Remembering mum was born 5 months before WWI ended here are some of my favourite stories which might be entitled 'How Times Change'Originally Posted by Q165
She lived in a 3 bed house in Lloyd Street West Brom one of 9 children. The 6 girls top and tailed in 1 bed and the 3 boys in another.
Easter Sunday was special as everyone got a whole fried egg for breakfast. The rest of the year they got half an egg each for Sunday breakfast(how many chocolate eggs do your grandkids get now?)
In the 30's her dad went to Canada to find work. It didn't work out and he came back to the UK after less than a year.
During WWII her younger sister (who was a parachute packer) got pregnant by a married RAF pilot. Her sister was banished from the house and sent to a house for 'fallen women' in Lichfield. The rest of the family were banned from visiting her. Mum's war work was spring making at George Salters.
I was there when she was telling her then 10 year old grandaughter how when she was 10 kids would 'entertain' themselves by walking the 3 miles to the tram station picking tram tickets. A ticket ending in 7 was lucky, one adding up to 21 extra so and a ticket ending in 7 and adding up to 21 a rare treasure indeed. My niece replied with "If it was that far why didn't she get her mum or dad to drive her"
In the 60's she worked nights in the kitchen at the Adelphi. At the end of one night one of the group who had been playing came and asked if he could have a ham roll explaining he didn't have the money to buy it. The staff looked to the manageress Miss Rooney if that was OK, she flatly refused. The guy asking was Paul McCartney.
I can't help thinking I have no such interesting anecdotes to pass onto my kids. Don't consider my life to in anyway been boring just that mum's time from 1918 to my first memories from the early 60's to be so very different from now. Some in a good way some not.
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