CHAPTER 3
Good and Bad Times
I had always enjoyed my school days and it was good to take up education again when, at the age of fifteen, I began studying English, Shorthand and Book-keeping at evening classes in Selby. At this time Yorkshire was divided into three Ridings, East, West and North. I lived in the East Riding and Selby was in the West so I didn't qualify for a bus-fare grant which resulted in my studies being very expensive having to pay for the travel as well as the classes themselves. I cycled two mile to Hemingborough Station on an old 'Sit-Up-and-Beg' cycle with an Acetylene Lamp. This would often give trouble and be difficult to light if the powder placed in the bottom of the lamp became damp. Hemingborough Station was in the next village of Cliffe which always caused confusion for visitors to the area.
I attended the classes for two years and did very well especially in the English exam which helped me to get a clerical position at the local Sugar Factory. However, before I could take up the job bad luck struck when I fell from a horse and damaged my spine. I had to spend six weeks in Leeds Infirmary and it was a further six months before I could walk properly. This was a very bad time for the family as two of my sisters had to spend two months in the Sanatorium. In order to pay keep to my parents, as soon as my injury improved I began to sell wool and goods from a catalogue .
It wasn't all 'doom and gloom' during this period. In June 1935 all the country had a holiday for the Jubilee of King George V. The village had a Fancy Dress Parade and our family put on a tableaux entitled 'The Empire on which the sun never sets'. The whole family worked hard in preparation for this event. James, my eldest brother, led the horse and rulley in the procession, I was Britannia and the rest of my brothers and sisters represented the Empire. An uncle who had served in the army for twenty-one years, spending a considerable time in Africa, supplied the material from his white cotton jackets and shorts. These were cut down to make the boy's suits. We made cardboard Turpays and covered them with the white cotton material. The girls were England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The arms and wheels of the rulley and the horse's harness were decorated with red, white and blue crepe paper. We also used gold and silver paper generously. As Britannia I wore a long white dress and carried a large, covered, oval tray to depict the Union Jack. A bowler hat which my father wore when he acted as a bearer at funerals was converted into Britannia's helmet by using a piece of cardboard covered with silver paper. I sat on a throne, a large wooden chair borrowed by my grandfather from Hemingborough Church. On the back of the rulley we fixed an old clothes-horse onto which was pasted a verse which we had written:
One Family are we
United we stand
Representing our Native Land.
To our gracious King and Queen
Loyal subjects are we.
God Bless them, this year
Of their Jubilee.
Our efforts were well rewarded by winning the first prize and receiving a request to take part in the Selby Gala.
