Tales from Corpus Christi

My first day at school was quite traumatic for me. For some reason I started after the other children so, when I arrived at Corpus Christi School, Mam and I were shown into the Headmaster’s study. Mr Walsh and Mam chatted for a while, and then we were taken through the school to my classroom. Mrs O’Connor was a well built lady and found me a place somewhere in the classroom and so my life at school began. She was a very strict teacher and I was very afraid when in her class, I was the sort of child that was always in trouble, mainly for talking! We moved up the next year to Mrs Crenin’s class, who was a perfect lady, sweet and gentle. The next classroom was at the back of the hall and was closed off by folding doors, I was soooo looking forward to going into this classroom but after two weeks I was moved up a class into Mrs Kelly’s class. I adored Miss Kelly, so much so that I didn’t want to leave her class. Another factor in not wanting to leave Mrs Kelly’s class was that I would move into Miss Tanner’s class. I did not like Miss Tanner and I was sure that she would not like me, she was a very strict teacher who shouted a lot and gave out punishments – well, that was the talk in the playground. Her class was on the stage, again with folding doors to divide it from the hall but this room came with a bad reputation, no-one wanted to be in her class.
So the new school year started and I with it. I sat at the back with a girl called Kathy, bit of a bully so I tried to avoid her in the playground and dinner hall but now I had to sit next to her!! Once classes started and we were all settled, she would pinch me so that when I called out ‘ouch!’ I got into trouble, she would pull my book when I was writing so that my pen went across the page, all sorts of things like that. I vividly remember one day when I had a scab on my knee, only a small one I hasten to add, and she told me to pick it, eventually I did and then had to use my handkerchief to stop the bleeding. She said to eat the scab or she would tell Miss Tanner I had picked the scab and made it bleed, so after much threatening I did this. She immediately put up her hand and told Miss Tanner I had eaten it!!! Boy! oh boy! was she not only disgusted but so mad ….. I was terrified ….. I thought she was going to hit me. Instead I was sent to sit outside Mr Walsh’s office and eventually he sent me back to class and nothing more was said. The Summer holidays couldn’t come quick enough for me.
Then next class was Mrs Grogan who was also considered a tyrant by all the playground but we got on quite well. I worked hard and she was ok, I thought she was a good teacher who was also very fair but didn’t like boys! Once or twice I had the ruler across my knuckles but that again was for talking and so I considered it fair. Her classes were interesting, I remember she read the story of Dr Dolittle although I must admit I can only remember there being a Pushme Pullyou and a bridge built by the monkeys!! I loved story time, couldn’t write ‘em but loved reading and listening to them. All too soon it was summer time again and then I went into Mrs O’Sullivan’s.
This was held in a classroom across the road from the school, so it was quite a jaunt in the mornings as we had to cross the road from the playground into the classroom.

My Grandad …………. 5

Grandad always took his first cup of tea with a spoonful of whiskey in it, very special whiskey; it was in a small bottle and had a couple of Cayenne Pods in it. He used to let me put these pods into the bottle when he started a new on, he swore that this is what kept him alive and active for so long. We thought that maybe the fact that he was a postman, walking everywhere and riding a bike that allowed him to live to such a grand old age (97yrs). Grandad moved downstairs into a single bed in the front room when I was about 14, he was very poorly and couldn’t manage the stairs anymore. I don’t remember seeing him much those days, probably too interested in my school work and going out to meet the boys (known as my Rendezvous years). But I remember him coming through one day and telling Mam that she would have to come with him because his room was full of budgerigars! He had kept a canary for years and when we moved in Mam had a budgie but other than this ……… Mam went in and then came back and when I asked about the ‘budgies’ she laughed and said it was just his way. There were other occasions like this and eventually Dad slept downstairs in his room with him. One Easter Monday morning, when I came downstairs I found Mrs Rhodes from next door there and very solemn parents.
Grandad had died during the night.
I was very upset ...... not my Grandad ..... he was forever. Apparently my Dad had woken up and found Grandad awake so Dad made him a cup of tea and sat with him, helping him to sip his tea and suddenly Grandad looked up at the door and said ‘I’m coming (…….) I’m coming’ then lay back and died. Dad went and woke Mam and she & Mrs Rhodes washed him down and dressed him (they always 'laid out the body' in those days). It was his brother’s name that he called so we thought that maybe his brother came to ‘fetch him’. Any how the funeral happened, I was not allowed to attend so I waited with Mrs Rhodes for them to come home and we all sat around having some sandwiches, cake and tea and then …… the reminiscing began. Soon everyone was laughing as we all remembered that wonderful man Jack French! Grandad had left Mam the house and this was agreed by all her brothers as she had looked after him so well. I don’t’ know what else there was, I was too young to know about those things and I was amazed that Mam had to go and get a mortgage for £100 so that the house did actually become hers. Mam lived there until after Dad died but eventually the upkeep became too much and so she moved into Robin Hood Lane with me.

