The current financial situation is causing worries for many people....and there is much in the media about poverty...being poor.
Somehow, today being poor, isn't like it was yesteryear.
Todays poor people all seem to have mobile phones, the latest TV's, video games etc.
When I was growing up in the early fifties, just after the war, there were many poor families. Maybe because we were all poor it didn't make it feel so bad.
The poverty back then seemed absolute.
You had no money, and no food in the cupboard.
There was nothing back then like the benefits system......yes there was National Assistance, but you were lucky if they would pay you out anything.....and anyway there was a sense of shame if you went cap in hand asking for something.
I can remember my mother once going down to Melbourne house and taking us with her....Ma had only four pence in her purse and told the lady behind the counter that she couldn't feed us all for the next week on fourpence....
She said she was going to leave us all there and they could look after us.
I can remember being very upset and crying.........I don't know if Ma got some money ....but we all went back home with her.
I was from a large family....there were seven children. My father was ill for many years as a result of being blown up on the beach at Dunkirk.......he couldn't work, so my mother went out to work to support the family.
Ma had three jobs - all menial cleaning jobs.
6am until 9am cleaning the offices at Howard and Bulloughs......9am untill 11am at the Elite Billiard hall......then back to Howard and Bulloughs in the evening.......she also did some shifts at Catlows Fruit Market on Broadway.......the Catlow Brothers let Ma fit her hours in around her other jobs.
They were also very kind to her with bags of fruit and vegetables some free, some very cheap.
If she had not done this then we would have starved.....truly, we would.
In those days if you didn't work then you didn't eat. Hunger is a great motivator.
When we went to school we got free school dinners...this meant that we had at least one good square meal a day.
I can remember there being no food in the house at various times in my young life.
And no money to buy food.
No coal to keep the house warm.....when it was cold we used to go to bed and huddle together under the blankets, with coats on the bed for extra warmth.
In the winter we made ice lollies on the inside of the bedroom window sill
My father smoked a little...but at these times he either did without or scouted around for his dog ends and made roll ups( I often wonder if smoking the dog ends during those days of poverty caused his lung cancer.........I know that smoking is a cause, but smoking dog ends with all the cancer stimulating chemicals concentrated, must have made it more likely).
Ma used to hang around the Market late on a Saturday with a hope of picking up bargains....stuff that if it wasn't sold, would be thrown away....and she paid just a few coppers for a bit of bacon end......which would be made into a pea soup.
Bread and potatoes were cheap back then...and were staples of our diet.
There were not the big supermarkets where you could buy things relatively cheaply...but there was the Co-op.
I used to do errands for neighbours.......bring in the bucket of coal every morning for Grandma Calvert....take the ashes down to the bin......go to Frank Greenhalghs grocery shop with her list after school on a Friday...pick up the order on a Saturday morning.......for this work I received two shillings a week.
This money was given up to Ma to help her eke out what money we had.
I used to go to Mrs Almonds Bakery shop on Marsden Street at the end of each day.......she would save boiled potatoes and mushy peas for us, and we would get these free........she would also give us any pies that were left over too.
This was how we survived.
Our clothes came from Jumble sales or were hand me downs from people who knew Ma......knew what a struggle it was to keep us all clothed and fed.
When Ma had been to a jumble sale she would come home loaded down with bags of stuff. We would dive into the bags to see if there was anything we liked...or more pertinently, anything that fit.
My mother had a friend, who was what we would call 'well to do'.......Beatrice was her name. She had a daughter about a year older than me........I think I wore most of Marians cast offs...and was grateful for them.
At one time Ma was so very thin that the doctor was convinced she had TB.....she hadn't got TB, it was just that she didn't eat until we had all been fed.
This is what true poverty is about. Having nothing.
Poverty shaped my life......it has made me frugal....it has made me feel guilty when I spend money on something which I see as frivolous.
I am not posting this blog to elicit sympathy....that isn't what the blog is about.
