大象传媒

Expensive Presents in 1943!
As a child born in October 1939, one small episode of my life has been a bit of a mystery to me for sixty years.
I lived in a small terraced house which was also a Plumber鈥檚 Shop (you don鈥檛 see those any more). It was opposite the Co-op on Ashton Road, Denton, Manchester and the row has been demolished. Dad was a Master plumber, bright and successful. He invented the concept of the Baxi fire and gave the idea to Baxendale's where he got his supplies. He also worked at Oldham鈥檚 Batteries because he failed the medical when he tried to enlist, he was a chronic asthmatic. My mother did sewing and repairs, using an assortment of old blankets to make coats, re-styling old overcoats, unravelling handmade jumpers to make multi-coloured striped ones and making cami-knickers out of parachute silk and her secret store of pink satin. She "turned" collars on shirts and made new collars from ample tail-flaps putting an "odd" piece of material in the hole which was left. Nobody saw the odd square because it was hidden down the back of men's trousers. Living in the Hatting town of Denton she had an ample supply of old trilbys to turn into jaunty little hats without crowns or with hilarious bows on top. Her most hated job was taking down the turn-ups on trousers because they contained fluff! She was paid a shilling a pair by a local tailor.
The mystery in my young life began when my mother took me on regular trips across the country from west to east to visit Boston Spa in Lincolnshire. Once or twice Dad took us in his car, a Standard Avon, but more often we went by bus and train. She was engaged to make dresses for my Aunty Penny who was married to an Army Captain who was often away. He was my Uncle Ray who had been Head Brewer at John Smith鈥檚 Brewery pre-War.
Their home was very different to ours. There were gardens with a croquet lawn, a tennis court and a pond. Inside, the wall next to the wide staircase had stags head trophies all the way up to the landing.
Aunty Penny gave my mother fabric which you could not get in the shops even in the big cities. There was always a piece for her dress and a piece for Mum. I remember midnight blue crepe with silver sparkles and maroon crepe with gold threads. Mother sewed at home and took them on her next visit. She made summer frocks with full skirts of silk prints and cocktail dresses with sweetheart necklines and small waists. Aunty Penny and Mum wore clothes well.
At the house in Boston Spa there were parties in the evening when men in smart uniforms and women with fur coats would arrive , play cards, dance and chat. I waited upstairs with a boy called Michael who came to stay as company, his nanny was a friend of Penny. We peeped between the banisters because we got bored. At Christmas we were allowed down for a few minutes to join the party in our night clothes.
Aged four and slightly older than Michael I led him into mischief. Once when I had dreamed that I could fly I talked him into joining me in a flight across the pond. Arms outstretched we fell face down in the freezing water in our matching Harris tweed coats. Mine had been a gift from Penny.
One evening , bored as we waited in Penny鈥檚 bed for the party to end we looked in the bedside cabinet. The only thing that resembled sweets was a bottle of cascara tablets. We sucked off the sugar and spat the sticky brown cascara onto the eiderdown, wallpaper and headboard.
The Christmas trip was the visit that I remember the most. Michael and I were peeping between the banisters because we could hear swearing. There was a loud argument and the Christmas tree which reached the ceiling in the entrance hall crashed to the floor smashing all the lovely glass decorations.
Our visits to Boston Spa stopped, Penny was hardly ever mentioned in our house. Life returned to normal,I joined food queues with Grandma for fish, meat, bread and groceries. I went to the allotment with Dad where he grew massive Chrysanthemums and tomatoes and I went to use the clothes coupons with Mum when she bought me Liberty Bodices. I played with my old toys which Dad, Grandad and Uncle Tom made, the dolls鈥� house called Beaufort Villas, the wooden kangaroo that hopped down a sloping board, my cloth doll Miranda with the sucked nose, and the whip and tops that I couldn鈥檛 鈥渄o鈥� but the adults played with.
Then there were the 鈥渙ther鈥� toys which were gifts from Aunty Penny. The largest size Merrythought Bear, the pond yacht and other lovely presents. These are the 鈥渕ystery鈥� to me. My mother would not expect that a four year old would remember this wartime episode of her life and she would never dream that sixty years later I would ask WHO were the people, WHERE was that house and HOW were they able to give such glamourous gifts in Wartime?
I asked another Aunt, now seventy nine years old if she had any memories of my mother taking me right across Britain in War time and she said that she remembered only two names connected with my mother's visit to the house in Boston Spa. One was Bill Rennie brother of Michael Rennie a film actor of the time, the other name was Mountbatten.
I would like to know more about Ray, Penny and the boy Michael if anyone left in the area knew the house and the people who were there sixty years ago.

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