| Christmas was always a lovely time. A few weeks before, Mum made mincemeat, and Christmas puddings. She usually did it after tea, and I was allowed to stay up later in order to help. Dad used to help too, as it was quite a task. Most of the ingredients had to be chopped, (in the lamplight). Everything was amassed on the kitchen table. A lump of suet from the butcher, halves of orange, lemon, and peel, each with a lump of sugar in the middle. Valencia raisins, these were large and juicy with the pips still in. The best Bramley apples, those with the best shape and without a blemish, had been saved for the mincemeat. By the time the raisins had been de-seeded and chopped, the suet and candied peel chopped as finely as possible, along with the apples, it was quite late when at last the spices and sugar could be added and we all made a wish as we stirred the mixture. I liked making the breadcrumbs for the puddings. A loaf had been set aside two or three days previously, and when the crusts were cut off, it crumbled into a delightful heap as light as snowflakes. The puddings were boiled, one at a time, for a whole day, on the fire of course. There had to be room for the kettle as well so that boiling water could be added at regular intervals. The afternoon that the Christmas cake was baked was fraught with anxiety for Mum. keeping the fire at a steady heat to maintain an even temperature in the oven was no easy task. Coming in from school to the delicious smell of cake baking was very exciting and seemed to bring Christmas very near. The fruit dish was piled with oranges and red apples, (polished on a tea cloth to make them shine). No doubt we had some of our own desert apples from the garden, spaced out on the bedroom floor under the beds, but Christmas was not Christmas without rosy apples, yet they did not taste half as nice as our James Greaves. There would also be a dish of almonds with a few sprigs of Muscatel raisins, these had been dried on the stems and had a luscious flavour and a delicate purple bloom, and again these were part of the traditional Christmas fare., together with mixed nuts, dates, and a box of crystallized fruits. Alcoholic drink consisted of a bottle of Ginger wine and sometimes a bottle of Port, if funds would allow. For Christmas dinner we had a chicken or a piece of pork. Presents were very modest, but Christmas morning was nonetheless exciting and I never noticed the freezing cold, while groping about in the dark to see what Santa had brought! Always several books, sometimes a doll, and for many years a ‘shop’. This was a cardboard box containing about six small bottles filled with tiny sweets, and some little cardboard packets labelled, ‘rice’, ‘sugar’, ‘cocoa’, etc; and a tiny set of scales. I was always delighted to have a new shop. One Christmas Eve, a lady who lived in Shady Grove came to the door and pushed a parcel into Mum’s hand, saying, “Will you give this to your little girl?” She disappeared into the night before Mum could recover from her surprise. The parcel proved to be a doll, beautifully dressed in white satin with pink French knots embroidered on the dress, and silk underwear, hand sewn. When I saw it on Christmas morning I thought it was gorgeous. On being sent to thank Mrs. Durrant for it she smiled and said “I m glad you liked it love”, I thought she looked very sad. The fact was, that some years previously her little boy had died through choking on a piece of apple, and she must have felt a desperate need to give a surprise to a child. She had lots of nieces but perhaps she could only afford one doll. Years later when I had a family of my own I thought about that Christmas doll and the terrible heartache she must have suffered. We did have an extra special Christmas one year. It happened this way. The uncles in Manchester bought some Irish Sweepstake tickets, this was a lottery run in aid of the Irish hospitals. Quite legal in Ireland, but definitely against the law in England. Nevertheless, thousands of tickets found their way over here, and even the most law abiding people enjoyed the delightful feeling of ‘wrong doing’, if they could buy a ticket. They were priced at ten shillings each, (a large sum those days) but the prizes were glittering. It worked like this. Suppose there were thirty horses running in a big race, thirty tickets would be drawn and each ticket given the name of a horse. Therefore, if you were lucky enough to have bought one of the winning tickets, you had ‘drawn a horse’, that meant at least six hundred and fifty pounds just for the fact that the horse ran in the race, but, if the horse whose name was on your ticket, won the race, the prize was fifteen thousand pounds, ten thousand for the second place and five thousand for the third, so you can easily understand why so many people were prepared to become criminals! Incidentally I don’t know what the punishment was if anyone was caught in possession of a magic ticket. However, the uncles joined a syndicate which purchased, I think, sixty tickets. The aunties came over for a day and told Mum and Dad that two shares had been bought on their behalf. They were very pleased to have been included, and, risking a whole pound on illegal gambling placed them in the realms of the reckless. It paid off though, one of the tickets drew a horse! The draw was on the Manchester November Handicap, and the horse’s name was ‘Residue’. I had been let into the secret, having been sternly warned not to breathe a word to anyone. The warning was quite unnecessary, the prospect of Mum and Dad being sent to prison was enough to seal my lips! It was raining on the day of the race, and in the snippets of information about the various horses in the race, was written, ‘ Residue runs well when the going is heavy’. Alas he did not run well enough to come in the first three, but the syndicate got six hundred and fifty pounds, and so mum and Dad had Twenty Pounds and a few odd shillings. We all went to ‘Lawton’s’ in Crewe. It was a privately owned shop, run by Mr. and Mrs. Lawton, and noted .for good quality furniture. Mum and Dad had a new bedroom suite, complete with bed and they also bought a sideboard. I don’t think the Twenty Pounds quite covered the cost, but they only had to put a small amount extra. Whenever I smell new furniture even now, I think back to that Christmas with all the goodies set out on the new sideboard. |
