Tales of Jill

Though my memory of my childhood days seem to wax and wane I shall try my utmost to bring my past to life from amidst my befuddled brain.. Well you know I was the youngest girl with four older siblings in our house..so as you can probably imagine it would never be as quiet as a mouse.. Heaven’s forbid no, we were quite a lively lot.. going out and in our front door and seldom stationary on the spot.. Our Douglas or Dougy as he was known is four years my senior so I often played alone.. mind you I had my school friends and a few of them lived on my street ..so after the school bell was rang at half past three.. we would all run home, get changed, and meet..

To tell you the truth when I was just a youth.. we played outside until the dark usually in our local little park.. but we had our games for each and every season, where our different activities were for an obvious reason i.e. in the glorious sunny summer heat and I can recall only blue skies.. I spent my playtimes on the beaches which will not come as a surprise.. as I lived on the coast and my Father with his brothers, owned two fishing boats where they worked with one anothers..I absolutely loved being a fisherman’s   lass and I was always climbing up and down of the pier metal rungs it was class.. so I ambled my evenings on and off our boats.. we would pretend we were fishermen and wear my uncles smelly coats

I can fondly remember the heavy snowfall one mid December 64’ and I would trudge around to the ‘Shieleen’ almost every day.. This huge house was rather grand, full of my Dad’s siblings.. and in this old, untidy attic is where I used to play..not by myself.. Oh heaven’s no, I would join our Dougy and our cousins and we all would put on a show.. Ohyes I can see that old attic now, it would be full of cobwebs and spiders but we didn’t care somehow..all of us well except for little me.. slept over when we wanted in that old attic by the sea..Haha the norm was to have a big, round china peepot under the beds and I don’t know how many times we would bump our little heads..coz the attic had diagonal big old oak beams.. and funnily enough still today I see these in my dreams..

Summertime was so much fun, we would run to the farmer’s fields, new fresh bales of hay would be those farmer’s yields.. I adored playing in the dens made out of bales of hay.. it was like a large maze and I always lost my way.. but Oh that smell of the cut grass.. lots of my best friends joined me from my school class.. Now when the Autumn came around we would knock on neighbour’s doors.. shouting “Penny for the guy, we can help you with your chores” and all the while we pushed wheelbarrows which we used to fill, and then dump it on our bonfire which ended up brill.. coz come November the fifth well we would light up the sky, and our rocketting fireworks would zoom way up high.. Then of course December would come around with all the merriment festivities and family fun that was abound..

Christmas was such a magical time for me, these are the clearest memories spent with my family.. the excitement that I felt was so unreal, I   simply cannot explain to one how that early morning made me feel.. our Dougy must have been lying wide awake and as Mam and Dad crept up our stairs, our Dougy’s fast asleep was nothing but a fake...but as soon as he possibly could and it would be much earlier than he really should.. he came creeping in to tell me “Jill getup Santas been” weary-eyed from no shut eye at all, we would tip toe down the stairs and open the living room door to our presents that was seen.. each arm chair in the room had a bundle of wrapped presents of all shapes and sizes, for me and my brothers and sisters surprises..now we didn’t get alot but in those days that was the earth, we were simply over-the-moon with our merryment’s mirth

I can still recall walking with my welly boots with my Mam and Dad and our little lot, we and all our cousins with their Mams and Dads always went to the ‘Shieleen’ for our get-together Xmas spot.. well we played games and ate nice food and the old sunny films was always good, what a party we all had a briiliant ball.. then at the end of the evening, we would all say our goodbyes and trudge away home in the snowfall..

I was brought up with a methodist religion and attending morning Sunday school was our usual tradition.. I was in the choir until I was about thirteen, It got sort of abit not a teenager done thing, if you know what I mean.. but I still went in that Chapel every Friday night.. but this was different coz it was youth club and our youth club was alright.. So betwixt the youth club at the Chapel and the youth club at the school, well I used to go both of them coz they were cool, I was always a busy lanky, lean bee with a group of my school chums we amused ourselves happily.. My Mother was a liverpudlan lass and as a youngun she would lug us all in the smelly carriages, on a train bound for Liverpool.. to stay over at her two sister’s.. this was just class.. I played with the girl nextdoor to my lovely Aunty Nellie everytime I went, and I can tell you Monica and I used our childhood hours well spent.. Aunt Lily was Mam’s other sister but she never married so had her house in another street.. Aunt Nellie was the loveliest, most caring person one could ever meet, with her husband David and kids, Stan, Kenneth and Anita.. I can recall how she would break into floods of tears everytime we’d greet her..Both our big families went on little holidays.. five most memorable treasured we loved Butlins in Oh so many ways..

I must have been thirteen or just less when I started working for my wages, I would do split shifts at various hotels and earn my pay in stages.. at some I would serve breakfasts, then I would go upstairs and help clean the rooms..Eeh I can recall us squirting the customers perfumes.. but all-in-all I enjoyed waiting on, and I was told that I was good at it when all was said and done..Now I started working at the Viking ballroom, I was a waitress just the same and we waited on at dinner dances where hundreds of people came.. now this was great coz I got to stay out late and that would be the beginning of my dancing.. well that’s what I will blame.. Well the Viking used to be the talk of the town, it’s where everybody went and all full buses from everywhere travelled down.. So of course I loved that place, it was my pride and joy.. I didn’t pay a penny or have to queue Oh boy.. 

My sister Linda is nine years older than me and as I sit writing this today she has just turned seventy.. Oh my how the years do fly as I still see us all as just children with a teardrop in my eye.. I remember Linda when she came home from her studies, she would type Dougy and I song sheets and learn us a song..I can also recall she would promise us half a crown pocket money if we could behave, but the trouble was with that we were often getting wrong.. Eeh bless her she would dress up as a fairy and my other sister Chris would lead me up the stairs.. well I wasn’t as stupid as they must have thought I was.. haha I would know it was our Linda amidst her frilly, flouncy layers..Christine is the third child and six years older than I.. and I have alot of memories of her and I know the reason why..Our Linda and our John, he is eight years older than me, well they were always away at work and both got married you see.. where as my sis Chris still lived at home with my Mam and Dad and me, so she is the one I remember most vividly..Our John and Dougy both worked on my  Father’s boat and the way they used to fall out somedays.. well it’s a wonder it stayed afloat..