Interesting Stories and Notes

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 'A Life of Lily'   

CHAPTER 5 

Our Enjoyment

My six brothers and two sisters and I grew up together.   We played a number of games. In one the Chaser would throw an old tin can over their shoulder and say, "Hob, Bob, Be I coming."     The thrower would then chase everyone.  If you were caught you had to take the can and do the chasing.

I used to have a spinning top.  You would wind the string around the top and give it a sharp pull to get it spinning.   There were also whipping tops that you whipped as hard as you could with a string tied to a cane. This kept it spinning.

We also used to play with hoops that you could skip through or roll along. These cost 2 pence.

Another game played by two separate gangs was to line up facing a wall and then each team would jump onto the backs of their team to form a line. The losers were the gang whose line broke down first.

Another game was to tie a piece of rope round a lamppost and swing round and round to make you giddy.  We also enjoyed playing five stones, marbles, dominoes, snakes and ladders and shove halfpenny.

Even on Xmas Day we never got any toys.  We used to hang up our stockings  (they had ladders in them) and in the morning they would contain an orange, a few walnuts and a lump of black coal for luck.   We made our own paper chains, a penny a packet and we used flour and water to stick them together. We made a doll from old paper and rags and put this on top of the Christmas tree, which cost one and sixpence.   We had a good old singsong and 'Knees Up Mother Brown', which I enjoyed. Oh, to be young again!

When school broke up for the summer holidays Mum used to send us for a pennyworth of sherbet.  This would make about 3 bottles of lemonade.   She   would   then   make   some sandwiches, cheese and pickle, or raw onion and off we would go to Battersea Park for the day.  We had to be home by half past four to be cleaned up in time for dinner. After tea we would go to play in the street again.  After a cup of cocoa we would go to bed.

As we became older and were too big to bathe in the tin bath in front of the fire, the three girls were allowed go to the public baths.  There you were given a towel and some soap and went to a cubicle which had a bath in it.  If the water were too hot or cold you would shout at the attendant to put some extra water in from the taps that were outside the cubicle. She was always grumbling, "Some of you are never satisfied."  She then had to clean the bath for the next person.

When I was young I used to walk with my eldest sister to Brompton Cemetery  (Behind Chelsea football ground). We would go down a lot of steps to the vaults and peer at the coffins, some of which had fallen of the shelves and were in a poor state.  (When my grandchildren were young I told them that a dead man winked at me with his evil eye. The grandchildren were very impressed).

At home we also had a crystal wireless set, which we had to listen to in pairs, one with the right and the other with the left earphone.    We all thought that was smashing. Later we rented cable radio for 9d a week. The main cable ran down the street and into our house to a switch on the wall. You had a choice of Home, Light or Luxembourg on the speaker.  This was much cheaper than buying a wireless at the time.   It was much better than the crystal set because we could all listen at the same time.  Eventually we had a small wireless set which was even better.

I remember we had to go to Sunday School twice on Sundays. Also we belonged to the Ragged School Union for the Poor.  They used to take us to Bushy Park for what we called our Fun day. We went by tram or bus, which always made me sick since it was a long ride.

On the old fashioned buses, when you sat upstairs you pulled a mat over your knees especially when it rained as there were no tops on the buses, so you got soaking wet.

We had a great big badge stuck on us and when we arrived we were given a meat pie and a drop of 1emonade.  We had races, games and a great time.

We only got a penny a week pocket money but the eldest got two pence.    When the Salvation Army came to our street we gave them a penny. We thought their band was smashing and we used to sing with them. Great fun.

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