Page 36 - She's One Crazy Lady!

...he always pu“
Grandparents, Aunties and Uncles
As a child I was part of a much bigger family. I had a lot of aunties, uncles, and cousins and loving grandparents. As mentioned, Dad’s Mum died when he was only two years old, so we did not know our grandmother on his side of the family. However, our Grampy was very, very dear to me as we shared the same birthday – October 9th. Although only nine when he died I will always remember him sending me a ten shilling (50p) note every birthday and he always put a kiss for ‘Tubby’ at the end of his letters. I can still picture Grampy when he travelled from
Wales with parcels of salt fish wrapped in newspaper and strapped to the outside of his suitcase!
ta kiss for ‘Tubby’ at the end of his
Now, all of Dad’s siblings have died, as have Mum’s. Mum’s parents, Dot and Bert, were what I can only describe as the normal kind of grandparents children had in those days. They were always ‘old’ in my eyes, but we loved them dearly and had many memorable and happy times together. Grandma, or ‘Diddy Dotty’ as she was affectionately known, was the firmer of the two, but had a wonderful sense of fun and loved to be teased. Grandad would sit quietly in his chair, warming his hands by the fire and smoking his Woodbines, having done the jobs
set for him. I fondly remember Grandad changing from Woodbines to Embassy cigarettes so that he could save enough tokens inside the packets to get me my first stamp album, which I still have. We would sit together, sorting out and sticking stamps in, that I had bought with my weekly pocket money (6d) from Moore’s Stamp and Second-hand Book Shop in Montague Street. How I loved that shop! It was a ritual to go there every Saturday morning with Jimmy to browse through album upon album of stamps, with Mr Moore patiently helping me to choose what I could afford. I can smell that shop now!
Living in Wellingborough I went to school and to college in Kettering, where Grandma and Grandad lived, so I would spend many hours with them both in front of a roaring fire, or their range in the kitchen. I loved how Grandma would talk things through. I could tell her anything and she never let me, or any of us, leave the house until we were sure we knew what to do about whatever it was that was worrying us. What I did not like was staying overnight with them! For years we would visit them on Boxing Day and play games. One particular day it had snowed so heavily
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