My Grandad........ ok ......more

Grandad would play all the old songs, I mean they are ancient now but they were WWI and WWII songs, more I than II! I loved to sing along and, for some reason known only to him, his favourites were ‘Oh! My Darling Clementine’ and 'Keep Right on to the End of the Road' (as we sang them so often - especially Clementine - I learnt all the words, so it became one of my favourites too). I would help to get the accordion out of the pantry as, being a small house – two up two down – storage space was not a considered a necessity. I wonder what happened to the accordion…………… well, now I’ll never know, it might possibly have been given to one of my uncles or cousins. (I have a family tree all printed out, maybe I’ll put that on here one of the days). Grandad also had a crystal set, he also had a radio that was large and was atop a shelf by his chair, an ‘Old Moore's Almanac’ hanging on a nail by the side of the chimney breast where he sat. Why, do you ask, am I rambling on about these? Well, it’s all part of Grandad. He used to have the radio on but when I came round, I was allowed to listen to the crystal set, especially at ‘Listen with Mother’ and ‘Children’s Hour’ times. I suppose this is why I like listening to the radio even today. The crystal set was set up high on the wall and had headphones to go with it, one day I will find out what exactly it was but for now the most I can say about it was that it was a radio transmitter. At a quarter to two I was allowed to listen in to ‘Listen with Mother’ and then it was put away until five o’clock when once again the headphones came down and I was allowed to listen in. At my young age, this became a magical thing, this disembodied voice talking to ME and the adults just weren’t there. I loved the stories, kiddie ones at lunchtime but allsorts at teatime, losing myself in them as they were told – a bit like Jackanory but no visuals. The radio held nothing really after that experience, when Frieda came with us I had to share or listen on the radio but it wasn’t the same. The ‘Old Moore’s Almanac’ was a predictive magazine, A5 and it told horoscopes and world events, and when to plant vegetables and could be quite exciting to read, especially what was going to happen. Then in the front room was the piano and so long as I was not too noisy I could play on that to my heart’s content, eventually reading a bit of music and with Mam’s help learning to play it. It was only basic, not the way my Mam played, and she did try to show me, but I enjoyed myself, which is the main thing. So there was Grandad in his house and there was us visiting during the week after he had stopped cycling over to Stechford. Then the day came when I was told that we had to pack our things as we were going to live at Grandad’s house!!! This must’ve took a lot of organising, we were a family of five, although Tony was now in the Royal Artillery, we still had all his belongings at our house and there was Ena and me, we had stacks of stuff and of course Mam & Dad but that is another story. For now …. We moved in with Grandad, he had the back bedroom, Mam & Dad slept in the front bedroom and Ena and I slept on the bed settee in the front room. The front room became out of bounds after I went to bed so really there were four people living in one room, Tony had to sleep on the settee when he came home for the Ena's wedding.

My Grandad ...... even more

When I was really small we didn’t do this so I spent the day in his house, I don’t remember ever playing out with the local children.
His garden was a magical place to play in anyway – lots of places to hide and play ‘pretending’ games, by myself of course!! His back room had French widows and steps down onto a small paved area, with a greenhouse full of Geraniums to the left and a lean to (Garage) on the right side. Straight ahead were three steps which led down into the garden and the cinder path. This path was edged by bricks and was made out of the cinders from the coal fire in Grandad’s house. Every day new ashes were laid onto this path, filling in dips and levelling it out as it ran round a small island two thirds of the way down and then on down to the bottom of the garden. At the bottom of the garden there was a small brook, it was the border between Birmingham City and the County Borough of Solihull. It was dry mostly (only running after the rain) and sometimes I would cross it to play with the little girl who visited her grandparents opposite. Also at the bottom of the path was a telegraph pole around which grew Loganberries which were delicious, like raspberries but golden white, much larger and sweeter. I was always told not to eat them but …………. I was a child, right down at the bottom of the garden ………!
Grandad loved his geraniums but I hated them, they smelt and the place was full of spiders!!! If you can imagine a small green house about 3ft wide and 6ft long with a pointy roof about 6ft at highest with very large pots placed all round the edges. As these pots were never moved, the geraniums were exceedingly large, growing into every corner of the place, the only time anyone went in there – to my knowledge – was to open the window at the top or to water the plants. I couldn’t reach the window so I was often asked to water them, oh! the smell, how I hated it but ............ I now realise that a lot of the things I did was in fact to keep me out of the way so that Mam could get on with the cleaning and to leave them in peace to chat.
Mam and Dad thought the world of Grandad, Dad calling him Pops. He was very caring with both my grandparents, treating them with respect and love. After Dad died Mam told me that he never knew his father and his mother very cruel and beat her children often. My grandparents were really the first parents that my Dad knew so that explained why he cared. I know that he was loved very much and respected by my Grandad, well he must’ve been for them to let him take their one and only daughter to the other side of the world! Grandad played the accordion and I always sat at his feet for this as I held his music sheets.

