Uncle Jim and Country scavenging

 

Uncle Jim

The first thing to say is that Annette’s Uncle Jim was not christened Jim. He was christened Stanley Frank. As a youngster he was noted for his cheerful disposition and so was nicknamed Sunny Jim. As an amiable adult the name persisted and he was universally known as Jim.

Jim was married to Nell who was sister to Annette’s mother. He was always very close to the family. For many years Nell’s mother lived with them in their small terraced house on Amington main street, near Tamworth. Grandmother was a small lady who insisted her well being was due to the bottle of beer she consumed daily at bedtime.

While always amiable Jim was always quite formal with me .It was only as an old man that he relaxed just a little. I think he was pleased with our marriage. He drove Annette to our wedding in his black saloon car.. 

Jim was a tall man with an erect bearing. He was almost always smartly dressed. A particular concern was well polished shoes He worked as a bus driver bringing to that job the methodical, reliable approach of his daily life. It must have been a sadness to Nell and Jim that they didn’t have children. However they took an interest in their nephews and niece. During his difficult teenage years they took a special interest in Annette’s younger brother. Later they extended this to an interest in our children when we were forced to leave them with Annette’s parents when we went to Canada job hunting. Threes small children did become a little wearing for their grandparents. Nell and Jim stepped in to allow some respite by organising outings.

Sadly Jim outlived Nell and became a cancer sufferer in later old age .I was very surprised to learn shortly before he died that this rather staid man had, during WW2, worked as a bulldozer driver in the South Pacific. I would have loved to know more as presumably this was in support of the famous US Seabees ( Construction Battalions ) As he returned to spend 35 years as a bus driver with the same “ Midland Red” company this was an unusual event. I am always amazed that seemingly ordinary people did the most extraordinary things in wartime.

It was only after his death that I found the most extraordinary thing. He had two sisters living quite near. I don’t recollect that he ever saw or even mentioned them. As far as I know there was no great family rift it was just accepted they didn’t socialise.

Country scavenging

When I was a boy we lived in the country in a group of three dwellings about a half mile from the nearest village, Particularly after my father was ill we were quite poor so scavenging the countryside roundabout our house was important. Especially my mother loved some expeditions which she remembered from her childhood.

When they were in season blackberrying was a favoured activity. We would scout possible locations and watch as blackberries grew. Then mother would dress in an old raincoat and set off armed with a walking stick and container for the picked fruit. My mother was rather small(  five feet, one and one eighth inch she would insist ) so the hooked part ( handle ) of the stick brought more fruit to hand. I was generally a reluctant participant and was bored after a half hour.

Another activity I enjoyed much more was “sticking”.  This was collecting fallen wood from under trees which were used as fire lighting wood. Although slightly beyond the informal rules we were not above slinging a weighted rope over dead looking branches. The big difficulty with sticking was carrying the wood home- a sack held not much. Sometimes a complete branch would blow off the tree and I rather enjoyed dragging it back .In my imagination I was a tractor and the branch a harrow.

While water cress was a natural food we had to make sure it was taken from clear flowing water. I only harvested a little before the adjacent area was used for land fill and the stream became polluted..

Mushroom we picked very rarely. Mother was always a bit unhappy about identifying them from other fungus. I never picked any. Mother occasionally went gleaning; ie picking up stray ears of corn after harvesting. She only went in the field adjacent to our house for this back breaking activity.

Not quite food for free but potato picking was always a source of seasonal work. As well as payment the pickers were allowed a bucket full of large potatoes for baking at the end of each day. I only ever went potato picking. with schoolfriend Anthony. on one single occasion, and I would say it was the hardest money I have ever earned. I only had a child’s length, half an adult but the day seemed never ending. Sitting on a upturned bucket to rest we groaned when the  tractor with the spinning tines implement came round again. We slowly got to our feet  for another effort.  For all my efforts I got the princely sum of seven shillings and sixpence ( 371/2 p in decimal today ). I only lasted one day.

While scrumping ( apple stealing ) is much spoken about I never found it necessary. A polite request to collect windfalls usually resulted in more than I could carry. While rabbits were everywhere we only ever ate them when a neighbour shot one and donated it. It was my father-in-law who much later showed how to set a snare- we wouldn’t have known how.