T'was the night before Christmas

There's nothing like a real tree!
Here's our effort for this year, and despite the bare patch half way up the trunk, where the branches are missing, and the fact that the truck is not straight (compensated neatly by our unique sloping floor as discussed in the previous post) it looks lovely. The presents are stacked under it and the room is lit by candlelight.
We wish everyone a very happy Christmas, and we will be thinking of you as we open the presents you have all sent tomorrow morning

Of Sint, suprises and chocolate fountains!

In Holland it is, of course, known that Sint comes on 5th December, but I do not apologise for this lateness of the post - there are reasons!
We had our first family sint party this year, After 20 odd years here I felt we could finally do the occasion justice, and invited my mother and father as well as my sister, husband and new daughter Sascha to celebrate with us. I wanted them to experience a true Sint festival, and there were two extra reasons for the family gathering. Mam's birthday is on December 4, and its a special event to be able to celebrate it properly, also Mam and Dad would have the opportunity to meet their new granddaughter, as Sascha's passport has still not come through and she cannot travel to the UK.
So how did it all go?
We had a lovely time!

Mam and Dad were delayed 10 hours by snow at Newcastle Airport and did not really arrive in time for Mam's birthday meal, but their taxi drew up as we finished eating, which meant we were all able to kiss and cundle and introduce Sascha, before they were fed and then we all had a lovely piece of birthday cake (with candles of course) and Mam got all her presents.
We took them round to their appartment, and they were able to recover from the journey overnight.

Next morning Jolanda went off early to school, because Sint was coming! Its always a big event at this school, and I watch it from my house with amazement are he arrives each year in a different form of transport.

Over the years he's arrived in boats, vintage cars, coach and horses, Harley Davidson motor bike - you name it he's done it, so I could not think how he would get there this year. We got a clue when I saw some balloons rising above the garden wall further along the street, and yes, this year he came in a "hoog werker"! (what is the name of one of thise things in English?)
Once he came over the wall, and walked into the school, that was our excitment done until our party in the evening, so we had a restful sort of day, finishing off the shopping and sorting out the house.
When Jolanda was home, the real business of the day started! We had our presents ready and hidden in their suprise parcels, and we made an extra parcel for Sascha of an enormous pesent with a bow and balloons, which had a smaller and still smaller present inside (russian doll style!).
We set up the present table, and put each present under a black bin liner so no one could guess before we started who had what.
It was round about this time that Man and Dad realised that they had not grasped the concept of Sint, and started to feel very embarrassed!
No matter, we carried on, and had a lovely night! there are no real food rules for Sint, which always throws me, so I decided to do a dutch style buffet, and brought out the new chocolate fountain as a suprise! I am getting the hang of getting the chocolate flowing, however, in our unique sloping floored living room (our 200 year old house built on bogland has settled comfortably over time!) the chocolate fountain resembles a chocolate waterfall.

The strategy is to stand downhill of the chocolate, and make sure there are no small children under your arm, as you reach out with a marchmallow or strawberry, as there is a tendency for the chocolate to drop onto their hair!
After that, we got down to the present part of the night, and everyone was really happy with their suprises, poems, and presents! All in all a prefect evening, with loads of love and laughter.

And the reason for the lateness of the post? most of the photos were on Penny's camera, and she mislaid her handbag on the way home to Berlin. She has it back now, but I still have very few photos, and I may add more later!

Jolanda rides again!

My sister-in-law has beaten me to it again by publishing videos of both Molly and Katie skating this weekend! I am totally ashamed that I have not reported Jolanda's triumph two weeks ago at the dressage competition!

She was entered at the L level for the first time, and we were really relaxed about it until the friday lesson, when we found out she would be the only entrant not wearing official concourse clothing!

After a family conference and a review of which presents she had on her Sint list (more about Sint soon) we decided to go out on Saturday morning and get the white jodphurs and white gloves, and she would wear her black body warmer. I rang the local shop (Evenboer ruitersports in Broek in waterland) and they confirmed they had the things we wanted, so we dashed over.

