (keep out the draught)there was the door to the pantry there too the right. The living room...back room was the heart of the house it was dominated by a table which was almost directly in front of you and any day you went was covered by a beautiful white table cloth. And a tea pot that was brown big always hot full and perpetualy covered by a knitted tea cosy.
As you entered there was a big dresser which held the china and at the bottom in the cupboard the toy box (dolls and cars etc played with by my Mom her siblings and I think generations before..china dolls and golliwogs...tin cars, lead soldiers,dominoes and every board game going.
That was on the left wall as you entered then directly in front the door to the kitchen which I think was extended in the early 60's by my Dad....
the kitchen always smelt of carbolic soap...a smell now that takes me back. But I get ahead of myself I am still in the back room.Next to the table was my Grandad's chair a fireside chiar it would be a called I imagine (sadly my Grandad died in 1966) but it was still grnadad's chair.This was directly in front of Nans singer sewing machine with wrough iron base.
Opposite the table was a three seater sofa....the table had chairs around it and everyone always crowded into this room....how we fitted now amazes me but we did no one went in the front room.....apart from Boxing day to open presents. The fire was open in the back room with a back boiler. And a fire hearth.
But the house was simply Nan through and through she was a small lady about 5ft 1 she was round but plump she always wore a hat when out and a cat and flowery dressses...she always had an apron on which had magic pockets....she showed everyone from children to the Mayor the same kindness and treated everyone the same...even now if I go to the cemetry and see the occasional older person they comment on my Nans kindness....she always remembered how many sugars you had, what you liked disliked (everyone) and turned the radio/tv off when she had visitors givin you her complete attention...weather you were 5 or 55...
The back garden was a yard coal house, shed, outside WC. Then a dgate that lead acroos a guilly which was into a magical magical space that was a garden from eden...dahlia's and roses in abundance.
That was my Nans....house and it stayed in the family till 8 years ago when my Aunt left and moved into a bungalow I past it today and thought...although its been renovated beyond words I felt warm when I entered the street....
22-09-2009, 09:47 PM
10
Re: Me Nans
Visitng my other Nan...my Dad's Mom could not have been more different...visiting Nan was an adventure....she was moved out of B'ham city centre in the 1960's regeneration.They moved her to Quinton.....Lord help them at Bush House (B'ham council house dept) she dfescended and demanded to know how they thought she would get to the dogs...from there. Nan went to the dogs religiously every night there was a race on. They moved her to Stetchford Audley Rd...where she stayed till she passed away...(not on a dogs night) she was a character..she did not drink or smoke or swear but she gambled...dogs and horses....her vice. She raised 15 children almost single handly her husband my Dad's Dad died of TB when he was 18 months in 1930 leaving my Nan with 15 children 4 under 6 then and the oldest I think 15-16. My Nan worked, worked then worked more. My Dad sold firewood/sept snow/caarol sung/ran errands from when he could walk to give the pennies to the family. His brothers were barrow boys..anything to kepe the family together. They often did moonlight flits till they were housed by the council in King Alfreds place next to Bingley hall in B;ham.
The war was the families "saviour" according to my Aunts as Nan had a ration book which meant some food was always available they ate better in the war than before. My Nan also remarried in 1943 a scrap merchant dealer called JB...and she had nother son.
My Uncles uncles in law all joined the army. And once my Dad says in he was about 13 so must be 1943-44. My Uncles (home on leave) got into a fight with some Americans in Town (about a comment made towards one of my Aunts), my Uncles Frank, Len, Victor and Bob took umberage to this and with two brothers in law Wal and Ernie decide to find the Yanks and make them pay...the local Bobby used to their tempers and reputations left the USA MP's to try to break it up (they failed as civillians got involved too almost a riot...the Police Sargeant sent the Bobby for my Nan....who my Dad said was not amused at been fetched by the police.... not embarrased just annoyed. Anyhow my Dad said he his younger brother and their friends follwed my Nan and the Policeman down Broad Street towards the fight...neighbours also followed Eliza (my Nan) had her fighting hat on which meant trouble...and she arrived and my Dad said she spoke not loudly but clearly....Frank, Victor, Lenoard, Robert, Walter, Ernest....Home now....and she watched as they stopped fighting dropped American soldiers (who were gob smacked my Dad said) My Uncle Bob a Royal Marine was seen to pick up an American soldier an try to dust him down but his legs gave way....One MP had hold of my Uncle Len but he loosed as Nan approached him....the 6 of them marched home with Nan behind them and the rest trailing behind the Mp's and police arrested/whatever them the next day...the Police Sargeant would not let anyone touch them them as he had got Eliza out and it was up to her to sort them out....she nodded to him as she past.
So Dad;s life was so different from Mom's my Nans were like chalk and cheese... but each perfect for us.
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