Page 190 - It's a Rum Life Book 3 "Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984"

creation. He had heard all about XJ6 models and their shortcomings!

Could my only sister really be so bloody minded?

It had not occurred to me that I should have “signed on”. I had never been in a labour
exchange or Job centre or anything like that in all my life. I had never been out of work and
the experience was numbing!

BERYL
Beryl came to the rescue.
Beryl was a widow, over the years after her husband had died, I had written letters for her
from time to time, to help combat her own sticky problems.

She was a real angel that Christmas.
We weren’t allowed to pay for anything. Not that we could anyway. She fed us and
warmed us and provided plenty of good liquor.

She lived in the “crescent” a line of houses built with the rest of our village of New
Bolingbroke when it was created a New Town in 1800 or so. The crescent consisted of
genuine London style Town houses grouped together like a very small Royal Crescent in
Bath. Yes, very small!

Ruth only had a temporary district nursing job at this time, as a bank nurse. This involved

(Beryl’s Home in
the Old Crescent New Bolingbroke.)

Christmas working and now of course her income was vital to us all. Beryl invited Terry
too.
Terry was our local mechanic and lived on his own. He had from time to time repaired all
our Lorries, recovered them from peculiar situations and was a good friend.

For the big day, we all crammed into her large semi circular back kitchen. The huge
Georgian property had been a shop in the not too distant past and was still virtually un-

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