The Move. As the 1950s were coming to a close and we had the 1960s to look forward to we had applied to the council for a council house because we had heard rumours that the company that owned the house we occupied was thinking of closing so we knew the houses would be sold off too in time. Life was finally getting a bit better for us moneywise with me earning as well as hubby and we were saving as much as we could because in time we wanted to own our own place and Cliff's dream was to own a car. Early in 1960 we heard that we had been allocated a maisonette by the council. They were newly built and were houses built on top of bedsitters.We had to go up two flights of stairs to get to our front door and when the door opened it led into a small passage with a large lounge one side and the kitchen overlooking the big park on the other side. Stairs led up to two bedrooms and the bathroom plus a loft. I was overjoyed because I had never had a bathroom and the visions I had of lying soaking in the bath was a visual luxury in itself before it happened. Just before we moved to the maisonette we had my parents come and stay for a week in the tied house because we knew once we got into the new place we would have no spare bedroom. As they got older they had calmed down a lot and in their own peculiar way I knew that they thought a lot of each other. During that week while they were with us I learnt a bit more about my ancestors although even my parents did not know a lot themselves and there were still many gaps that they never did find out about. From that time I think I got this idea of passing on anything that had happened in my own life for any future relatives to peruse. I was intrigued when talking to my mother and her telling me that she had had an elder sister and brother and her mother originated from Romany stock and they came from Ireland. Her sister got married to a chap who was NOT English or Irish and she had twin daughters. As time went on my mothers sister's husband emigrated to America and Mums sister and twin daughters were to follow. Unfortunately the ship they sailed on was the Titanic and we all know what happened when on its maiden voyage it hit an iceberg in 1912, They were third class passengers and sadly went down with the ship. In 1914 as we all know WW1started and my mothers brother who was already in the army got killed in Flanders a month after WW1 started. I found all this fascinating and very often wondered if my mothers attitude to life when younger was anything to do with what happened to her family............................................ Anyway to get back to the new place we were going to. There were 6 maisonettes and six bedsitters in each block with three single bedroomed flats at the end built on top of each other. We had a super view of the park where many folks took their children to play ball. It was nice to put a chair outside the front door in the summer to see the children playing across the park. We got to know the neighbours and it was very pleasant living there to start off with plus being handy with being able to walk to the shops or have a browse round the stalls that came twice a week to sell their wares in the market. The bedsitters below housed mainly elderly folk. The only thing that bothered me was IF there was a fire it would be rather worrying because of having to get down so many stairs. Having said that there had been alarms set up for anyone to summon help if needed. With it being a brand new block of maisonettes it was also new tenants. As time went on the tenants got to know each other and life seemed to be on an even keel. Cliff and I were quite happy with this and they all seemed a decent bunch of folk. This lasted for a few years. The downside to it was we were not allowed pets of any description which looking at it logically was quite sensible. My son by this time was engrossed in electronics and was either in his bedroom taking TVs or radios to pieces apart from rebuilding them. He had quite a few tubes out of conked out TVs round the bedroom that still had life in them. I remember one day when Barry was about 14 and his head teacher came knocking on my door asking me if he was in. I got rather fired up and I asked the head teacher what Barry had done wrong to warrent a visit from him. The chap looked at me daft and said he "He has not done anything wrong Mrs Walker I just wondered if he could put a tube in my TV because mine has conked out and there is a special programme I would like to watch tonight and he is a wizard at that sort of thing and with the shops being shut I thought of Barry." To say I was dumbfounded would be putting it mild. It makes Cliff and I sound like bad parents but neither of us knew how advanced our own son was in electronics. This could be put down to the fact that he spent SO much of his time in his bedroom. He did go with the teacher and took one of the tubes out of the bedroom to put it in for him because the teacher had a car who took him to his home and brought him back when he had done it. He is still electronics mad and writes programmes for youngsters to learn now. To me it looks like a load of stars on a dark blue background. He is definitely NOT on this planet when on the computer sorting that out. Life settled down into a routine and as I was spending so much time on my own with Cliff being on shift work I used to buy baby dolls off the market and knit sets for them to go to childrens or animal charities to be raffled off to help with any proceeds. Having a TV helped although it was still only black and white at that time. I could knit and watch the programmes of that era which to me was a luxury. A couple of photos below of the dolls that I knitted sets for and passed on to local raffles. Cliff and I made up for it at the weekends though with other couples we knew because we used to go to various clubs around the Midlands that had live dance bands playing so that we could dance the night away. The Miners Welfare was a good place to go to and they were a great crowd.
Ah, the dolls are so cute It was great to learn something of your family history, I wish I'd asked more, especially to my Nan