Shaped by Cost

I can of course sympathise a little, how the constant strain of finding the necessary finances to raise a large family would be difficult, and would cause you to focus on such issues. Or so you would think. While he worked as a postmaster at various sized post offices, from small towns to larger cities, as we moved every few years to accommodate his changes in ‘rank’, he must have earned a reasonable wage. Yet it was not only spent on raising the family. He also had his other ways of spending ‘his’ money. And if I suggested that some of the money appeared to go on four legged animal races, on jugs of the amber liquid (beer) and several hundred raffle tickets (per year) for a meat tray, of which I recall he won two or three, and oh, the joyous return of the hunter-gatherer when he returned home to display them (Sorry. A bit of sarcasm slipped in there, which my mother has always said is “the lowest form of wit” and to be honest it probably still is). But, I wouldn’t be wrong. It was probably lucky for him (and for us), that we didn’t know how much of ‘his’ money he spent, until many years later.

As mentioned it was important that our mother also held a full time job. It would have been nice if it had simply been to, ‘allow her to be engaged outside the house’, as it was for many others women around that time. Yet it was more a matter of necessity in maintaining the survival our family. We may not have had much, but it never stopped our mother from telling us there were always people worse off than us. And she was right. We had a roof over our heads, a bed to sleep in, clean clothes and were well fed (particularly if you got to pick up the first dish as it came down the length of the table - just kidding). It was disappointing to think how hard we children even worked for what little we had, and the lack of real finances definitely placed a real strain on the family.

What other people had, and what we didn’t have, was sometimes a hard lesson to deal with (more on that in a later blog). It was not something that should have caused such separation in the relationships between our father and his children. Our mother, with whom we had a closer relationship, was also very generous. Not with finances, but with her children’s time. There were many instances when our mother decided that, “Oh, no, one of my boys can mow your lawns for you Mrs Cambridge (an elderly lady who lived behind us on castle street) or Mr …..(insert name of another older person who lived near us in at another address), No charge. They’ll be happy to do it”.

Of course, this was done without consulting which ever of we young children would be the pusher of the mower (and I am referring to a push mower. Not a motor mower).

(Continued tomorrow)