We've all got them - those "characters" in our family histories. They usually get mentioned in anecdotes at family gatherings, around the time when the conversation get to "...do you remember when..."
I was just thinking about my Grandmother (Nana) and how we used to call her Fag-ash Lil' (but not to her face!
) She started on Wild Woodbines, apparently, then onto Players Navy Cut (60-a-day). Her eyesight wasn't good in later life and I remember her setting her hair alight when she was trying to light a cigarette one day but, by accident, she'd adjusted the flame on the cigarette lighter to flame-thrower proportions!
She had a hard life (just
how hard I only realised when I started to investigate our family history a few years ago) - widdowed in 1936 aged 43 with three young children, she'd had a rude awakening to being the sole breadwinner!
Life became a series of make-do-and-mend frugality - when I was a child, we lived with her in a large house she'd managed to buy (with a hefty mortgage) as an investment, and at the time I thought we managed very well.
Looking back I now realise how badly off we were - sheets were turned sides to middle so many times that doubles soon became singles and you used to wake up with ridges on your skin from lying on all the seams; we made rag-rugs out of expediency and I remember her snatching items out of the rag bag because she felt they still had a bit of mileage and were too good for "rugging"!
Tea brewed ("massed") in a metal teapot was "recycled" in the pot on the hob, and cardigans were regularly unpicked and re-knitted.
Her stockings were darned so much there was more "darn" than stocking - and she went around in the same old cross-over "pinny" for ages.
And she'd sit in "pole-position" for the telly and fall asleep - well, some of the time she said she was just "resting her eyes", but she would frequently shout during Match of the day, if the ref a missed a "dirty" tackle!
She hit the roof when my uncle brought a puppy home - "it can stop tonight but it goes tomorrow....!" - she ended up feeding it and paying the vet's bills and even made it it's own rag rug to sleep on. But if she got annoyed with it she'd roll up a newspaper and take a swing! (the dog soon learned the safest place to hide was under her chair!) - for all this Nana and the dog were actually besotted with each other!
Thankyou for letting me relive a bit of my family history - and here's a pic of Fag-ash Lil', (minus the obligatory cigaerette), with the dog!
Any of you got "characters" you'd like to share?
