Child of the Thirties : A Unique Piece of Social History

A Unique Piece of Social History by Sheila Brook ISBN 13: 978 1 84747 024 9 Published: 2006br> Pages: 326 Description 'Child of the Thirties' charts Sheila's memories of her early pre-war schooldays preceding her mother's last admission to a Psychiatric Hospital in l939, where she remained until her death in 1992. About the Author Sheila was born in 1931 and her formal education was followed by what used to be called 'commercial training' as a shorthand typist. Her first job, in 1947, was as a secretary to the Almoner of a private, pre-NHS clinic in London, before becoming private secretary to a Harley Street consultant. She left work when she married in 1952 subsequently had two sons. Sheila trained as a teacher and in 1971 began teaching full time in a primary school, before being forced to take early retirement for health reasons. Sheila now lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and enjoys folk dancing, keeping fit, gardening, cooking, reading and doing jigsaw puzzles! Book Extract We experienced very severe winters in the early nineteen forties with dense, 'pea-soup' fogs, when you could scarcely see a hand in front of you, hard frosts, heavy falls of snow. The house never seemed to be thoroughly heated; the hall and bedrooms were always chilly. Carpet was quite thin and lino was a cold surface - especially to one's feet when stepping out of bed in the morning. Cold houses often meant frozen or burst pipes and there was real hardship if the coal shed became empty. As I walked to school on wintry mornings I sometimes saw rows of icicles hanging down from the gutters or a mound of ice bulging from the top of a drainpipe. An icy tongue of frozen water drooped from the base of a down-pipe. A burst pipe was possible if a sudden thaw occurred. Occasionally the water froze in our galvanised iron cold-water tank in the loft. Loft insulation was not common in those days, pipes were not lagged and loft floors or roof timbers were not protected from the weather - but if ever it was needed, insulation was required then. If no water ran when the cold tap was turned on in the morning, or the toilet cistern didn't refill after flushing, we knew we were in trouble. We would have to let the kitchen boiler go out. We couldn't flush the toilet or use any water until either the frozen system had thawed, or the plumber had been called in to mend a burst pipe. Plumbers were not 'central-heating consultants in those days, but 'burst pipe repairers' who were kept very busy in winter months.