My Grandad........more

Grandad continued to live in Hall Green and we visited often, which days I do not know now – maybe I only went with Mam during the school holidays. We would spend the whole day there, or so it seemed at the time. We had to catch two buses, the 11 and the 29A (or no 4 (5) as it is now) and I used to love when we got off the number 11 as I would stand on the railings and watch the river with the ducks. The house next door to the river had large stone pillars either side of the gateway and atop of these there were two stone owls with green glass eyes. They used to fascinate me, even intimidate me a little. When I worked at Druckers I spoke to the present owner asking if he still had the owls and explained about them, but he knew nothing .... shame. I now realise that Mam came to Grandad’s to clean and cook him a meal, there wasn’t anything like ‘meals on wheels’ in those days, we were dependant on family and neighbours. Grandad’s neighbours were very good and had known our family almost from when he first took residence there, most moving in after him. He was also very popular, always cheerful and an accomplished musician – the accordion being his favourite instrument. Mam played the piano, I loved to watch her and listen as she played, the piano stood in the front room and I was always allowed to play on it whenever we went to Grandad’s. Grandad was known as a postman and spent a good deal of his working life delivering mail to houses in the Moseley area, they were big houses and very posh so he did well for tips, especially at Christmas – this is all hearsay from my Mother. He was born in Nottingham and his father’s name was Timothy – this I have managed to trace via the web. Timothy died when Grandad was quite young and his mother married again, to Mr Booth (owner of the walking stick [although it looks more like an opera stick!]). Grandad did work on the Manchester Ship Canal at some point, helping dig it out perhaps. When he married my grandmother, so the story goes, he was given a wedding present of a writing box made from an offcut of one of the beams used to support the walls of the canal. I have the box but not any of the glass bottles or pens etc. I don’t know how he met my Grandmother, she lived in Sparkhill, maybe he had become a postman by then.

When I knew him, he was an old man, an active member of the Darby and Joan club which met on a Wednesday afternoon at Hall Green Baptist Church. He used to go away on holiday with them, mostly to Barry Island as I remember, and had some fun times there. As he became older and couldn’t walk, Mam and I used to push him there in his wheelchair – a big cumbersome thing. We would push the wheelchair up along Blythsford Road, cutting through Sandgate Road into Baldwin’s Lane. We then went along to Robin Hood Island and down the Stratford Road to the Baptist Church, quite a way but then again the sun always shone when I was young! When we arrived I was always made a fuss of and the WVS (Women’s Voluntary Service) ladies always found lots of ‘jobs’ for me to do, serving tea, carrying trays, laying tables for lunch, and of course the dreaded washing up – which was never a chore when it was in somebody else’s kitchen. After the meal and the tables had been put away there was nearly always some form of entertainment ending up with a good old sing along. We then had the return journey home usually with a couple of other ladies for much of the time, everyone chattering away.

My Grandad..............

He was short and rotund, always wore a waistcoat over his shirt and laced up boots. He used a silver topped cane, apparently it was his stepfathers, that’s why there is a different name on it and yes! I still have it. Grandad was known as Jack French although his full name was John Richard French and was much loved by everyone he met. He was a postman and owned property on the Isle of Wight at one time. He bought the house in Blythsford Road from new and used to come up to Birmingham to watch it being built ............. yes! I have the deeds for it as well. I am just a hoarder by nature!

