Well I am the child of David and Dora. Dad passed away a long time ago, he was a lovely man, a gentleman with a real sense of old fashioned chivalry. He was and still is my hero. Mum is the guiding light in my life, she has so much wisdom and is sweet and gentle and a 'proper' Mum. I never came home to an empty house, I was lucky in that Dad worked hard down the mines and until I was 12 years old Mum stayed at home and kept house. Those days are long ago but the smell of hot buttered toast whips my memories back in a flash and I am a child again. Sat in front of a roaring fire with a sweet cup of tea and a plate of honey gold toast dripping in butter..mmmmmm. Lovely memory.
I grew up on a coal mining estate, it was a lovely place in the beginning, with garden competitions and a street full of little children , the girls skipping while Mothers turned the rope and boys playing cricket or football with Dads on the local field. Then change came. I was too young then to understand the dynamics of the change, simply what had been a golden place to live in became dark and forbidding. The garden competitions stopped, the fences where replaced with cold concrete slabs, the children suddenly became gangs and then there was fighting and violence, rape and aggression wherever you went to.
Catholics and Protestants would fight, girls fought boys, boys fought other boys, girls got involved and the skates and bicycles where replaced with motorcycles and it became a grown up world with grown up terrors and we where still only children.Dad arranged for us to move to a place the other side of town, I was never so grateful than to see the back of the place and it took me many years before i could even drive through the area without cringing. Bad things happened there, memories I don't want and actively defy but those early years, they are ones I will always treasure.
My life changed beyond belief as I reached 16, I became a Cadet Nurse and lived life with a fervent energy. I burned the candle both ends and in the middle, of course it couldn't last and eventually it all caught up with me. The partying till late and the getting up for work at 6am to be on the wards for 8am all combined to undermine me and I collapsed with a burst appendix amongst other things. The rest did me good, once I got over the operation that is. I am smiling as I write this, I had both emotional conflicts and fun as a Cadet Nurse, one minute holding the hand of a dying woman, my heart breaking for her pain and the sadness of her family, the next thing I am sliding down the banister of the main stairway with a friend following me and Matron stood tapping her foot stood at the bottom. Oh yes, I enjoyed being Cadet Nurse Jones. Isobel and Mrs J stand out in my mind. Isobel was the Technician Radiographer in Xray and an absolute sweetheart to work with. As Cadets we had to experience working in each department, I so enjoyed Xray and got on well with the staff so they wangled me staying that little bit longer. Mrs J was the top one in the department, to her fell all decisions and she ruled with a rod of iron. I absolutely adored her. She was a beautiful woman, strong and gracious as well as a damned good teacher. She was the sister to Mr Tickle another leading light in the xray world who worked at Alder Hey Hospital. I was privileged to be present at the first tooth xray ever developed in the area when he arrived at the Cottage Hospital bearing a new type of film hidden in a small white plastic waterproof pouch. Placed in the mouth and exposed the detail was minute and both of them got very excited about it all. Me ? I watched, observed and enjoyed my involvement which was the developing process...then a massive amount of trouble off Assi Mat (assistant matron) for being late for my next lecture. Sheesh I was locked in a dark room with no way out...what was I supposed to do ah well. I enjoyed the experience whether or not and years later Mr. Tickle and I became firm friends through a family trauma.
I left the hospital after a particularly sad weekend.
It was my duty to roll bandages and get them ready for the autoclave. I had developed a strong bond with four beautiful women. I am ashamed to say their names have long since faded from my mind but even so I can still see their faces in my minds eye. I had no idea why they where so strongly bonded, just that they sat at the top of the ward with grins on their faces every time I got caught doing something wrong. they would joke with me, kept look out while I had a sneaky cigarette on the outside balcony, and they would wrap the bandages with me. I really did like them. I waved good bye on the Friday evening and when I came back on the Monday each one of them was dead. the shock hit me like a hammer. I couldn't take it in. In those days there was no such thing as gently leading you into a responsible job such as nursing. You where on the wards and up to your eyes in dirty bottoms and spewing stomachs the day you began. Trial by fire as they say. Yet for all I had seen a headless corpse from a road accident, nursed little old ladies till they passed away, washed dead bodies, looked after tiny sick little babies this sudden cessation of life knocked me for six. These four women had not lived at all, in my minds eye, they where all around 36/7 it felt wrong, it felt so very painful and I couldn't deal with it. Nowadays you would be sent for counselling and helped to deal with it, in those days there was no such thing. So I left. I had enjoyed some marvelous moments, been privileged to nurse some extraordinary people but at 17 years old, death was too harsh a reality when it came in such quantity. Too young and too naive I left a career i was eminently suited for. Even now as i grow older friends and family alike tell me I would have made a really good Matron in the Hatty Jaques style haha. Instead I applied to Pilkington Head office and began working in a department where i became the thorn in the side of Mr Wainright....and stepped into the grown up world of commerce ...it was a heck of a journey.
I had never so much as filed my nails never mind filed important records of transactions that ran into billions of pounds. yet here I was, wearing 'office clothes' and working 9am till 5pm..great I could finally party again. I became what was known then as a Computronic Operator the predecessor of the computer these machines where enormous and calculated all the invoices for the glass. I ended up representing the 'girls' as we where known and eventually had quite a responsible job...that is when I met my future husband. Did I mention I was very naive...well I proved it by getting pregnant at 17, married at 18 and that was the end of my office Career. In those days if you where female and got married you where obliged to leave as the employers didn't want the responsibility of a pregnant employee. I retired gracefully to the status of housewife while living with my Mum and Dad, my husband David worked as Second Man on lorries so was only home 3 days a week and that was the start of a whole new chapter in my life.
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