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| 'Fresh Air and Poverty' work in progress, April 2015 |
We mixed reminiscence with stitching, reflecting on an era when so much of the population in the area was living on so very little:
"Posh living were cheap in those days- my old lady could go to the butchers, buy a load of bones and make broth that tasted the nicest in the world. We're going back 50 or 60 years. She was a marvellous cook, could make meals out of nothing. That was when meat tasted of something." Les
Eileen a sprightly older women with a twinkle (or two) in her eye, born 26th November 1919, explained:
'I went to Great Longstone School, Percy Buggins was the Head Master. We had no school dinners, would walk home for lunch. My aunty had 8 children, they used to come for lunch too. Also I had 1 brother and 2 sisters. About half a mile walk home, halfway back there used to be a fella that would expose himself! we used to say 'will Billy Ball be here today?'.
The press loves to have a go at over zealous 'health and safety, what follows is a reminder why we have such laws:
'I started work at 14 making steel razor blades, it made me hands course, I cut me big toe, it were awful, lots of people got hurt. I chopped my finger off- it wasn't my fault, it was my boss giving me the wrong instructions. After a stay in hospital, then back home quite a long time, I went back to the razor packing machines. He got me £10 compensation, my wages at the time about 8 pence a day. Terrible weren't it.
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| crazy patchwork, work in progress, April 2015 |
Jen told of her mother: 'My mum had her leg sliced with steel, A bloke had walked past with his steel toe caps on, dragging a piece of steel, it became embedded in her leg. My mother kept her job- that was her compensation.'
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| Janet stitching her crazy patchwork. |
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