Chapter 7 - Headlong Into Danger, Part 2

Discussion in 'Reading & Writing' started by Maisie Walker, Apr 15, 2018.

  1. Maisie Walker

    Maisie Walker Very Well-Known Member
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    Chapter 7

    Headlong into Danger ......................Part 2

    When I told Jilly we had got a house she sobbed her heart out because she did not want me to leave her.
    I was taking the place of a real mother even though I was only coming up to 22 years old myself.
    Having said that somewhere out in that big wide world her real mother was still alive and had remarried from what I could make out.
    I told Jilly she could come for weekends if her stepmother would let her because the house we were moving to had three bedrooms.
    This consoled her and she was quite happy to help me pack my things.

    When we moved to the house in the next town my hubby had got £50 in a building society that had been put in by his parents before he met me which he drew out to get decorating materials, linoleum and curtains with. We worked hard and made it look quite cosy and I even managed to get a couple of second hand bed frames although we had to buy new mattresses for them. This was in 1950 when fitted carpets and electric cleaners were not heard of for poor folks like us. We were lucky in the fact that I had the lovely big carpet that my old boss had bought me for a wedding present that nearly covered the front room of the house.

    I went back to the shop where I used to get my rations and I called in to see my in-laws while in the village. I was intending to get the ration books altered so that I could go to the "Maypole" or the "Home and Colonial" store in Loughborough because it was getting towards winter time then and I did not want to hang about for buses on winter nights after getting my rations.
    It would be about the third week after moving when I called to see my in-laws and I noticed that "Prince" was looking very thin.
    My mother-in-law said that he had gone off his food after the baby had gone. When my son was born "Prince" was SO protective of him that he would only let me, my hubby and the doctor go any where near him.None of hubby's family came near him when "Prince" was about.

    I asked her if I could take him home with me and she was all for it so was my f-i-l much to my surprise. So I ended up with my rations plus a skinny scruffy dirty white Cairn terrier with a piece of string tied to his collar. He had never had a lead in his life they were NOT a must way back then plus to see a car in that small village would have been extra special. He was that excited to think that he was coming with me he dashed outside and picked up his house brick ready for a walk.
    I had to laugh at the driver of the bus when I asked him how much it would be for the dog because I was taking it to live with me. He said very seriously "I have known dogs to move before but never have I known one to take its own foundations." Meaning the brick. It caused a great deal of laughter in the bus.

    When "Prince" saw our son he was like a young pup dashing about and he soon started to eat well and put some weight on. There was no fancy dog food at that time, the animals had the same food that humans ate and there was not so much wrong with the breeds then like there is now through inter breeding.
    Insurance for your animal was unheard of but we had to pay 7 shillings and 6d a year for a dog licence. Equivalent to about 37.5 pence in today's coinage.
    " Prince" had also accepted the children that used to come round although still a bit wary if anyone got to close to the baby. He did not seem to mind Jilly picking the baby up and playing with him as long as he was watching. I could NEVER fathom out why "Prince" had taken to me or the baby to be honest but he was very protective.

    By the time bonfire night was with us "Prince" had found his way around and knew exactly when to cross the road to go to the wasteland to do his business.

    When the banger's started I asked hubby if he had seen the dog because I knew he did not like fireworks and I was worried about him. We looked for him everywhere but had no luck. By 7-30pm I told hubby that I would take the baby to bed who was by this time just over a year old. I got to the bedroom and I let out one yell. "Prince" had been there during all the banging and he had ripped everything he could get his teeth in to. There were feathers all over the place bits of eiderdown and wallpaper shredded and lino ripped. Even the bars on the cot at the side of our bed had been chewed.
    My hubby had come up to the bedroom when he heard me shout "Oh my God what the hell have you done?" Hubby and myself tried to get "Prince" out from under the bed, he knew he had been naughty. No way was he coming out from under there.
    In our futile attempts to lift the double bed and move it round the room to get the dog out I saw the funny side of the situation and I started to giggle. "Prince" was moving at the same time as us and stayed under the middle of the bed so that no matter where we moved he was still out of reach.

    I was laughing so much in the end the dog came out to see what it was all about wagging his tail as though he had done us a good turn. I was cross with him but not for long. It took me nearly two hours to pick up all the feathers and try to get the room tidy again.
    There were no electric cleaners then for such likes as us.

    We had been in the house for roughly 7 months when one day there was a knock on the door and "Prince " was going bersek to get to the door. It was not a malicious bark, more excited.
    Who should be standing there but Madge and the three children.!!!!!!!!!!!
    "Prince " was greeting the children but avoided the mother.

    Fortunately Cliff had worked the early shift so he too was at home when this happened.
     
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  2. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    Oh my Maisie, what a to do !
    I'd have cried at the sight of all them feathers let alone everything else
     
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  3. Maisie Walker

    Maisie Walker Very Well-Known Member
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    Hi Patsy.
    It was no good getting out of my collar about it. I should have known about his fear of the fireworks.
    We got over it and I had a bit of sewing to do never mind cleaning although hubby helped because it was originally the dog he lived with and he should have remembered how the dog would react to the bangs. "Prince" was a character and I think that is why his naughty ways stayed in my mind. I had never had a dog before him.
     
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  4. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    Have you had a dog since ...............
     
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  5. Maisie Walker

    Maisie Walker Very Well-Known Member
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    Yes Patsy.
    I used to have a Cairn Terrier that kept in touch with Wendy Richard the film star and her dog named Shirley Brahms until Wendy died of cancer. She sent a lovely signed photo of her and her dog but its made out to Gi-Gi my dog.LOL
     
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  6. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    Smashing !
     
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