Birdie

We were moved from one house to the other, from one house to the other, if I could count the many addresses. My husband, two children and myself, four of us, all must wash, cook, clean everything in the one room. We couldn't afford a house in those days, no, you leave from one house this week and you live in the one, and the landlord says, Oh, they want the room. You got to move to somewhere else again. And it was just moving.

Move like the children of Israel, moving, moving, moving, moving, until I says, No. And while you're moving, they are putting up the rent. Even your home, even our home, they were putting up the rent. And when you drop a five pence those days in the meter, by the time you come down to your living landlord house, they burn out the gas. You got to drop another 10 pence on your dinner. Don't cook. But what can you do? You have to wait.

It was terrible, until when I says, no, no, and we go to the council and they give us a house. First thing I says to the lady, if you give me a house in this cemetery, I would take it that's how bad things was living with other else people. She says, You mean that? Mrs. Fearon? I says, yes, and they gave us a house, and that was in Goscote. You might hear about Goscote. I lived in Goscote over 10 years. The people wasn't that clean, but let me tell you something, there was the best people to live amongst. I could leave my house and go to work. I would say to the next door neighbour, the doctor is coming to see one of the children, and they would just go in wait until the doctor come and then lock up. Now, can't even leave your window open, never mind your door. But as I says, you know, I give God thanks I'm better off.

I had two daughters, three grandchildren, two son in law, and I wouldn't change them for nothing. Sister Maureen will tell you about that's all I talk about, because me, my husband and two daughter.

What it was like to find out how you go about doing things, because obviously he is going to be different, yeah. So how you going to find about, go about finding out doing things, even though you had a black community, you had people in there that was like, as Daddy woulda say, “Can use”, right? So they'll end up causing problems with certain people.

Because my dad, was to my mom, like, you don't go around with any and anybody, because at the end of the day, there was women that would turn around to my mom and says, Oh, I don't know how you put up with your husband, because that was so strict, when he was strict, but he wasn't.

He loved mom. That's that's the one thing. He loved my mom, and she loved him. But it was one of them. It was like, say, some women, they didn't see dad when he was in the house. They saw him when he was out, and when he was out, he was like, you know, I mean, I carry myself a certain way. I want my wife to carry herself a certain way, and my kids and the end of the day, you know, this is how I am. In the house now, it was one of them, we'd be sitting there, and he'd be playing music, and he'd pull her to dance, and we'd be like, “Daddy dancing with mommy!”