Born in a small village in Nottinghamshire called Papplewick, I came from a closely knit family with one older brother and loving parents. We had to have our baths in front of the fire, with a very large clothes-horse round the bath covered by a blanket to keep out the drafts. The hot water was heated in a small boiler one side of the fire, the cooking oven on the other side.

Like most village people, we had the usual privy up the garden, so last thing at night my brother Freddie and I went together (until too old), as we had a "two-holer". Freddie and I did lots of things together, like feeding the chickens, our own little gardens growing flowers, lettuce, etc.. We were good friends, as well as brother and sister, but, when things went wrong, he usually got the blame and had to sit on the stairs in the dark. He didn't really mind as he had a small lantern-slide projector, which was always on the stairs ready to give our friends a picture show, the stairs being like the seats in a cinema.

My father also gave a lantern show at the village children's Christmas party. This was the nearest we got to going to the cinema like town children could. On Sundays, after Sunday School, we had tea in what we called the Sitting Room, not very big and full of furniture. I was allowed my dolls' tea service and a doll. I remember my brother and I didn't like it very much as we had to behave, and sit still.

As Freddie was three years older than me, he was allowed to visit his friends and climb trees etc., - boys games. So I found other amusements. I wonder how many little girls today would get pleasure out of going next door to se the lady and take salt out of the salt box by the fire to put in the potatoes before cooking? My mother didn't have a saltbox!


Every Monday after school, I used to go to a house called The Lodge, the home of a solicitor and his family known as The Simpsons. I used to go to iron the handkerchiefs. I had a small flat iron, heated on a round coal-burning stove in the wash-house. The two servants of the house were friends of my mother and known as Nannie and Edith, the cook. I was also allowed in the rest of the house, sometimes helping to make the beds and other little jobs.

The village school was two miles away in the next village, called Linby. We used to walk across fields in all weathers. What: no school bus!? As we got older we cycled, taking sandwiches for our lunch. In winter the school was heated by a large fireplace in each room. Wet coats, etc., would hang on the fireguards to dry.

We hardly ever had Christmas dinner on Christmas Day as my father was the local Postman. Letters and parcels were always delivered on the day. I remember once my father got dressed up as Father Christmas to deliver the post on Christmas Day! He never got home before 3.00 p.m., usually very tired, having cycled and walked 18 miles down country lanes and across fields, often in thick snow. Boxing Day we used to have a real jolly time together.

The village was a very active community. King George V's Silver Jubilee was celebrated with a tea in the grounds of Papplewick Hall. Strawberries and cream - luxury itself. All the children wore fancy dress. I went as a lady's evening bag! In the Summer we danced around the Maypole; the girls in white dresses with sashes to match the colour of their ribbons. The boys had green trousers with white shirts. The girls liked getting dressed up: the boys not too keen. I had the same partner for three years - my boyfriend....

There was always a Village Bonfire with baked potatoes round the fire. Afterwards, everyone went to The Lodge for cocoa and a sticky bun made by the cook of the house. There's never been sticky buns quite like them since!

Life was very simple then. No electricity, only paraffin lamps and candles, no wireless, we made our own games up, tried to play the piano, always singing and dancing. The children of today are lucky in lots of ways but the fun seems to have got lost on the way.

As we got older, my brother and I went different ways. He went to school in Nottingham making new friends and didn't want little sister hanging on. Nevertheless we were still friends and interested in each others' hobbies, etc.. I was a Brownie, then a Girl Guide, which I enjoyed.

The time came to leave school and start work. I trained to be an assistant in a large drapers stores in Nottingham called Griffin and Spalding, a family business, earning five shillings a week with free lunch and tea. I stayed there, moving to various departments, then came the war years.

The first few months I spent training to be a Red Cross Nurse. Every Sunday, I went to Harlow Wood Hospital where I then spent the first two years of the war, nursing. Then I was called up to go as a V.A.D. in the Royal Navy at Haslar Hospital, Gosport. I served at various hospitals during the war and for several years afterwards. I met Ronald when he was a patient at Harlow Wood, never dreaming we would marry and live together in Weymouth for 62 years.

Then that's another story..............