Early childhood

Writing about going shopping with my Mother made me think about my early childhood.  Most children seventy years ago spent their lives at home with mum.  Later on, children would go playgroups and pre school, but not those of us who are now top side of seventy.  I was nearly nine years younger than my only sister so most days it was just mummy and me at home.

Housework was hard work.   We had open fires which created mess.  When I was small we had no fridge so Mother had to go to the butcher's and greengrocer's very frequently.  She sewed or knitted all my clothes (other than the hand-me-downs).  She did quite a lot of gardening and we had a very large garden.  There were few convenience foods and she made both the bread and the jam to go on it.  

After lunch she would settle in her arm chair to do her knitting or mending and I would sit behind her in her chair whilst she knitted.  I loved wearing the ball bands as bracelets.  I wasn't so keen on having my arms pressed into service when she wanted to wind a skein of wool into a ball.

Unusually, we had a TV from before I was born.  There was just one channel which had very limited hours of broadcasting but early each afternoon there was a fifteen minute programme called "Watch with Mother".  We watched "Picture Book" on Mondays, "Andy Pandy" on Tuesdays, "The Flowerpot men on Wednesdays, "Rag, Tag and Bobtail" on Thursdays and "The Woodentops" on Fridays.  "The Woodentops" was my favourite!