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.