Anyhow he used to ride a bike over to Stechford to see us when his wife was alive as she lived in our front room. I don’t know when Nan came, she was just there and I never connected Grandad with her as she was just ‘Nan’ – I never knew her as a person, just someone who lived in the front room, confined to bed and whom the 'District Nurse' used to visit in order to dress Nan’s bedsores. She used tins that contained sticky gauze circles about 2” in diameter; I found a tin many years after she died – in the gas meter cupboard of all places.
Nan appeared one day as we were having our tea; she had white hair in a bun and was dressed in a full length pink nightie. She wandered through to the kitchen pretending to wash her hands and smiling a toothless smile at us. She never made the kitchen as Dad jumped up and guided her back to the front room. I don’t remember her dying or anything to do with the funeral – I have all the bills!! But suddenly we had a beautiful bed settee in the front room, browny green moquette. The back lifted up and the bed was pulled out towards you, ready made just needed straightening, this became my bed in Hall Green.

........... Frieda

She taught me to smoke. She came over on the Friday and stayed until Sunday afternoon, sleeping in my bed with me as Ena had married and left home. She taught me about music, I remember that she introduced me by singing a song by Connie Francis and was astounded that I didn’t know it. She was in advance of her years worldly wise, I was so naive. Anyhow we used to go for walks as one did in those days and one time as we walked into Shirley, she asked me if I would light her cigarette as she couldn’t, she could smoke them but not light them. So I lit them, and she smoked them!!
You have to understand that there were lots of walks and places to go to when we were young. When we lived in Stechford it was nothing for us both to go off after lunch on Sundays, walking to Yardley old Church or to Glebe Farm Park. The only problem we had really was the flashers in the parks, always older, (funny looking men I always thought ) they would call out to you and/or try and sit close to you and then flash. I only saw one actual flash because as soon as I recognised what was happening, I was off ….. far away and if it was in Manor Road Rec then I was straight to my Dad and told him.
There was never much traffic about, mainly push bikes, a few cars and motorbikes. When Freda stayed at mine we would walk into Shirley, through the gullies, across the field and there we were. Where the Powergen Building is on the corner of Haslucks Green Road and Stratford Road was a big field which was a public right of way, there being a stile at each end of it. We often walked along Blythsford road and into The Crescent, through the gulley to Stanton Road, crossed over and into the gulley on the other side which led to the field. Safe and sound we were really, only people we saw were either walking their dogs or other young people like ourselves. On the other side of Haslucks Green Road was another gulley which I believe is still there, although much widened and with streetlamps. This led into Shirley Park itself. It was as we were in The Crescent gulley that I tried to light my first cigarette, by the time we were halfway along the next gulley Freda was smoking it!!! Eventually I started smoking myself as she shared her ciggies with me.

Freda

Freda arrived in our house when I was about seven, she was starting school so my Mam would look after her before and after school and during school holidays. She was a smashing girl, lived with her Mam, Dad and Nan in a house 3 doors away from us. Nana Thompson was old and fixed in her ways, Mrs Thompson was young and very attractive, they both frightened me with their strictness. I was allowed to go round on a Friday night to watch ‘Dragnet’ as they had a TV. There were only two families (apart from the Jenkins at Number 1) who had a TV, the Thompson’s and the Hall’s at the end of the road. Dad used to go to the Halls to watch the boxing but I don’t recall ever having anything to do with them at all, except to say hello when she was out at the front gate. People in those days would often stand at their front gate just waiting … what for I never knew, maybe just to talk to someone. Anyway, Mrs Thompson was really strict and I remember Freda getting the stick just for breaking wind while we were watching tv one night.  Elfrede was Austrian, had met Doug just after the war and had come home with him, living in his mother’s front room. Freda often talked of a Nana Keiner in Austria and an auntie but I didn’t really understand much about it, she was my best friend and a younger sister to me as she lived in my house more than her own. We went to the same school as they were also Catholic. She arrived at my house at 07.30 and sometimes didn’t leave until 1830 at night, my Mother never seemed to mind and I know that I certainly didn’t. Looking back on this time I can understand why, as my own grew up I realised that two children are easier to manage than one, except when they are fighting and boy! did we fight! I have so many memories of my time with this girl, she was the only friend I missed when we moved. She used to come visit us and then they moved to Lea Hall into a flat, I visited them.

Lyndon Road contd............

