Sometime you look back at how hard you have worked throughout your
life, but then you think back a how your own parents worked bringing up a big
family, feeding and clothing them at minimum expense during and after
world war two. The only ‘fast food’ we knew of or remembered, was a traveling
fish and chip shop that came through the village one evening per week, and that
was coal fired. (He certainly would never be keen to do an emergency stop)
Mother
Always Worked So Hard (1945)
Mother always
worked so hard, to rear her brood of kids,
As we grew
bigger and in our teens, we must have cost her quids,
Four of us lads
and our dad, Uncle Jack as well,
Looked after all
of us, knitting socks and jumpers she excelled.
Big appetites we
had, and thrifty she had to be,
Most things
grown about the farm, including all the poultry.
Eggs and
chicken, more often old hen, regular we had,
Potatoes beans
and cabbage carrots, all grown by our dad,
Rabbit pie most
every week, killed a pig and cured,
Only thing she
did buy, big lump of beef well matured.
Bottled all the
fruit she could, and salted down the beans,
Got the meals
and baked the cakes, did washing in between,
Baker came three
times a week, six loaves every call,
Corn flakes she
also brought, lot of boxes I recall,
Through the war
and rationing, never seemed go short,
Well fed, we all
worked hard, and not much time cavort.
Owd Fred
