Remembrances of Leicester - Part 2
My Aunt's memories are rather different than those of my Father's, but they are no less interesting.
Perhaps what is interesting is the separate routes their lives have taken. My Father still dwells in Leicester and probably will now for the rest of his days. My Aunt on the other hand, married an American and moved to Cleveland Ohio, 35 years ago. Essentially, they both recall different memories of Leicester and today they still view it differently, my Father seeing the changes of the City as they happen and my Aunt on a return visit home, incredulous of the immense differences that have changed the town of her youth.
Take for instance 'Bond Street Maternity Hospital,' where my Aunt, Betty Carver was born in 1936. It is simply now a memory, as the building no longer exists. I asked my Aunt, what her very first memory was and she recalls it being the time she fell out of bed and broke her thumb.
They had a dog called 'Toby' who sadly got run down by a truck and her Dad buried him in the garden so that they wouldn't find out. She recalls her brother 'Ted' being born when her Dad was at Dunkirk.
She has many memories, both good and bad and I'll hand you over to her for the telling of them.
"The first school I attended was Bassett Street School. I recall that 'Churchill Siren Suits' were the fashion in those days and I had one and always wanted to wear mine and go to school in it.
When I was six or seven I moved onto Taylor Street School. I recall that it had a playground on the roof which my Sister got to play on as she was older. The school was very strict, we didn't dare breathe. We'd get hit on the hand for punishment with a ruler, then when we got home we'd get another one - 'a double whammy' we used to call it.
We used to have to take afternoon naps on a piece of ply-board and we'd be fed Vitamin E tablets and Sulphur pills. The Vitamin E was great, as it fizzed on your tongue, but I was allergic to the Sulphur.
There used to be this old guy who would wander the streets outside the school. We called him 'Old Joe' and he would always be collecting cigarette butts off the street to make his own cigs, we used to help him collect them.
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