Once there we were captive as the two ladies of the shop produced not only the things we asked for but also a gorgeous jacket (washable) and the white stock and even a hairnet!

Of course once Jolanda put everything on, she looked a million dollars, so we parents (suckers) bought the lot!

Jolanda was thrilled and spent the afternoon polishing her boots and chaps, and getting everything ready.

We got to the stables in good time, but realised we had forgotten the white saddle blanket, so dad went back for that whilst Jolanda and two other girls got Sjakie ready. The only problem was that everyone had different ideas over how to plait his mane, and I could see it turning into a big problem when another mother descended and acted as a sort of horse hairdresser, and turned him out with a fetching "hengsten vlecht", just as John arrived back with the saddle blanket.

Within a few minutes it was Jolandas turn to ride, and she went in happy and confident and produced a beautiful proef. The L is very advanced for an 11 year old, as there is a lot of tempo changes, as well as two "wijk" moments where the horse moves forwards and sideways, crossing the front legs over. (I think this is called a half pass in English).

There are no videos from us (camera not working) but also no photos of the proef itself as I thought the flash could spook the pony; he is a bit flighty.

We had to wait for all the others to ride before the results were out, so we parents settled into the cantine with tea and cake, whilst the kids rushed around in the mud, sleet and snow outside! Within minutes every pair of white jodphurs was spattered with mud and horse whatever.

At the end they announced the winners, and to our surprise and, naturally pride, Jolanda was 2nd, above some much older girls, and only a few points away from the winner!

Go Girl!

Truth or Lies - family history in the flesh

Its taken some time to sort out my grandfathers autobiography, which he wrote in the early seventies, not long before his death. Its a collection of memories which he wrote by hand - I remember him sitting in his wheelchair in the living room of his bungalow in Seaton sluice, Northumberland, filling an excercise book with notes.
Not long after he finished, his daughter, Joan, typed up the notes, but I never saw the finished work, and it was only when I got the parcel a few weeks ago that I read them for the first time.
I promised to publish the memoirs here, but then had a sort of block, as it all seemed too grim, he was a butcher after all, and he spent his life killing things.
I had a moment of madness when I thought about rewriting them, giving a cottagey, cosy glow to his life, and taking away the bitterness by adding a soft focus, sepia tint to the words.
But it would not be true, so I've simply retyped them, and added photos to the text.
You can read his story here.

The "Oma Fiets" Craze

She been pestering us for a "big" bike for ages, and we felt that when she got her brace fitted at the beginning of September, a "Big" bike would be a good incentive to view the process positively!
But I did not realise the latest craze is for these traditional designs. Of course Dad insisted on the added features of hand brakes (instead of pedalling backwards, like in the olden days, remember?) and gears. Although why gears are necessary on flat dutch roads escapes me!
The additional features raised the already high price of the bike to something approaching the cost of my first car, but what the heck, she's our only child!
And you've got to admit its a beauty - trendy matt purple paintwork, and rubber baggage strap on the baggage rack, as well as a painted canvas chain guard. All the features are there - but boy is it big!

its too big for me, but I'm assuming she will grow into it, and the predictions are that she will be a head taller than me by the time she is sixteen! And she rides it beautifully, doesn't she. Doesn't she?

Was that a wobble? nah!

Weekend in Drenthe

I promised to post pixs, so here they are - very late I know, but we've been so busy this is the first weekend I've had a moment to "effe computeren" as the Dutch say. We went to Drenthe because the tourist blurb talked about the "beautiful nature" of the area - does this look natural to you?

In fact, green, open and fresh as it is, Drenthe looks much the same as the rest of rural Holland. However, if you have lived here as long as we have, you begin to see subtle differences in the flatness. We feel a bit like the Inuits, who reportedly have 150 adjectives for snow, in that we can describe Drenthes flatness as very slightly undulating!

The area has been inhabited since prehistory, and we went to the Hunnebedden centrum. Here's Jolanda on top of a neolithic burial site!

