Today I am posting the second half of my interview with Auntie Winnie back in 2013.
The first half can be read here.
Do you have any personal stories you would like to share? Any memorable events/occasions?
Your Grandad was a very pleasant lad, he used to play with children in the street and play very happily. They made their own pleasure with hoops and marbles and tracking around the streets. It was safe in those days. We all had a very happy life and he joined Crusaders(1) which he loved and he used to play the organ some Sunday evenings. One Pastor who used to come to mams a lot always used to chase your grandad under the table was great uncle Maurice, and we all had a laugh. I remember when we had the anniversary service at the assembly rooms when your grandad was helping to move
the piano when it fell on his toe and he broke it. Everyone was trying to make him laugh so he would not cry.
If there is anything you have learned in life that you wish to share with others what is it?
Being born into a lovely Christian family we were taught real Christian values which we knew it would help us through the difficult times we would have to go through. We were taught to pray over things and ask God to help, which we did and that was a big help to us. The worst thing that happened to me was when I was 18 I had rheumatic fever. I had been in bed for almost 7 weeks when four people from church asked Irene how I was. She told them I was very poorly, so they asked
if they could come to our house and have a prayer meeting for me. Mam said they could. After they left I sat up in bed with the pain gone and when the doctor came in he said to mam, a miracle has happened and she told him about the prayer meeting and he said I wish I had a few more patients who would do that.
Do you know how your parents met?
My parents met a Bolebridge Street Mission in Tamworth, both Christian people.
Did you ever meet any of your Grandparents? If so, do you remember anything about them?
I met both sets of grandparents. Dad's mom was called Sarah Sharret before she married dads dad also called George Hilton the same name as Dad. Moms mom’s maiden name was Pickering and when she married she was grandma Drakeley. When her husband died she married again and her new husband was called John Walker. Mom then had two sisters from Grandmas first husband and then three half-brothers from grandmas second husband.
Did you go to school and if so where did you go? Do you remember anything about the school or any stories that are worth sharing?
I went to Marmion School in Spinning School Lane in Tamworth. All my siblings went to the same school. We stayed at the same school until we left at the age of 14. I loved school and I was quite a bright child. The teacher called me out to the front one day to praise me because my work was good, but as I was very young I thought I had been naughty and I started to scream. As we only lived across the road from the school, mom heard my screams and came running into my classroom. The teacher assured her that I wasn't in trouble but quite the opposite.
Can you describe one or two ways that life has changed since you were born?
We didn't have much money in those days, we couldn't afford any luxuries, not like families of today, but we had a wonderful life and lots of fun, which we made ourselves. Today its all technology.
When did your family get their first car? and T.V?
We did not have a car even when I married we still did not have one. When I was small we had a wireless and gramophone. We did, however, have a telephone. I think we were one of the first in the area to have one. The people mom worked for (house-keeper) were very rich and it was them who had the phone installed.
****
Here are some things of note from this half of the interview.
1. I love the stories about Grandad as a child. I doubt there was anywhere else I could learn these particular stories at this time. It also seems just like Grandad that something would fall on his toe while he was moving it.
2. Auntie Winnie is one of several people in my extended family that have experienced a miracle. My Great Grandmother Annie Griffiths had one that was well documented.
3. I particularly love the details of where Winnie's parents met, and those she could provide about her grandparents. I know my Uncle Michael has researched that side of the family quite extensively, but this also makes it easier to begin some of my own if I wish.
4. Last but not least, the details Winnie remembers of her own school is a story worth cherishing.
*****
(1) I believe Crusaders to be the same church organization I went to as a young child. It was set up with activities that happened at church and was a place to socialise and learn about God.
