Toronto, August Civic Holiday Monday – 1966 The morning sky heralded the approach of another long hot day in the long hot summer which had gripped Toronto ever since our arrival three weeks before. Already the heat was increasing in the Apartment which had cooled only sufficiently in the hour before dawn to arouse the […]
Our attic was a ghoulish place. We children always begged to go along whenever Mum headed up to the storeroom. If it was a rainy day, perhaps we could persuade her to stay and help us explore a while. The adventure started on the upstairs landing where the attic stairs were hidden behind a door […]
The arrival of the Circus was one of the highpoints of our Summer! Rumours as to the possible date circulated among us kids for weeks before at long last somebody spied the colourful notice tacked up on the Town Noticeboard outside the Town Crier’s cottage! Within a half hour, it seemed almost everyone knew all […]
It is strange how memories are built of small and infrequent events long after day to day happenings have faded into oblivion. Perhaps our memory sees no need to store the mundane daily routine but special events are red letter days which must be remembered in all their glorious detail. The return of Lyons Ice […]
Accompanying Mum on her Friday afternoon shop in Wenlock was a big treat! This was very much a social outing calling for clean dresses and freshly braided hair! Mother herself wore her ‘best’ clothes with her favourite hat and handbag. She even put on a dab of powder and smear of lipstick! Primarily a social […]
When I was a child, Much Wenlock was a very self-sufficient little town! As the centre of Borough Affairs, we ‘Wenlockians’ regarded our town as the ‘Capital’ of our area! Wenlock was ‘town’ for most of the surrounding farms and villages as it had been for centuries. The Farmers Market on Smithfield was a busy […]
In 1944 or 1945 some of the WI ladies were determined to make themselves some warm fur backed gloves. Since each glove would require one rabbit skin, it was decided to start the project when there would be plenty of skins available at the same time. By some miracle, they had managed to obtain some […]
When I first graduated as a fully qualified teacher, I was thrilled to obtain employment in a small village school within travelling distance from my home. A traditional Church of England establishment of the late Victorian Era, the school consisted of two rooms each supplied with its own entrance via a small cloakroom where reposed […]
May 1901 Susannah felt so deliciously happy! As she fed baby Agnes in the early dawn light, dreams of their future life danced through her mind. “Today is the beginning of our new life! Tomorrow I will be with Joseph for the first time in almost two months and we shall never be apart again!” […]
This blackened beam above the cavernous fireplace in my grandfather’s home was instrumental in attracting me to letters and words from a very early age. As Granddad and Uncle George helped me decipher the names and dates, I learned so much of our family’s ‘recent’ history. Granddad was born in 1861 and had known every […]