And finally to show that we do sometimes spend time together, here is a rare picture (slightly out of focus, I know) of me and John!

A really nasty Ecard!

Ever since 2001, I have made positive efforts to enjoy my birthday even though the majority of the western world are remembering the terrorist attacks on America at the same time. Well, as I always say, It was my birth date before those fanatics chose that day.
I keep the day itself low key, but always try to do something special for myself the day after.
This year was no different, so September 11 was a normal working day, and I downloaded my email in the evening, before we went away for a lovely family weekend the next day.
One of my emails was message from a greeting card company, announcing there was an Ecard for me. As several of my friends use ecards I tried to open it, and even overrode the antivirus warning that popped up - what an idiot! This was no birthday card!
My computer was immediately infected by the win antispyware 2008 virus!
Why do these bxxxxxds do this?
Luckily for me, and unknown to the joker who thought it would be a great idea to trash my computer, my techie husband spends his life fighting this sort of virus attack!
It took him more than a hour, but he hit it with all the anti malware programs in his arsenal, and seeing as it was my birthday, he did not charge me the 90 euro fee which is his normal rate, bless him!
Now I have my computer back in working order, I will be posting pix from our weekend away soon.
So sucks to you - win antispyware 2008!!!!!

Enjoy this story, by my great uncle Albert!

This photo is of Murton school football team in 1915. Albert is back row second from right. he and his four brothers were all great sportsmen, I hope to be able to tell you more about them in the next few posts, but this story I found written by him many years ago stands on its own - I have not edited his words

"Caseys Court” By J A Thompson

Eddie was the oldest and what he said generally went so when one day he said “lets make a tennis court” we all said “right, lets”
That was how great decisions were made in those days, no question of “how” or “where” or “what”. We just said “lets go” and up we went to the pasture fields to pick a site.
Now there were two fields which father rented for grazing and hay making which were a godsend to us lads. We had football, cricket, racing foot and horse. We used to mount the cart horses and once a genuine race horse was grazing there, “Prince Rupert” or something he was called, and he got so fat the cart horses could beat him.
Also we had many a pitched battle with gangs from the neighbouring villages using sun-dried horse droppings for missiles, and some not so dry.
Providing a site for a tennis court was no great burden on these fields and it certainly would improve the tone of the place.
We picked a site on a right angle corner where the hedges would give shelter on two sides and measured up and found a considerable slope which would have to be levelled up – Snag no. 1.
Eddie calculated (he had been to evening classes at Rutherford College) that it would take about 25 tons of earth to level the site. He was about 100 tons wrong, but that neither here nor there.
Remember we had no money so this was a major problem and we immediately went into a “huddle”. A solution eventually emerged. We would ask the council men to dump their loads of ashes on the site! (This was in the days of the ash pits). One of us suggested charging the council 6d a load for the privilege of depositing it, but this suggestion was squashed.
The council men agreed and it took approximately 180 loads to level up. (we had cut and stacked the turf at the side)
After much hard work and plenty scoff from the local Adam the gardener” who said grass would never grow on those ashes we got it levelled and returfed. Did he have to eat his words.
We made a roller by filling a gas engine cooling tank with concrete. Dad bought us a second hand mower, nets and fencing with our pocket money which we had been saving up while the court was in the process of construction. The whole lot amounting to shillings only.
Then came the day for the first play.
What a riot of colours – two of us in butchers blue coats, one in grocers white and one in engineers overalls all splashed with khaki due to two cows having broken through the fence the night before leaving things rather untidy.
We had one glorious day of exhausting tennis and then the weather took a hand.
You see we would roll, cut, and mark the court for playing one night, then it would rain for a couple of days and we had all this to do again before we could play, and did that grass grow!
Altogether I remember we had to work about 2 hours for every hour of tennis we got for we had one of the wettest summers there had been for years.
Now that tennis court is still there and if anyone has a fancy they could rent ot very cheaply. All it needs is fencing, rolling, cutting; marking, cutting; marking, cutting; and marking!

Its been over three weeks!