It is to highlight the concept of what poverty really is.
Somehow, today being poor, isn't like it was yesteryear.
Todays poor people all seem to have mobile phones, the latest TV's, video games etc.
When I was growing up in the early fifties, just after the war, there were many poor families. Maybe because we were all poor it didn't make it feel so bad.
The poverty back then seemed absolute.
You had no money, and no food in the cupboard.
There was nothing back then like the benefits system......yes there was National Assistance, but you were lucky if they would pay you out anything.....and anyway there was a sense of shame if you went cap in hand asking for something.
I can remember my mother once going down to Melbourne house and taking us with her....Ma had only four pence in her purse and told the lady behind the counter that she couldn't feed us all for the next week on fourpence....
She said she was going to leave us all there and they could look after us.
I can remember being very upset and crying.........I don't know if Ma got some money ....but we all went back home with her.
I was from a large family....there were seven children. My father was ill for many years as a result of being blown up on the beach at Dunkirk.......he couldn't work, so my mother went out to work to support the family.
Ma had three jobs - all menial cleaning jobs.
6am until 9am cleaning the offices at Howard and Bulloughs......9am untill 11am at the Elite Billiard hall......then back to Howard and Bulloughs in the evening.......she also did some shifts at Catlows Fruit Market on Broadway.......the Catlow Brothers let Ma fit her hours in around her other jobs.
They were also very kind to her with bags of fruit and vegetables some free, some very cheap.
If she had not done this then we would have starved.....truly, we would.
In those days if you didn't work then you didn't eat. Hunger is a great motivator.
When we went to school we got free school dinners...this meant that we had at least one good square meal a day.
I can remember there being no food in the house at various times in my young life.
And no money to buy food.
No coal to keep the house warm.....when it was cold we used to go to bed and huddle together under the blankets, with coats on the bed for extra warmth.
In the winter we made ice lollies on the inside of the bedroom window sill
My father smoked a little...but at these times he either did without or scouted around for his dog ends and made roll ups( I often wonder if smoking the dog ends during those days of poverty caused his lung cancer.........I know that smoking is a cause, but smoking dog ends with all the cancer stimulating chemicals concentrated, must have made it more likely).
Ma used to hang around the Market late on a Saturday with a hope of picking up bargains....stuff that if it wasn't sold, would be thrown away....and she paid just a few coppers for a bit of bacon end......which would be made into a pea soup.
Bread and potatoes were cheap back then...and were staples of our diet.
There were not the big supermarkets where you could buy things relatively cheaply...but there was the Co-op.
I used to do errands for neighbours.......bring in the bucket of coal every morning for Grandma Calvert....take the ashes down to the bin......go to Frank Greenhalghs grocery shop with her list after school on a Friday...pick up the order on a Saturday morning.......for this work I received two shillings a week.
This money was given up to Ma to help her eke out what money we had.
I used to go to Mrs Almonds Bakery shop on Marsden Street at the end of each day.......she would save boiled potatoes and mushy peas for us, and we would get these free........she would also give us any pies that were left over too.
This was how we survived.
Our clothes came from Jumble sales or were hand me downs from people who knew Ma......knew what a struggle it was to keep us all clothed and fed.
When Ma had been to a jumble sale she would come home loaded down with bags of stuff. We would dive into the bags to see if there was anything we liked...or more pertinently, anything that fit.
My mother had a friend, who was what we would call 'well to do'.......Beatrice was her name. She had a daughter about a year older than me........I think I wore most of Marians cast offs...and was grateful for them.
At one time Ma was so very thin that the doctor was convinced she had TB.....she hadn't got TB, it was just that she didn't eat until we had all been fed.
This is what true poverty is about. Having nothing.
Poverty shaped my life......it has made me frugal....it has made me feel guilty when I spend money on something which I see as frivolous.
I am not posting this blog to elicit sympathy....that isn't what the blog is about.
It is to highlight the concept of what poverty really is.
).