Time to look back, everyone is taken up
with memories of the old century and looking forward to
the future. I have decided to concentrate on the past
and use my memory and my diaries to record family
stories, and try to tell them in such a way as to
transport the family back in time, a time before mobile
phones and all “mod cons” which are so readily available
today.
What I am about to commit to paper will
be events and stories as I remember them, don’t look for
perfect grammar, spelling or phrasing, I am no expert
writer and don’t even intend to edit any of the
following notes, you take them or leave them as I set
them out, the sequence is of no importance to me, one
story may refer to the year 1930, the next may be 1940,
then back to the 1930s, I will record my memories just
as my mind recalls the incidents.
If any young members of the family ever
reads “My Diaries” (I can’t think how to describe what
will follow) I hope they will gain a better
understanding of the way of life between the wars, the
way their elders tried to uphold standards in a changing
world, how a Christmas Stocking really was what it said,
in the 1920s and 1930s one stocking could only hold an
apple, an orange, a few nuts and if you were lucky maybe
a small toy, not as now when even babies receive more
than necessary and in my opinion may grow up with a
false set of values. I don’t know how to tackle the
differences time has brought about to our way of life, I
don’t intend anything I write about to become a sermon,
or how one should lead ones life, or the “good old days”
were really the only way. My intention is to make the
family stories entertaining, how we made the best of
what we had to try to portray individuals as real
people, and whatever era we may find ourselves in. Times
can be good or bad, none of us have a God given right to
happiness, so make the most of it.
We begin life whole, the sum of many
people, fathers, mothers, grandparents, brothers,
sisters and cousins. As they pass on “one by one” each
loss lessens the whole, until all that is left is our
self, and it is to ourselves we must be true. One of my
grandfathers died when he fell off the horse and cart he
was driving, he was dead drunk at the time, so probably
didn’t know a lot about what happened, I don’t know what
happened to the other grandfather, and I only knew one
granny, she was lovely and I have happy memories of her.
Likewise my mother provided for us and was mother and
father to me and my sister and brother, so I had a good
start, whatever my wife Peggy and I have passed on seems
to me to be on the plus side, I am more than satisfied
with my family and their chosen partners, and they have
given me lovely grandchildren, and now I have three
great grandchildren (Update as on 21st May
2007: Total is now eight, Charlotte, Bethany, Esme,
Lauren, Rebecca, Marnie, Lily and Violet), so we must
have done something right.
Carry on with the good work, keep the
family bonds strong, my time must be getting short now,
when my time is up, rest assured I will go happy and
proud of our little family, and I want you to be happy
for me, I chose the right partner and have no regrets,
no grieving, only good thoughts and good memories. I
love you. |