What Have I Been Doing!
I can't believe its been so long since I wrote anything here!
There has been a lot going on, and I've been busy with coaching matters, teaching matters (that's a laugh - me a teacher!) and family matters but it really is time to blog now.
I've had sessions with two new clients, and we had another Open Day at Het Anker . My first session as Native speaking English Teaching Assistant at the Middlebaar School in Volendam went fine, although many of the twelve year olds in the class were taller than me. The exam invigilation I do at the British Council in Amsterdam has started up again, so I get paid to sit and have quality reading time, too!
Jolanda's first weeks back at her school are going well. John's business is very busy, and I've been busy with that, too.

I've also received a massive amount of information relating to our family history in the last couple of weeks, and its really tempting to do nothing but sort through that!

This handsome young man is my granddad Thompson. I finally have a copy of his memoirs. I remember him writing them when I was little, but never read them until last week. I'm hoping to post exerpts here over the next few weeks, for those of you who are interested!

Happy Birthday Bev!

I've done it again!

Even though I was in England with my sister in law Bev last week, and I knew her birthday was coming up, I forgot to get the card and present in time!

I do it every time!

So Bev, this message is for you.

Have a great Birthday!

and in case there is no one organising your birthday cake, here are a few ideas from Cadburys:

American Chocolate fudge cake

Magic Flake Cake

And not a cake but a great flowerpot dessert from pioneer woman

Have a great birthday, and a wonderful few days with your family! All our love from Holland!

England, and so on!

We made a last minute dash to England on the ferry from Ijmuiden to Newcastle in the last week of Jolandas school holidays.
We visited "between showers" and I was glad to get down to Tynemouth Long Sands for a sunny interlude with all the cousins, as well as "Oma", "Opa", and my sister in law Bev. Bev has already beaten me to the post, with her blog about our trip to Alnwick Gardens - her pics are really good!


Anyway, we got Opa to direct the construction of the Sandcastle project, and all went well untill Katie was caught by a freak wave and got soaked. So we went off to wet 'n wild for the afternoon!
It was a great visit, and Jolanda had a chance to prepare her latest dessert creation during a rainy interlude. We have decided that strawberries in England are not as attractive as Dutch ones, so here is a picture of a dessert she prepared earlier!



The cocktail also pictured is not a tequila sunrise, as theres no alcohol, but as she created that too perhaps it should be called "Jolanda's Sunrise"!

Adventure forest!

My resident technical wizard finally had time to download the photos from my telephone, so I can now bring you exclusive shots of the Hindess family in action on the zip lines and high wires of the adventure forest at Mont Royal!

Here's Jolanda giving me a wave!

Here she is hanging in mid air!

Here is John hanging from the top of the photo!

Heres John on a 75 meter long zip wire, which dropped 40 meters! Jolanda did this too, but she was going so fast I could not get a shot!

The quality is not so good, but it gives you some idea of the day - which we all enjoyed very much!

From Russia with love

You know about my new niece, Aleksandra. Amazingly I also just got news from my New Zealand friends Rob and Jan that their adoption of Valerii has been finalised and they have finally become parents. This is one of the last pictures of Valerii taken before he left the orphanage in Irkutsk. Irkutsk is in Eastern Russia, Siberia. Aleksandra's orphanage was in Stavropol, in the west of Russia.

The two orphanages are at different ends of Russia, but compare the leaf motif on the chairs in sascha's picture to the wall mural in this photo of Valerii!

Even though these two children lived at different ends of Russia, their lives were similar. Now as adopted children, Aleksandra will grow up in Germany, and Valerii will grow up in New Zealand. They will be worlds apart, but both are now surrounded by love, and part of a real family for the first time in their lives.

All our love to both the Owens and the de Voers.

Holiday on the Mosel!

We've just come back from a fantastic holiday, this photo sums up what we did, which was see as much german wildlife as possible whilst staying in a great holiday villa at Mont Royal on the hills above Krov.

