Gales
		Home

Kettering was a fairly large town, with a population of 23,000. A good shopping centre in the four main streets of the town which were named Gold, Montagu, Silver and Newland Streets. Each street at some length changed its name, Gold Street became High Street, Montagu St becam Stamford Rd, Silver St was London Rd, and Newland St became Rockingham Rd. We lived in Wellington St, off Stamford Rd, and I went to the Stamford Rd school. There were no kindergartens in those days, but there were 'Baby Classes' at the schools where children could attend from the age of three, for organised play and some tuition in preparation for school life. Mother kept me at home until I was four 'to help her', she said, 'to look after Frankie' which didn't worry me at all. I well remember my first day at school. We were given strips of leather with eyelets on, made with a tongue, like the front part of a boot, and we were taught how to lace them up. Quite a useful occupation for four-year old children. When it was time to go home I went out of the back gate into a back street, and was lost! I became angry with myself and started to cry, then mother arrived. I was stillangry, doing a bit of a dance in my vexation, until she smiled and said "Hush! your teachers are coming. You don't want them to see you going on like that." The effect was instantaneous, and that's all I remember of that day. I was in the 'Babies Class' for one year, then I went to standard two.

When I was 3.5 years old, my brother Alf was born, which occasion hearlded the arrival of 'Aunt Emma' who was really my great-aunt, being my grandmother's sister, though to my mind not a bit like her. I was very fond of my grandmother who was always kind to me, but Aunt Emma was stern and impatient, and her visit was no source of pleasure to me. She took complete charge of the houseand family, while mother was confined to her room upstairs. I remember getting dressed the first morning. She was sitting on a chair in the living room and I standing in front of her, pulling off my nightdress. 'Where are your clothes?' she demanded. I pointed to where they were hanging on a hook by the fireplace, where mother always hung them at night time. 'Well go and get them' she said roughly, giving me such a shove that I went hurtling across the room and bashed into the wall. Evidently I wasn't one of Aunt Emma's favorites! All my clothes were fastened at the back so I needed her help as I put them on, which gave her an excuse to grumble at my incompetence. 'Four years old! It's about time you could dress yourself'. How glad I was when Mother came downstairs again!

I enjoyed my schooldays, and I enjoyed the company of my brothers. My Mother taught me how to look after them, and my father taught me how to amuse them, tell them tales from the stories I was learning to read, and we had many hours of fun and laughter, as well as others which sometimes ended up in catastrophe. One bright morning we were playing 'bands' in mother's bedroom before we were dressed. Frank led the way with a pillow for an instrument which for some unknown reason he put on his head, pulling the pillowslip over his face. Alf & then I followed,each of us making an awful row as we marched along, round and round the room, out of the door and along the passagewe followed our brother, then 'Look out' I called, but it was too late! First Frank, then Alf went over and over, hurtling down the stairs. Perhaps their pillows helped to save them from injury. Mother opened the livingroom door to confront her two little sons at her feet, and I thought 'Gosh!' she will know we were playing with the pillows!!

Alfie was just a little toddler when he became very ill and Mother put him in the big cradle upstairs, and it was my job to sit and watch him whiloe my mother did the necessary house work. He seemed to be dosing most of the time, but occasionally would open his eyes and look at me, and I would do my best to make him laugh. Normally he had such a merry face and a herty laugh which i loved to hear. I didn't understand then that perhaps I should keep very quiet or that I might do him any harm - anyway I was successful. He looked at me, hi seyes bright and cheeks flushed as I chatted and 'gooed' to him, then suddenly he burst into a hearty laugh, and gradually dozed off to sleep again. Mother came into the room, bringing the doctor with her. He examned Alfie, and I heard him say something about pnuemonia. He was talking quietly to mother for a minute or two, then she started to cry, walking about the room and tapping her chest, as if she found it difficult to breathe. Remembering Alfie's hearty laughter, I wondered what on earth there was to cry about. Guess I must have been a born optimist! Early next morning the doctor came agian, and announced with a smile that the crisis was over, and Alfie would be OK. He had a scar on his tummy for the rest of his life, the result of some kind of plaster they used, probably mustard plaster.

Mother and Dad were married at the Baptist Chapel and as children we attended the Baptist Sunday School. Once a year we enjoyed the Sunday Schools' Picnic of Kettering. Children from the Sunday Schools of all denominations would gather together in the centre of the town, girls dressed in white frocks with wide coloured sashes and pretty straw hats trimmed with flowers and ribbons. The boys all in their Sunday best. The toddlers were taken by horse and wagon, but six-years old and over walked the three miles to Boughton Park, which was part of the property of the Duke of Buccleuh (spelling doesn't look right to me). I remember standing in my group, watching the children being arranged in order, in preparation for our long march. The children leading each school carried banners with the name of their denomination held aloft. There must have been a thousand or more children. I saw cousin Sophie (my Dad's cousin) busily acting as marshall, she never had time to recognise me. When we got to the park, somehow or other I found myself alone, with children everywhere tearing around in play and I watching them. Id have loved to have joined them, but I didn't know them, so refrained. A man came along with a clothes basket full of buns and he handed one to me. Soon another man came along with a basket full of boiled lollies, one of these bags he pushed into my other hand and there I stood until suddenly mother arrived with her perambulator and all was well with the world.