Being part of a large family in the 21st Century

Lindajfox's memory of 1st January 1959 - 31st December 1969

I’ve worked since I was 7 years old….. well, that’s what it feels like anyway! I’m kinda hoping that will mean that I do not have to work until I am 65 years old – but hasten to add that the grace I’ve been given is a retirement age of 64 years, 11 months and 13 days! Hey, who should I thank!!

I have five sisters and three brothers and being the third from the eldest, I played what felt like a full-time role in bringing-up my younger brothers and sisters. It went a bit like this……. up at 7.30am to lay out the breakfast table for the trembling little bodies of my younger siblings – who would slope into the freezing kitchen rubbing their sleepy eyes, quite frequently whimpering with hunger. ‘I want my fatfux!’ – (nothing rude here, it just meant in baby language ‘I want my weetabix!’
Getting the little un’s dressed, after laying out the clothes carefully the night before…. Picture this……… six little piles laid out neatly over the back of the settee. AND low and behold if there was a pair of undies missing, or an odd sock, the ‘wailing and panic’ that followed more than matched that of the starving declarations at breakfast!

One of my lovely little brothers was so attached to me that I had to do everything for him i.e. tie his shoe laces, dress him, deliver him to school and even walk away from that school, looking back at his squashed little heated face pressed up against the window, crying his eyes out after me. How I tore myself anyway, I will never know, it’s not an experience I like to remember, but it served to strengthen my resolve no doubt.

Before all this was the even earlier morning nappy changes and bottle feeding, but hey, as a youngster this was a subtle kind of playing with dolls. Really it was tiring, but ultimately blissful holding that precious little bundle while it suckled happily from the bottle, and to be honest, somewhat easier than what was to come.

I don’t want to make all this sound horrendous, ya know the quote ‘Well, I lived in a cardboard box in the middle of the motorway’ scenario! Neither am I looking for tea and sympathy! I actually gained a great deal of experience and knowledge without realising it throughout this period, which eventually, at the ripe age of 15, landed me with a ‘mother’s help’ post in the Channel Islands! Ha! Ha! Is that what is called ‘not getting yourself out of the loop?’

Nevertheless, no matter what your thoughts, this job played a significant role in my life – truly, madly, deeply. I still visit the folk I worked for and, listen to this, I was only in that post for 3 months! Whatever you do, don’t count out the small parts in your life. This was in 1969, the year the first man landed on the moon – how could one forget! My weekly wage was 4 guineas – is that how you spell it? I can’t even remember anymore, or find it in the dictionary for that matter!

What an experience my work in the Channel Islands brought me though, I was going to the beach with the kiddies nearly every day, we went camping, visiting the other surrounding Channel Islands, cycling, exploring, rock climbing and dog walking. Of course, cleaning and preparing food was part of it too! The two boys I looked after got ‘one’ bag of sweets per week. I remember one evening when the boys were in bed, ‘borrowing’ one (okay, I know – stealing one then!) My goodness, did I get found out! I realised then that they counted every single one. Never did that again…..
That was ‘the’ incident when I became very aware that there was no way I was ever going to ‘get away’ with anything remotely devious! I remember quite distinctly once on holiday with my family, I was probably around 6 or 7, and picked up one of those concertina postcards in a nearby shop. I was absolutely besotted, you could even say it stirred my first sense of desire – ya know, ‘just gotta have this’ kinda thing! Well, it just took me over…. I couldn’t leave the shop without it and I had no sense whatsoever of having to pay for it! It was simply mine because I desired it soooooo much. So, I took it home and showed it with pride to everyone. Immediately, my mum asked me where I had got it from and innocently I said ‘from the shop down the road’. She whisked me off back to that shop in a flurry of frustration and annoyance, my feet hardly touching the ground, and made me hand it back to the shop keeper and apologise. I was so taken aback – I never in my life knowingly scanked anyone every again! What a lesson eh!

This way of being has followed me thorough life too – it’s a bit like wearing a ‘cloak and dagger’ – just daring to try avoid something that must be done, or cover up something you hadn’t done properly, or get away with something you didn’t want to do – and it leaps at me from everyone and anyone that it was important to - and smacks me in the face! I suppose in a positive way though, it has made me the decent person that I like to think I am. Although, it does rile me on occasion to know that I have to be consistently moral, committed and dedicated in everything I do. Take my eyes of it for a moment – and that dagger stabs me in the back for my default. Oh! Well, I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it’s a positive thing.

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This memory was added 24th June 2008

Keywords: Leeds brothers siblings Timescapes sisters sisters and brothers

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