CHAPTER FIVE

Dad was on one of his trips to West Hartlepool to do some shopping, he was getting short of leather for shoe repairs. He cobbled all of our shoes, also many of our neighbours and friends brought their boots and shoes to be done. I don’t know how my Dad found the time to do this but he did, charging only the price of the leather as no-one had much money for such luxuries as new shoes. The Cobbler over the road sometimes said that Dad was doing him out of business.

It was quite late when Dad came home about eight o’clock, we knew that the shops would have closed long before this, he had never been this late before. He came into the room followed by a lady, young or old we could not tell as her face was covered by a bandage. She was slimly dressed in a long dark green leather coat. Her fair hair was plaited and twisted around her ears just like two large flowers.

“This is Hannah Daddy.” said “She has come to look after us.”

“Hello” she said as she winked at us.

Ron and I were sitting in front of the fire ready for bed, so after greeting Hannah off we went. I found it difficult to go to sleep my mind boggled. Where had she come from? What had happened to her? Had she been in an accident? I was to be told all about her the next day. Apparently Dad had known Hannah’s family long ago, before he met my Mammy. With his pals he had frequently gone to dances in West Hartlepool, and had met Emma, Ruth and Lil who were three of Hannah’s sisters. He had on occasions taken them home and met their mother Mrs. Harriman and also Hannah who always stayed at home. Whilst popping into Atkinson and Shires the butcher’s shop in Musgrave Street on this last shopping trip he met Mrs. Harriman. Being pleased to see him again, she asked him home to tea. On hearing about his home circumstances Hannah who was unmarried with no ties offered to come and keep house for him. Her face was covered with a bandage because when she was only eleven years old a badly managed abscess on her nose had left her with a very bad scar, which she kept covered away from staring eyes.

There were quite a few changes over the next few weeks. Granddad Oliver sold ‘Nell’ as we no longer had need of her, the Tub Trap had been sold long ago when Dad had bought the motor car. I always thought that ‘Nell’ belonged to Daddy as he had always looked after her. The last pig had gone to the slaughterhouse, the young kid had been sold but the nanny was kept for her milk. Hannah turned out to be a good cook, she made excellent bread and wonderful tea-cakes. Every three weeks it was my job to go for the tin of biscuits from Grandma’s shop, the sharp corners of the big square tin made it difficult to carry, but the luxury of having six pounds of assorted cream and chocolate biscuits seemed to be well worth my struggle.

Christmas was fast approaching and at school we were practising for a Christmas Pantomime. It was to be ‘Puss in Boots’.

All of the main characters had been chosen from the older children of our little Infant’s School. The rest were given parts in the various acts put on in between the scenes of the main story. I was with a row of children, all of whom were bigger than me, even those younger who were only five. We had to prance across the stage each holding onto the tabby in front of us. Singing ‘Miaou Miaou’ and that was all. being the smallest of course I was at the end of the line. I had to practise an out of step hitch, this the teacher explained was intended to create a laugh and I must not mind when the audience responded. We were all quite busy making our cat costumes and were delighted to be let off our other lessons.

One Saturday afternoon in November Dad and Hannah came home from town shopping and greeted Ron and I with quite a surprise.

“Your Dad and I have been married today, so you can call me Mammy now.”

That was all she said and went off upstairs to change her dress.

Two weeks later Daddy came home with a smile upon his face.

“Gan out and see what’s on the back seat of the car” he said.

He following us as we hurried out. Ron looked through the car’s back window but I could not see, even on my tip toes.

“What is it Daddy?” I said.

I could just see something move. He opened the door and out bounced a lovely white puppy.

“She’s a wire haired terrier” said Dad.

She was just lovely. He must have known how much I had missed Rex.

Hannah – er – Mammy made a nice cushion and put it into a round basket for Trixie as we had named her. This was put into the long porch that was built over the back door.

“She is too young to be out in the backyard, and Rex’s kennel would be too big for her anyway” Dad said.

Trixie grew very fast but Dad said

“She will not grow very big, so you will not be able to ride her like you did Rex.”

But I did not mind and thought her to be a little treasure.