This was the view from our villa

And this was the view from our villa early in the morning at the beginning of a hot day

There is lots to do in the area, we took a day to visit Idar-Oberstein and see how the local semi precious stones were worked and polished using water mills. We wanted to go to the mine itself, and followed a path up a steep, wooded, mountainside for too long - feeling a bit like the dwarfs in Snow White. But we seemed to be moving closer to a hunting area, and as the rifle shots got louder and closer together, and the forest got denser, we turned round and went back. We'll do the mine another day!

But the main thing we did was visit the wild animal park at Daun and the wolf and eagle park at Kasselburg. There are lots more photos to see here.

We spent a day in an adventure forest, too, but I forgot the camera, and took photos on my mobile phone - If I can download them I'll post again later in the week. There were some good shots of Jolanda and John on high wires 40 meters up - I had to stay on the ground to take the photos of course!

We went to some great restaurants, Marikas Stuebchen served 400gram steaks and 300 gram schitzels!

And wine from their own vineyards!

After eating there we felt a bit like this!

getting paid to write!

I should not be blogging today, I have an assignment deadline!

I've been looking for freelance work for a few months now, and its been a steep learning curve. I'm registered on several internet sites as a freelance writer: They all work in a similar fashion; there are project providers, and service providers. A project is posted, and service providers are allowed to bid for the project. If your bid is accepted and you are awarded the work, you pay the site from the fee you receive at the end of the project.

There are masses of jobs, and loads of bidders; Its a global market and it is not easy pitching your bid at a level that beats writers in other parts of the world who are happy work for a few USD per article.

I was amazed that I got my latest bid accepted, but I'm now in the middle of writing a mini guide on getting out of debt! Its aimed at the UK market so maybe I have an advantage.

That is exciting enough, but today I finally heard from Expatica that my article has been published on their site - with a link to my (other) blog so that's really great too. Heres the link -

http://www.expatica.com/nl/entertainment/whats_on/Summer-fun-with-kids-in-the-Netherlands.html

I sometimes cannot believe that I actually write and get paid for it. Although I'm still in the "starving in a garret" category of writers!

Welcome to Aleksandra

We've waited for so long for this moment, our newest family member, Aleksandra (Saschie - I think thats spelled correctly).

Penny and Detmar brought her home this weekend from Russia and this is our first photo of her since she was adopted officially.

We wish you lots of love and happiness in Berlin, Saschie!

Carmen in Monnickendam

On saturday night my neighbour invited me to the Opera!

An open air performance of highlights from "Carmen", no less. Now I'm not an opera buff, but I did learn to play "Toreador" on the piano when I was a kid, like everyone else doing piano lessens at the time, so I said yes.

The Open Air bit was also an attraction, and if you brought your own folding chair, there was a reduced price. I suppose I had better explain further.

This was not Glyndborne, or the Prinsengracht Concerts; this was Monnickendam's equivalent - a klapstoelen concert!

So we trotted along at ten to eight with our stools under our arm, and a fleecy sweater for when the sun went down, and arrived at the "Beesten Markt" literally two streets from our houses.

It was a lovely evening, and we were treated to some very good singing from both the soloists and the Operakoor themselves.

"Chapeaux" as they say in Netherland.

And we were home before eleven! I'll have to check the agenda for their next performance.

www.monnickendamsoperakoor.nl/agenda/Agenda.html

Molly's Tale Chapter 12 - becoming a Justice of the Peace

Molly writes:

“When the war was over we got a good NEW car.”

But a lot more than that happened. Badens father, George, had been a Justice of the Peace in the years 1930 to 1933. At this time all county Benches in England and Wales included at least one women magistrate, but Borough Benches were generally all male. There was a move to appoint more women to the Bench, and towards the end of the war Molly had been approached to become a Justice of the Peace for New York.

Molly really did not feel she had the time, but once war ended, and she found out another woman she knew, Mrs Ramshaw, was going to accept the position for Percy Main, she agreed and was appointed Justice of the Peace on 31 January 1946. She served until she resigned on November 11, 1970. This would have been around the time that Baden became very ill, and started to required nursing at home.

