Love Changed Everything

Do you remember depending on gaslighting and gas mantles, lead/acid battery-powered wireless (radio) sets, hot water ladled out of the boiler heated over the coal fire, or tin baths hanging on a nail outside the yard, or outside toilets across the road, oven heated bricks in socks to serve as hot water bottles, a single cold water tap in the pantry? Those were the days!

I spent the first forty years of my life in and around the villages of Brandon & Byshottles. I was recently prompted to write the true story of my life as a part of the Briggs family (Bridges in the book), who struggled at every turn to escape the poverty they seemed trapped in. The children were content with their lot until they realised they were deprived of the pleasures that their friends enjoyed.

I am renamed Eddie in the book. The eldest child of four, I suffered at the hands of the bullies. But, a father, above all others, showed me how to rise above the taunts and stand up for myself. Dad (Albert) brought his family up with love even as health deserted him. He taught his children to distinguish right from wrong and showed them they could be proud without being vane.

Albert had a lung removed and lost his job and their home. The family had to move in with Grandma in her small terraced house in the colliery terraces of Browney village. Gran was already caring for her divorced daughter, Anne’s family of three young men - my older cousins.

There is a lot more to this account of living in the early post-war years. Why not compare your memories and more – check out my WEB site www.wallaceebriggs.com or have look at my ebook for £0.99 (or printed version) at http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CCWCFBVS