19 September 1960
My dear Len & Margaret
Monday 4.50. Just a few lines before I get the meal ready. This is a dull day. We’ve just had a heavy showery rain, thundery rain.
Doreen & Nick have left on their holiday this A.M. I think they should have had a nice trip over. Their plane left at 10 A.M. or that is to say, supposed to leave at that time. They were flying to Bournemouth & then go on to Ringwood until Sat. they are going to visit one of Nick’s brothers. Then on Sat. they go to Hayes, stay with Enid, I think until Thursday. While they are at Hayes they will visit Barbara. We hope they enjoyed a nice holiday & good weather which is the main thing while on holiday. We have one of the twins staying with us, Nicola. Margaret has Jacqueline, this will mean a little holiday for them. I am wondering how they will sleep their first night which is today of course. Nicola may be the one who might find her sleep disturbed on account of the traffic which she is not used to. It will be quieter for Jacqueline at Margaret’s. She will be sleeping in a back room. Even so, it’s not so noisy in New St. as it is at the Tower.
We had a letter from Snowdon this A.M. I felt a bit disappointed at some of the news. He mentions that their mail is very infrequent at the moment in their new district. He said that one day they had three letters from us, also 4 weeklies. Snowdon says that this is going to be remedied very soon, in this way the Jersey news were very old. Also he doesn’t know if they’ve missed some letters. I always try to have my writing done in time for Father to mail on the same day. I hope their mail will be more regular soon.
Now I’m going to set the table ready for tea, so as to be ready when Roselle comes.
Here I am again, it’s gone 7 o’clock, it’s quite an Autumn evening with rain at times. I now begin to think that Summer is finished. Perhaps not a very good thought.
On Thursday A.M. I went to town, met the girls in the arcade, including Doreen who had her morning off. When Father saw his family there, should I say perhaps fascinated by it, he decided to come up with us for coffee. It was an honour to have him of course & without saying it was his duty to put his hand in his pocket & treat the crowd. You can say (poor fellow), as soon as he had finished his coffee & paid up he left us to finish our gossip. As for ourselves, when we had finished we went round the shop & saw some hats. I was to have a new hat to go with my new black coat. Therefore I tried on some hats surrounded by the family. Of course I had made up my mind that a red hat would be the thing. I tried some mauve ones, but not with the intention of buying that colour, they didn’t suit me. I started on the red ones, well I tried a very nice one, lovely shade of red & quite a fashionable one. High crown, but with a velvet trimming, which cut off the tallness of the hat. I really looked smart in it, I had almost decided to take it, then I said I must know the price of it before I finally decide. But when I was told the price of £3.15… I quickly used my common sense & put the hat out of my sight. I would have nothing to do with it.
I tried on another red one, they told me it suited me very well. I thought it was quite nice, I decided to take it. This one was half the price of the other one. It will go very nice with my coat. I now have my outfit & no where to go. I could have done without this outfit, but the family would not agree. I had not had a new coat for many years, but then I don’t go out, only to the family & in the car. Of course if it was a young person, I would buy new clothes more often, that’s natural isn’t it?
Now comes another different kind of story. Not a very happy one either. Don’t be bored, but I will tell you the story exactly as it happened. On Wednesday Father asked me if I would go to the chemist for him, Mr. Le Breton at 1st Tower, you both know where that is. Well when Dad had left for town I got ready & left at 10.40. I said to myself I must be back at 10 or 5 mins to 11 & hoped that some one would come in the shop while I was there because you know Mr. Le Breton likes a talk when there’s no one there. Well I went rejoicing on my way, when I came about 10 yards away from home, I tripped on the rough road, fell on my nose & face of course, hurting my left hand by cutting my middle finger rather badly on the joint. Of course it bled quite a lot, my thumb got very bruised.
There was no one near me at the time, but as I was picking myself up a person came along & inquired if I was hurt, I had to say no. I got hold of her arm to help me to finish picking myself up. I felt rather badly shaken & believe me, silly like, I continued my journey to the chemist instead of coming back home to rest as I should have done. Anyway I got to the chemist & told him what had happened & showed him my badly cut finger which was bleeding. He dressed my finger, for which I was very pleased & and at the same time I had my wish, some one came in to be served so I could get away. Of course I was wishing to be back home.
When I got back I heated a cup of milk which I thought was good for a shock & I rested for a little while. I was not quite myself for the rest of the day. The trouble was that I did not want to tell the family what I had done, but my bandaged finger was the tell-tale. Well they were all shocked when I told them & told me I was not to go to the chemist any more. But at the same time I hope to when it is necessary. At the same time Father is in town every morning & can get what he needs. My thumb got quite black as far down as the wrist. Part of it is still black but getting better. Also my finger it’s still bandaged. I’m thankful I did not hurt myself more, because the way I fell I could have done so. Then falls are not very nice considering my weight, are they.
Tuesday 10 A.M.
Funny time to be writing isn’t it? especially for a housewife. Well to tell you the reason I’m very angry this A.M. everything seems to go wrong. The chimney sweep is supposed to come this morning. He was to be here at 9.45, we are still waiting. This is most annoying, because the room is all covered up with rags on the carpet, cloths on the furniture. If he had kept to his time I would now be cleaning up everything. The thing is when he is coming, he mustn’t come this afternoon, he won’t find any one home. We are not going to stay in for him. He might turn up at lunch time which will mean we will be cleaning up this evening. If so we’ll all be pleased you may depend.
I’m in a mood to make him a sermon when he turns up. We haven’t had this sweep before. The one we used to have is now old & I think ill, we could depend on him so well. But with this one, I’m getting exasperated every minute & Father is just ready to go to town. I’m going to be left alone to face the music. However it’s not so bad as a bad fall, is it?
Also another thing that is going wrong this A.M. is that we have phoned to Aunt B. to tell her that we will be going out this afternoon, because Kay was not sure if we would go today she thought Ron would be over, but now he’s not coming before next week, we had to tell Aunty about it. Father has phoned three times & no answer, this was our Tuesday morning. I hope it’s not going on all day in this way.
I hope you won’t feel any bad effect after reading this long moany letter.
Now Wednesday evening, as we could get no answer from Aunt B. we went out without her, we called there on our way back. She was sitting near the window in her dining room, she didn’t hear our phone calls & she had been indoors all day, she said something must be wrong with her telephone. She was sorry not to have come with us. Her tablets seem to be doing her good, her head & side are improving.
My doctor is coming tomorrow. I can’t make up my mind whether I will tell him about the fall or not, Father insists I tell him. Tomorrow is New moon. It may work on me to tell him about it.
We hope you are all well.
Lots of love from us all,
Lovingly mother xxx