Next door across the entry to us lived another family with teenagers and youngsters. When I was very young they were called Maclewham or something like. He was old and his wife was quite strict and always frightened me. They had a boy with bright ginger hair called Sammy after his Dad and a daughter my age called Sarah. Didn’t like her she was a bully!! Frightened me she did, she would corner me in the entry and not let me get past, we didn’t use our front door so in the end I would have to walk back down the entry and wait outside of the house until she had gone. She used to take sides with my friend Frieda so I was the odd one out. I lived in fear of that girl. Her Father died and then her mother married again, became Mrs Kearns – which I could pronounce! – and they had a little boy Phillip, he was lovely and even Mrs Kearns became nice and pleasant. In retrospect it must have been a struggle with an elderly sick husband and two young children to look after so I suppose that could account for her attitude while Mr Macklewham was alive. Sam Macklewham’s death didn’t change Sarah’s attitude though and I was very relieved when we left Stechford to go to live in Hall Green. Many years later, when I was about fourteen I heard that Sarah had died from a brain tumour. This had a big effect on me as we were only fourteen and I had not thought that people could die at that age. I may not of liked her, even at times hated her, but would not have wished her death.

The other side of the Macklewhams lived a family called Jenkins, they were a nice family and I think the child nearest my age was a girl called Pauline. We were friends but not close although I am given to understand by my mother that I moved in there when she was in hospital in Dudley Road. They were a normal family, my mother’s best friend I think as she used to go round a lot and Mrs Jenkins used to come round to ours. Me? I played with everyone’s children, the Powers who lived on the other corner, the Carmens who lived opposite and many more that I can't remember.

More thoughts on Lyndon Road .....

At the top of our garden was the garden of another house, now this was a different story. I think that this family was one up from gypsies, I don’t know why but even at a young age I knew that this family was ‘different’. Mrs Oldcroft was short, fat and scruffy and there were lots of kids of all ages. I was friends with one of the youngest, Tosha, she had a proper name but everyone called her Tosha. One day stands out in my memory with regard to Tosha, we must have been about 5 or 6 and I went round one day to call for her. One of her teenage brothers was coming out of the front door as I walked out the path and he said ‘Tosh is just having her tea, you can go in and wait if you like’. So I went in the house and through to the back room and had the shock of my life ….. there was Tosha having her tea, sitting across her Mom’s lap and latched onto the left breast!! I was amazed; I had never seen anything like it! So I sat down and waited till she had finished her ‘tea’ while all around me life carried on, teenagers arguing, little toddlers running round with noses running or nappies hanging half off and all of them in various states of dress, as though nothing different was happening. Maybe it wasn’t for them but it sure was for me! When we came outside I asked her what it tasted like and she said ‘milk of course!’ and then didn’t want to talk about it anymore and I soon forgot about it. I told my Mam and she said that was one of the reasons why she didn’t want me to have anything to do with them, they didn’t do things correctly – what ever that meant.

Initial thoughts on Lyndon Road

As I travelled home on the bus last night and looked out of the window, as I came along Dolphin Lane I thought back to when I was a child and was growing up in Lyndon Road, Stechford. Even at that young age I had privileges not given to some of the other children round about. The people who lived in the first house in our road, a large semi-detached house were called Mr and Mrs Jenkins. There were lots of rooms in this house, the kitchen right at the back with a small dining room off. Through this room was the stairs and two more rooms, the back lounge and the front lounge. The back lounge had French windows so when we played outside we could see a bit of this room and Mrs Jenkins could keep an eye on us. They had a daughter also named Christine and an older boy. I cannot remember his name but he was a teenager and was always in and out of the house. I was allowed to play with Christine on the odd occasion, although only in the back garden. Mrs Jenkins was very house-proud and I was never allowed past the kitchen but once Christine took me into the back lounge where they had a television. Her brother had ‘popped out’ so we were left to our own devices and so we went exploring, only into the back room and the back lounge. I never visited any other part of the house!!!
I was the only child allowed to play at ‘The Jenkins’s’ as it was known whereas none of the other children in the road were allowed. Christine Jenkins was a singular girl, having no other friends that I was aware of, and she was always in charge ‘cos it was her garden. I quite enjoyed playing with her, I used to take my doll and we would play picnic, teddies teaparty etc. One day when I went round to see if she could play, she had the tent up and we played quite nicely for a while and then she decided we would play doctors and nurses. This was ok by me and of course she was the doctor and I was the patient, after all she had the stethoscope!!! It was when she wanted to look up my knickers that I decided I didn’t want to play anymore and quickly ran home. I never told my mother why I came home so quickly and I certainly never went back there again, although my mother said many times that Mrs Jenkins had been asking if I could go play.