Mammy Hannah changed us to the Wesleyan Chapel so we now had to spend all Sunday going to and fro. First morning service then afternoon with long walks in between. We were not allowed to read, listen to the wireless or sit about the house. We didn’t often visit other people anymore, only Grandmother.
Saturday’s Penny seemed to be forgotten and we only went to the picture shows for something special. I always looked forward to the days when the ragman came round shouting out.
“Any old Rags, Jam Jars or Woollens”
I would hurry to the bag where the old woollies were kept, and get the jars from the yard wall. Sometimes he gave a Goldfish and other times he would bring a larger trap than we used to have, and ride the children up and down the street. Children came from all directions when they heard his call.
“Rag and Bones, Rag and Bones!”
He never came on a Monday as the washing lines were full of sheets and clothes, it was more than his life was worth to go down the backstreet through the washing. The coal man would not tip coals that day and neither would the midden men come round on that day. These were so called because they emptied the ash middens and netties (ash closets). The pride of the washing took first place on a Monday.
“It’s high time you were put to work young lady,” were Hannah’s words of greeting me home from school one day.
“Take Dad’s pit clothes out and bang them on the yard wall until all the coal dust is out of them. Polish his helmet and kneepads with boot polish and dubbin his boots.”
I started my tasks before teatime which when it came was an OXO scalded in a mug and bread. The clothes I managed quite well, the helmet and kneepads were a bit of a struggle, but the boots they skidded about on the sheet of brown paper that she had given me to protect the yard from becoming greasy. They were too heavy for me to hold and the dubbin stank something awful. “Was this to be my lot from now on?” I thought. The next week further tasks were added.
Saturday mornings the fire was allowed to go out and I had to Black Lead the fireplace, fire bars and oven door. Whitewash under the fire and polish all the fire irons.
Hannah taught both Ron and I to knit and darn stockings. Ron had to brush the carpets and dust the furniture. Bernard who was now almost fifteen refused point blank to work for her or call her “Mother.” Dad was annoyed about the latter and told him.
“If you can’t call her Mam or Mother then call her nothing at all.”
This was the first time I had seen Dad cross with Bernard, but I suppose poor Dad had had a rough time over the past few years. My eyes filled with tears which I managed not to show. I was very sad to see Bernard my big brother looking so dejected. He was a good lad and had never given any trouble before. From that day he only came into the house when it was necessary, spending a lot of his time in the homes of his best friends and never saying more than he had to.
I thought of the day when Hannah first came, and how nice we all thought she was, but after she married Dad all that changed. How I wished that Mammy Irene was still with us. We were doing our best but nothing we did seemed to please Hannah. Perhaps she was not well I thought; I must try even harder. My school work began to suffer and I always seemed to be late for school.
Many of the children were poorly dressed, the boys more than the girls, most of them seemed to have holes in the elbows of their jackets and jerseys and patched trouser behinds. Boys trousers in those days were bought double seated to make them last longer.
The women worked very hard even though the men had no work to go to. The house was still to clean, food to be got ready and the washing to do. Most of the women took great pride in their work. Doing the front step was a daily job. This entailed scrubbing the step and then rubbing the step stone round the edge making a white band about two inches wide around the step. The paving stones directly in front of the house were given the same treatment and woe betide anyone who walked on any of this before it was dry. Most of the women were boss in the houses and took charge of all and everything, that is if they were fortunate enough to have a husband who didn’t come home drunk and knock them about.
Some of the lads became quite aggressive and formed into gangs. They went around fighting each other and taunting other children, they even picked on a poor backward boy who did nobody any harm. One day when he was being plagued and taunted by these boys he ran up the pit heap, along the high ridge to the end which was very steep and jumped off to his death. This happened the same week as a little friend of mine Molly Levi died of diphtheria. These were the days when death was commonplace, but it was still difficult to accept. This same gang of boys took a younger lad’s cap from him and threw it up onto an electric pylon. He was electrocuted and burned to death trying to retrieve it. Someone came to get my Dad to take him to the hospital with his car. Dad went running over the waste ground to the boy, thinking him still alive wrapped him in the blanket he had brought with him and put him in the car to the sound of Hannah saying
“Don’t get blood on the car seats Albert.”
She always called Dad his proper name Albert, I don’t know why, everyone else called him Jacky. Dad sped off without a word.
The summer seemed long in 1936, but I had very little time to play. My brother Ron was working very hard with his homework as he hoped to go to the Grammar School just like Bernard. One day with my chores all done I was given permission to go out. I called for Eleanor next door and we ran over the waste ground (This waste ground was known as the Duffers and was where the old Colliery had tipped the small coal which was known as Duff. There was no sale for Duff in those days. Forty years later this Duff was excavated, washed, and sold to the Power Stations) to where there was a large square of wood made up from planks just like a raft. We danced and played as we had done many times before. We also dropped pebbles down through the holes in the planks, which were rotten in places. We could not hear much, just a clinking sound which told us there was a hole underneath the boards. We played here for quite a while jumping up and down, a large piece of one of the planks gave way and fell in.
“I can see nothing but dark” said Eleanor.
We continued jumping about until it was time to go home for tea.
“Where have you been?” asked Hannah.
I told her where we had been playing and to my surprise Dad said
“My God wad’yeh say?”
So I told him just where we had been and what we had been doing.
“Cum and show us” he said.
Returning home giving me a good telling off, Dad explained to Hannah that where we had been playing was the top of the old mine shaft.
“Didn’t yer realise that yer could a fallen to yer death”? he continued.
“We always play there Daddy” I replied.
“Well ye’ll gan there ne meh, me lass.”
I found out a few days later that the wooden mine shaft top had been changed to an iron one, and a fence put round it. I guessed that Dad had been to see someone and complained.
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