Becoming a JP meant she was asked to join the Committee of the Lady Mayoress along with Mrs Ramshaw, and they became quite good friends for many years.

In 1949 just after the National Health Service was launched she was asked to start up a Baby Clinic in the YMCA at New York. Each Thursday afternoon, mothers brought in their babies to be weighed and examined by a qualified Nurse. Molly assisted the Nurse and sold formula baby milk. On opening day the Welfare Doctor who was in charge was very sceptical and shrugged his shoulders saying “I give it a month”. However, there was great demand from mothers wanting advice and reassurance from the nurse and the clinic ran for years. Molly was involved until 1955.

That is the end of Molly’s memoirs, I have no more notes on her later life, however, there are many family members alive today who still remember her and can fill in information on parts of her later life. Meg listed for me some of her achievements in later years:

In 1953 Molly was Captain of the Ladies section of Tynemouth golf club
In 1954 she and Baden started to keep bees.
In 1956 she founded the TG Collingwood Guild, which met at St Aidens church in Moorhouses, North Shields.
In 1958 Baden and Molly retired from the butchers business and moved to the bungalow at 1, Simonside, Old Hartley. This was the year they went with the Bee Keepers Association to Rome and met the Pope.
In 1960 Molly started fund raising for ARC.
In 1980 as she became less mobile she began to crochet cake frills to sell as a fundraising item for ARC and then in 1984 for the Lifeboats Association.
In 1989 she decided to give up her driving licence due to increasing disability. By October 1989 she had made and sold 117 cake frills.

I remember her as strong, and determined, invincible, even when she was nearing the end of her life, but until I read her story in her own words, I did not realise how far she had come from her childhood at the beginning of the last century. Its been a privilege to write these chapters, I hope you enjoy reading them.

Molly's Tale Chapter 11 - Molly's charity work and war effort

Molly’s car was in demand, and around 1936 she was asked to join the Ladies Sewing club. The club made babies layettes, operation stockings and maternity gowns for the Princess Mary maternity Hospital in Newcastle. Molly would go once a month to the hospital with Aunty Mart, Uncle Peters wife (a Londoner) Dad Elliott’s half brother. (I cannot find any reference to Uncle Peter in the family tree so I am not sure if this was Martha Todds husband. Martha Todd was Molly’s fathers half sister). The two of them collected bundles of fabric to make up into baby clothes, or to hem batches of two dozen napkins. Molly kept the sewing machine in the wee alcove under the stairs so whenever she had time she worked on this sewing. She did this work for about two or three years, but as Molly herself wrote:

“War broke out and we had sheep on the golf course and now we had Jess the sheepdog.”

It’s a bit cryptic, but the sheep kept the grass short, as well as getting fattened up for the butchery, and Jess was used to drive the flock from the golf course in Tynemouth up to New York to slaughter.

Molly had herself joined the golf club just before war broke out but although she won her first cup at Hexham that year, she gave up golf during the war years. She writes:

“Baden still managed his golf but I never seemed to have time with all the activities in new York.”

She became deeply involved in organising a lot of wartime activities in the area. This was probably a combination of Molly’s hard working attitude and unquestioning capacity to serve others and the fact that the Thompson’s still had the only phone in the village. Everyone called to use it, or ask one of the Thompson’s to use it for them. Eddies Thompson’s garage located behind the butchery also used this phone, and Molly would have to take all the calls for Eddie, then run out with messages to him in all weathers.

Just before the war in 1938 she was involved in setting up the YMCA in New York, even helping whitewashing the walls along with the Adie Bros, who had volunteered their services. She cooked the dinner for the opening ceremony and helped run the club until about 1950.

By 1940 she had helped set up the New York knitting party and the New York Branch of the Red Cross. These two organisations continued all during war. Funds were raised by running a regular “Housey” meeting ( sort of Bingo) in the upstairs Concert Room at the Working Mens club.

