Salmon Fishing in theYemen - not me ..... the film!

Why oh! Why?  

When there are a variety of colours in a flower (as in Auricula) do I only get purple and khaki?

Ventured out into the pouring rain yesterday to go to the pictures …… now there's another thing ……… why, when it's pouring down with rain, does the bus come early,  be driven by a driver who will not stop to pick you up even though you are flagging him down, and he knows there's not another bus for half an hour!!! OOH! His name was mud!!!

We spent a good couple of hours watching 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen', after everyone had found their seats, caught up with the gossip, managed to avoid the adverts, disturbed those who just love adverts!!  The film was just as I expected; gentle, funny, sad, handsome lead men and bonus views of Scotland.  The contrast between the two countries was vivid and encouraged you to give full marks to the Sheikh's idea.  One to watch again, when it comes on the telly.

 Back to the memories:

We moved to Hall Green in January 1957, so that Mam and Dad could look after Grandad easier.  It was all strange to me, although I had visited Grandad often and knew his house, it was very strange to actually LIVE there, so quiet.  It was very difficult at first; as it was a quiet road and we were used to having the railway close by. 

There was no local park, our nearest ones being Shirley Park or Trittiford Mill; both of which were half an hour’s walk away.  The Road was a long straight road and most of the people that lived there had brought up a family and were now Grandparents.  Most of the children were the same age as Ena & Tony, but just by where we lived there were a half dozen families with school age children.  A few weeks later and I could sleep at night in the quietness, at least I slept with Ena so it wasn’t too bad.

We lived in the middle part of the road while the older people lived down the other end to the left – going up the numbers - and the younger families lived up the ‘posh’ end as I always thought of it.  It wasn’t posh ……. They were semi-detached houses same as us but had three bedrooms and a garage.

Next door to us  - going up the numbers - lived a big family – Father was a painter/decorator and they had six children.  The eldest two were the same ages as Ena and Tony, then a boy, and then a girl my age, actually one year younger and then a younger sister and brother.  Veronica was the same age as me and very pretty, or so I thought – she had long curling hair and was quite slim, even at that young age I was more solidly built.  Ronny and I became friends, as after a while I did with the children in the road.  

As Mam & Dad had lived there during and after the war, the eldest two – one of whom was called Charlie (or Wagger – why? I don’t know and it left me confused as to what to call him!) were Ena & Tony's friends.  I was a baby when we left to live in Stechford so we were known and accepted, although everyone called me 'Ena' as I was 11, the same age as Ena when she left and both of us being dark etc. etc. 

The eldest girl was married to an airman and lived out at Coughton, they had a daughter Sandra and, after we moved, she had twin girls followed by a boy much later on.  I have to tell you about Sandra because she will figure in a later story. 

Veronica and I became firm friends but she could be very spiteful and liked things her way, I think that because she was so pretty she had her own way in lots of things, especially as she had two older siblings, one still at home.  Anyway we were friends, and she was friends with Thelma across the way, so I became friends with her as well.  Ronny and me could go into one another’s houses but we weren’t allowed in Thelma’s – don’t know why – and we often spent time in the garden or looking after her niece Sandra. 

One day when I went round to Ronny's, she was looking after Sandra and suggested we fed her some milk with lemon juice in; so we mixed it up and then she made Sandra drink this.  That poor child’s face and every time she chucked the bottle away Ronny made her have some more – ugh!  Just the thought of that sour, curdled milk!

We had a washing competition one summer – I had made some clothes for our dolls, a blue and white spotted dress in particular.  My Mam used Oxydol and her Mam used Persil so we washed our dresses in our Mam’s powders and hung them out to dry.  Needless to say ….. her Mam’s powder washed whiter!!!

Dad gave us a bit of garden at the bottom down by his shed - right down the bottom there ....... oh dear!  you can't see it ............ but it is there! -  and we planted seeds there, cress and lettuce.  When they came through we had a picnic with our dolls – some of the lettuce, nasturtium leaves, some of the windfall apples from the Mr Wilkes garden who owned the corner shop on

Skelcher/Sandyhill Road

and some of the meat offcuts from the Deli.  This shop was a grocer’s up at the Baldwin (local shopping centre) but had a cooked meats counter, and when the meat was sliced for customers there was always bits falling into a tray.  These were bagged up periodically and either given to the local children or put to one side for cats.  So they became part of the picnic, didn’t matter whether it was corned beef, ham, tongue or whatever – we used it!

Mam didn’t use this shop much as she always had an order from Wrensons just like she had in Stechford.  I took the book up and paid the bill and then waited while they made up the order which I carried back home.  I was SOOOO pleased when Dad bought Mam a basket on wheels for one of their wedding anniversaries!!