My Childhood

As told by Florence Eveline Jenner (1901-1994):

When I was young I used to pinch the nuts from my Grand mother's red and grey talking Parrot, and then eat them. On another occasion I broke her umbrella, and hid it behind the ivy growing up the house because I was too frightened to tell her. She found it years later when she was cutting the ivy back.

We had a great time in Wales, and when we first moved down to what we called the `Branch' we had no water laid on. So, in order to get water for drinking, washing and that sort of thing, we had to go a little way into one of the caves in the mountain. The water was icy cold - but so beautiful for drinking. I remember how we used to have to get down to our school. We had to go across the countryside, over the `branch line' (railway line), over two stiles, then down a hill onto the main road. The last bit being twenty steps or so to get onto the road. One day at school I was looking up words in the dictionary and happened to pick on `confined' -the teacher thought I was daft or something because I didn't know the meaning of the word. So to punish me she shoved me between two boys - I had the time of my life!

Why kids can't enjoy themselves now like we used to, I don't know. We never had TVs and the like in our days. We had to make our own fun. I don't know what we would have been like if we had TVs to watch - with all the violent programmes they put on now. Mind you, we were a bit cheeky -there was one dear old soul, she was a lot bigger than our Grace, about 20 stones, and we'd say "Clear the way, clear the way, phantom tank coming". All the boys and girls would then make a clearing for her to walk through -she could have killed us. In fact, the only one real naughty thing we done was to get up on the bank and throw stones down at the teachers going home. I had the blessed cane for it the next morning - Wallop, wallop, wallop - right across the hand. We never minded though, because we deserved it, we deserved all we got - and I was always getting the cane.

In those days we went around in gangs. I was always the head of our gang, and Charlie Applebee was the leader of the boys' gang. We used to have hundreds of fun -but we were never destructive like the kids are now. You know, we'd dare one another to climb trees - except our Lil, the one who died, so different to me, so dainty. I used to call her "mum's creep". And sometimes we used to pretend to be all the old actors and actresses, like Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. We used to get up on the trucks (railway trucks) and pretend to be ladies, and the boys would chase us up and down the railway trucks -How we never broke our necks, I'll never know. Once or twice we were driven off the branch line, we didn't see a bobby often though. Or we'd tie our legs together, to simulate the tight skirts women used to wear, and pretend to be `Suffragettes', and the boys would pretend to be policemen and would chase us, and we would try to get over stiles, and that, and all sorts of other ridiculous things. Then we'd get to the top of Wimberry Mountain, in Abertillery, Wales, and pick wimberries (bilberries) coming down, then pick watercress from `Watercress Stream'. Afterwards, going into the fields and craw or run under cows, as the chance arose (a kind of chicken game). Mine you, Russell (her brother) used to get into arguments with the boys and then he'd say, "My sister will get you", and I did - I would fight the boys on his behalf, and then get into trouble at home for fighting.

Once I put a halfpenny on the railway line to see if it would turn into a penny! Well, that was the last time I saw that! That reminds me of the time I put Edie (Edith, her sister) in the pram and pushed her down the railway embankment - to see if she'd stay in. I got a right walloping for that, but I didn't mind, as I knew I deserved it. And another time I got a right walloping was when I got caught for putting squibs (a kind of firework) through the door of our neighbour - two doors away. We did that to people we didn't like.

When I was a kid we had to be in bed by 7pm. There was never any staying up late - and we had to earn our `penny' pocket money. Our mum was so prim and proper -she would say "A place for everything, and everything in its' place". We all had various jobs that had to be done during the week, and on Saturdays' we had to clean the steel fender, the hearth, tidy up and put all the papers away - even the potatoes had to be done Saturday night, as Sundays' were `sacrosanct'. We were never allowed to do anything on a Sunday. That's how we was when we got married - but it went all different after that.