The two organisations met every Monday in Molly’s front room, having a Red Cross meeting one week and the knitting party the next. The purpose of the knitting party was to provide every homecoming soldier with a pair of home knitted socks. The wool was bought from the “Housey” funds, and the women were very good knitters.

Throughout the war Molly and the Red Cross organised Friday night dances in the School and Working Mens Club. Molly lent their piano to the school but still had to pay a small fee for the use of the School Hall. The dance closed at 10 o’clock but the lady organisers had to sweep the floor before leaving.

In 1941 Molly became the war savings organiser for New York and in 1943 started a Branch lending library in New York School. It was part of North Shields Library. The library cards were all kept in a box at Pretoria House and a Librarian from North Shields called for them every week, on her way to open the Branch.

The war was a daily presence in New York. The Thompsons had a brick air raid shelter built in the garage yard, and the three children slept on bunks while the raid was overhead. Molly often told me that she would be under the stairs during air raids, I think this was so she could keep busy, knitting or sewing. Baden refused to move out of his bed, and a few times when there were big raids, all the windows would blow in. Molly would have to go upstairs when she heard the "All Clear" siren and sweep the broken glass off Baden as he lay under the covers.

Chapter 12

Molly's Tale Chapter 10 - Learning to Drive

The first car owned by the Thompsons was a Bull Nosed Morris; they bought it round about 1933-1934. Molly remembers that it cost 10 pounds, which was quite a bit of money in those pre-war days. It was in quite good condition and was a two seater. Meg, her daughter, remembers going on holiday to Scarborough. Molly drove, Meg sat on Grandma Elliott’s knee in the passenger seat, and Bill on the back of the seat will this legs round her neck. Joan and Jack travelled down by train with the luggage. It meant that they had a car to tour in whilst on holiday – and Joan and Jack sat in the “dickie” (the boot) on “crackets” (stools) with umbrellas. If it rained too hard they all climbed inside.

But before they were able to go on holiday Molly had to learn to drive. She was taught to manoeuvre by Uncle Eddy, in the bit of spare ground between the back of the butchers shop and Eddy’s workshop. For the rest she chugged along the lane then onto the Front Street and back to the shop.

The car was useful, as Baden sold meat from the butchers van at various places in the area. On Friday nights he would be outside “C” Pit at Backworth selling meat to the miners coming off shift with their pay packets. Molly’s first motoring venture was to bring more sausage to him there one night. It was getting dark, and going up there she didn’t get into top gear, but once she arrived, Baden turned the car round and put the car into 2nd gear running alongside her, as it was uphill all the way home, and she got home in top gear.

As her driving improved, Molly was able to collect the frozen meat from North Shields sidings. Once the war started, and their butchers assistant, Micheal was called up, Molly always spent Tuesday morning delivering orders to the districts which did not get the van until Wednesday.

There was also a super story of the time Molly had to go up to Hill Top Farm to collect another pig for slaughter as the butchers shop was very busy, and no one else could go. She had the butchers apprentice with her, and between them they caught the pig, and put it in the back, with the apprentice sitting on top of it, and drove it back to the shop to be butchered. I cannot imagine how noisy the pig would have been!

The car was also used for family outings, and not only the trip to Scarborough. On Sundays they often went to Tynemouth sands and Bill would put the tent on the running boards at the side. When they got to the beach Bill sat in the corner of the tent with his bathing costume on. He hated coming into the open.

With the family on the beach Baden would come from the Golf Club for a bit of lunch, then pop off back again for more golf. Often Molly would take the children home, feed them, and put them to bed, then collect Baden from the Golf Club.

Meg, Molly’s daughter, remembers on one trip back from the beach they passed two tramps pushing an old pram. Meg remembers that the woman looked quite young. Molly gave them all the picnic that hadn’t been eaten and the two tramps were very grateful. It made a lasting impression on Meg, but its strange now to think people then could have been so desperate, before the advent of the Welfare state, I suppose.

This first car was eventually replaced round about 1938 by a very good Wolsley. The family were able to use it for a couple of annual holidays, until war rationing limited the petrol available and holidays were no longer possible.

Chapter 11