OUT INTO THE WIDE WORLD

MARKET STORES PETT LEVEL

I left school at 15 because although I would have liked to go on to further education (and always regretted not doing so) it was expected of me to earn a salary so that I could contribute to our household income. I got a job straight away age of 15 at the village store which had an ice cream parlour adjacent which I was allowed to manage.



ME SELLING ICES



I soon learned how to make ice cream, knicker- bocker-glorys, ice cream sodas and many other concoctions and even used to carry a heavy ice box on to the beach and sell ice creams to the sun worshippers.

When I progressed to work in the village shop, rationing was still in force so one of my first lessons was weighing up two ounces of cheese and margarine into little greece-proof paper packets and weighing sugar in pound and two pound blue paper bags. We also sold fresh local vegetables fresh fish and poultry and I soon learnt how to clean and fillet fish, pluck and prepare game and poultry and skin and quarter rabbits and hares

FRYING TONIGHT

The next phase my boss embarked on was building an annex onto the shop and installing a fish and chip fryer with chairs and tables for customers to eat their meal on the premises. In those days we used huge cartons of dripping in the two frying compartments one for fish and one for chips. These had to be changed weekly which was my job and I hated it as it was such a messy chore but I did enjoy the times I was allowed to do the frying and serving up. After a while my Boss who he and his family later became life-long friends started a delivery service of fish and chip orders to out-lying areas which became very popular.

SUNDAY SCHOOL

My working life here ceased in the late fifties when due to the financial climate many businesses were forced to stop trading. I still remained good friends with Jim Flo and the children and spent many Saturday evenings child minding for them. I can remember taking Helen and John to Sunday school at Pett Methodist Chapel every Sunday morning on the bus.

MAUREEN & DAD JIM



Jim and his family immigrated to New Zealand in the sixties to start a new life and I have kept in contact with the family ever since. I was a student nurse when Maureen their youngest was born and I was honoured to be asked by her Mum and Dad to be one of her two God Mothers. Unfortunately I was on duty the day of her christening but her Mother stood proxy for me and from that day to the present we have always been close although parted by thousands of miles.

It was with sadness that within the past few years Flo then Jim passed away but I have many great memories of them. I have had the privilege of visiting Maureen and her family three times in Hawera North Island the last visit being in 2010 when I had the opportunity to visit her and her family again this time with another long suffering friend.

RECALLING MY YOUNG YEARS

Me at the age of 7

I read often now in these modern times about child abuse and the help that is now available via Child Line etc and I think back to myself. Our house was semi detached and next door also had a family of five including 3 children.

The eldest boy who would have been about 14 with me being old enough to remember vividly used to encourage me to perform indecent acts to him of which no one would believe me at the time but will live with me until my demise.

I wonder how many people there are of my age that had such experiences that were not listened to and have never been able to tell anyone.  I sincerely hope that by inserting this small paragraph which although painful to write may help other people reading this memory of my young life to realise that horrific paedophile stories have been happening for a very long time but were swept under the carpet.

Fortunately today’s society in the 21^st century is much more aware of child abuse and there is extensive help and support for people who suffer similar experiences.

My first vehicle a convertible and free of road tax

Whilst I was still young another cousin nearly five years my senior was quite sickly with asthma and his doctor recommended him to have a spell living by the sea, so having a spare bedroom at the time Mother gave John a temporary home and I think I can say his asthma attacks did improve.

John’s Father died suddenly during his young life and being an only child he was rather isolated where he lived.

While he stayed with us I can remember him building a cart on a set of old pram wheels and taking me for rides, it was like having another brother for a time and now I am 76 and he is eighty one we are still quite close.

Off to my weekend job

At the age of thirteen I decided to look for an afterschool and weekend job to supplement our family income and so went to work at a local hotel Owned by a lady called Mrs Pearce. She was very strict and watched ones every move, I had to wait at table wash up piles of dishes and pans, changing beds at weekends. For this I earned one shilling an hour and loved weekends because many of the guests would give me tips but I had to try and receive them out of sight from the Mrs Pierce or she would take them from me for herself! 

I continued this part time work until I started full time employment. When I left her employment she refused to pay me my wages that were due and my Mother had to go and demand them from her in no uncertain words.

CARING

I found myself in the caring profession at the age of 10 when a local group of Junior Red Cross cadets was formed. We all felt very important in our uniforms and were encouraged to help the older people of Pett village.

We had to learn to march and always attended special church services in Pett village. Our Officer decided she needed a secretary and set everyone the task of writing a letter to her about the group. Guess who won? And I began my life- long interest in voluntary work. I can remember one year we had to enter a procession along Hastings sea front. Several of us were dressed up on the back of a lorry and I had to depict an elderly lady being attended to by a cadet.

I was most indignant that even my mother didn’t recognise me in my grey wig, head scarf and long dress?

My Mother was often not well so it was left to me to cope with the general household chores after my sister and brother had left for the forces. I learned basic cooking at an early age so that father always had a hot meal at lunch time if mother was not well enough to cook it. I can remember papering and painting the front room when I was 16 paying for the necessary paper and paint out of my own wages.

In later years I can also recall that I saved up and purchased Mum and Dad’s first Television also a refrigerator and cylinder carpet cleaner. These actions were not unheard of in the late forties early fifties most of my friends acted similarly. I suppose in some way I was trying to compensate my parents with my existence knowing and being told all the time that I was a mistake.

SENIOR SCHOOL

At the age of eleven I went to Rye Secondary Modern School with several of my friends of that age and had to travel there and back daily by school bus this added two hours to our day because with picking up people on the way took an hour each way. The bus left a set starting place quite a walk from my house at 8.00.a.m. arriving back at 5.00.p.m. Because I lived some miles from my school I was given a free bus season ticket by the local authorities.

I did enjoy my school life at Rye much better than my junior school at Pett as there were only two classes there and the ages were very mixed.  The bullying stopped thank goodness when I left Pett and my new fellow students accepted me much more amicably. I think one thing that helped was being required to wear a school uniform which made us all look similarly dressed although of course this caused my Mother much financial worry purchasing it. My new school at Rye was quite big as it had to accommodate children from a large rural area. My form master was called Mr Huxstep and he was maths master for the whole school therefore if we had any spare lessons it was extra maths for his class! I can’t say I was an exceptional pupil good at any one subject but I got average marks and just once the remark on a school report “she will go far”! But how far I ask myself?

We were given the opportunity to learn all the necessary subjects of that era which included Maths, English, Science, Domestic Sciences, History, Geography, Carpentry and sports. My main choice of sport to participate in was Netball and Hockey and having very long legs was quite good at the long jump events,