PEAR TREE LOG

pear tree log: I started this blog to keep my younger son, Jonny, in touch with life in Lincolnshire, while he spent a year working in China. That year turned into five! Now he is home and training to become a physics teacher. This is simply a patchwork quilt of some of the things I enjoy - life in rural Lincolnshire, our animals, friends, architecture, books, the gardens, and things of passing interest.



Friday, 2 March 2012

One Hundred Turkish Delight Wrappers

I was born in an upstairs bedroom of a terraced house, 3 bedrooms, two living rooms, no bathroom, just an outside lavatory!  It was in the days when the 'front room' was kept for best and we spent most of our time in the living room, there was no central heating, nor was the kitchen like those of today, being much more like a scullery, but it did have the benefit of a fitted bath!!   The toilet was outside - no puppy-soft rolls of loo paper then, quite often it was simply squares of cut up newspaper threaded on a string!  
Apologies for the awful image, I really struggled to find anything better ,
I was born in the top left room.
It had the advantage that Nana and Grandad lived right next door.  Grandad was a retired trawler man - he had a wonderful Yarmouth accent and wore full dentures, which he used to deliberately leave out sometimes, so that he could 'gurn' to make us laugh.  


Nana was a tiny, very round woman, she used to wear those old-fashioned wrap-around aprons and was stone deaf.  She had been kicked in the head by a horse and was deaf from that day on - so everything had to be written down on scraps of paper for her.
My older brother and I with Omo, the black cat,  in the back garden
I was always animal mad, we had a couple of cats - both black, one was called Sooty, the other was Omo.  They mysteriously disappeared before we went abroad.   We also had a canary which we soon moved on to someone else as it had a very nasty habit of pecking at me.
We were not allowed to have a dog (the house was pretty small) so I was forever borrowing them.  This one was Kim.
My glamorous mother on the left, with her friend, Audrey
Audrey owned Kim the black spaniel

Tut, tut, my mother with a cigarette!

Owl aka Ian
In those days babies spent a lot of time outdoors, they would be well wrapped up and put outside in their pram, in all but the worst weather.  This bonnie baby is Ian, Owl, he survived the treatment and after years of therapy he is gradually starting to enjoy the outdoors again.
An outing to Cleethorpes Beach!
This photo would have been taken in the late 1950's (pre Ian) and showed my Mother, dark cardigan, my older brother and I, with some friends.  We had travelled on the train from Grimsby to Cleethorpes to spend the day on the beach.  It was quite a treat, try telling the kids of today that...



A few doors further along the avenue there lived a boy called Richard, he was about a year older than me, he used to walk me to and from school.  

Richard was pretty sweet on me and asked my father if he could marry me.  Eventually a price of 100 Turkish Delight wrappers was agreed!  
Borrowed Image, I couldn't find a 1950's one, sorry!

Poor Richard, he had saved quite a pile of them before we moved away to spend three years in Hong Kong!  I was seven years old when we left.  I never saw him again.

19 comments:

  1. am I missing something.... was your brother a omo?
    he's was a bit young to know that for sure.....
    perhaps It was a phase?

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    1. Hi John, Afraid you have lost me there. Omo was a cat, he was named after a soap powder. Remember, I have led a sheltered life.

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  2. Elaine I love reading this blog post and the pictures are fantastic. There used to be a washing powder called Omo if I remember right. Gosh - that's going back a bit

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    1. Hi Molly, I'm so pleased you enjoyed it, those photographs really do transport me back in time to the 1950's, very different times indeed. It has been great fun indulging myself in so much nostalgia.

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    2. sorry elaine was just being silly
      I love family stories like these

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    3. Hi John, Not at all. Glad you enjoyed them. x

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  3. I love Turkish Delight so, lovely as you are Elaine, I know that was a high price to pay, lol.x

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    1. Hi Chris, It's lovely to know that I once had value!

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  4. Are you telling us that somewhere , in a loney little corner of an English town,an obese bachelor is sitting in a house stuffed to the rafters with Turkish Delight wrappers?
    Jane x

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    1. Hi Jane, Oh my goodness, could it be Richard who has so many Turkish Delight wrapper pix on flickr?

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  5. How many Turkish Delight wrappers did you cost George? (I'm sure you were worth every one!)

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    1. Hi Mitch, By the time I met George, they were prepared to waiver the wrappers, they just wanted rid of me.

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  6. You were sweet. So is the story. Thanks for sharing; I loved it. Would you believe I was just reading about old bachelors who waited too long to spring the question and their true love took the veil. Or went to Hong Kong.

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    1. Hi Joanne, Somehow I think Richard would have been easily consoled. He probably took up with my best friend from next-door-but-one! I'd like to think so, anyway. Your book sounds very interesting..

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  7. Hi Elaine. It was a long day... sorry I'm so late in commenting. What beautiful hair you had as a child. I'm guessing Turkish Delight is an Enlish candy bar. It was great fun in having so many comments to read about your post. You have some wonderful followers.
    It was nice to hear some about your childhood. I might be tempted to post some of my old photos.

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    1. ooops...left out the g in English.

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    2. Hi Meggie, Did you get your Friday project finished? It was great fun wading through some old family photographs and re-visiting the memories they brought with them. I have one more trip down memory lane planned and then I must force myself to move on for a while, before I bore everyone.

      I would love to see some of your old photos and hear your memories, Meggie - but then I also enjoy reading about life on your ranch and your projects. We have planted the tomato seeds - I'll keep you posted about their progress.

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  8. What a delightful story! I think you look like your mother. Your had a wicked sense of humor to deal with a smitten 7 year-old asking for your hand by "selling" you for 100 wrappers. Too funny!

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    1. Hi Janet, My father did have a wicked sense of humour! As a child I didn't appreciate it. In his later years he was much more relaxed and built up a great rapport with my three children and George, which was lovely.

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