The day of the school pantomime came and we were all excited during the morning doing our last rehearsal. Teacher came up to me and taking me to one side asked me

“Have you any shoes?”

“Yes Miss” I replied.

“They’re black ankle straps but they are just for Sundays.”

“Do you think you could go home at dinnertime to get them?, I think your boots will look a bit heavy for your kitten suit. I will give you a note to take home.”

Dinnertime came and off I went, over the pit heaps as fast as my legs would carry me. All out of breath I grasped the door handle but it didn’t move. The door was locked, and there was no-one at home. What was I to do? I galloped round to Grandmother’s house, she also was out and the shop was closed. Where was everyone, I thought my lungs would burst as I ran down past the Reading Rooms and along Tank Street back home. Mrs. Athey next door was out too. I knew where the key was kept so I let myself in and bounded up the stairs, grabbed my shoes, relocked the door and sped off back to school just in time for the bell.

The Panto went off very well, at least the parents who were there seemed to enjoy it. I was happy and had quite forgotten what I had done to get my shoes. On the way home I was telling my brother Ron all about it.

“I’ll probably get into trouble, won`t I?”

“No you won`t” he replied.

“But we aren’t allowed to use that key and I’m not to wear my best shoes for school. The key is just for emergencies, but not my emergencies.”

“What have you got there?” Mammy’s firm voice rang out as we got inside.

“My shoes,” I said.

“How dare you?” she raged as she snatched the shoes from me looking at the soles.

“Off you go to bed without any tea!” she ordered as she clouted me over the head with one of the shoes as I went up the stairs.

As I lay half sick with hunger I remembered that in my frenzy at dinner time I had quite forgotten to eat my sandwiches, they were still in my desk at school and Oh how hungry I was! Still I suppose that it was wrong of me, I tried to sleep, but couldn’t. The smell of toasted cheese filled my sniffing nostrils. I tried to think of nice things, the Red Shoes that I got for my third birthday, the fairy on the top of last year’s Christmas tree. It would soon be Christmas again and I thought of Mammy Irene, then I couldn’t think of anymore, I was so hungry I thought I was going to die. I must have eventually fallen asleep for the next thing I remembered was a tap tap on the window. I sat upright to see what it was, I could just make out the shape of a stick bouncing off the window. Dad was not long behind me, his bed being in the same room.

“What’s the de’in man?” Dad shouted

“Oh sorry Jacky, it’s Athey ah want. Ah think ah could de win a new lamp. Ah dropped this’n in Pit Street an now it’s nay good.”

“Aye alreet” Dad said as he shut the window and stumbled back to bed, it was 5 o’ clock.

My hunger was still with me so I crept down the stairs and into the pantry, cut myself a thick slice of bread, took an apple from the string bag which hung on the back of the pantry door. I sat on the bottom stair and enjoyed my feast. I thought of the man out in the cold going round knocking up all the men who had to go to work on the fore shift. This was the usual practice in the coal mining villages. Alarm clocks were not very common in those days and quite expensive, this was a good and sure way to be certain of not sleeping-in for work. Many of the houses in pit villages had a slate on the wall next to the front door, this was used to write on the time to be knocked up. Thus saving the man making out a list. Our house did not have a slate so this more than likely led to the mistake seeing as how his light had gone out he was not able to read the number on the door and he had mistakenly rattled on the wrong window. It was most important to be at work on time if you were a miner, the reason being that the men had a set time allowed to go down the pit shaft in the cage. When this time had elapsed the cages were taken over bringing the coal to the surface. If they arrived after that they were sent back home.

After eating my bread and apple I crept ever so quietly into bed and promptly went off to sleep.

Christmas past and Granddad who was still in the bed place had another stroke, he was very ill and needed all of Grandmother’s attention. She sold the shop, not only for Granddad’s sake but because so many people who were out of work owed her money and she was finding it hard to restock the shop. This led to her having to refuse credit (or `tick’ as it was known in those days) to people who in the past had been some of her best customers. In doing this people were turning against her and calling her an old Skinflint. I suppose they were just hungry people who were fed up with their situation. Grandmother did tell me years later that she should have retired quite well off if the people who owed her money had paid up, but they never did.

The following Sunday Granddad died and was buried next to Mammy Irene.

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