Wright Family Album

Doris' Memories - Herne Bay 1919-1921

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Again, I don’t remember very much.

1921 was only two years after the end of the war and many demobilised soldiers suffered from unemployment.  One of them used to sine a song on the Green near our rented house:
Oh! Pity the unemployed workman
With four hungry children at home.  (I thought he sang 400)
I don’t want to shirk
Any kind of hard work
    (I can’t remember any more)

Our aunts and cousins used to come and stay with us and some of us smaller ones had to sleep three in a bed - two at the head and one in between, at the foot. It meant the sheet was folded over top and bottom and could be a bit draughty.

Herne Bay 1920: Gracie Clark, Bessie Coad w Hugh, Nora and Jim in pram, Doris, Eileen, Basil, Dick, John
Herne Bay 1920 Gracie Clark, Bessie CoadwHugh, Nora Jim in pram, Doris, Eileen, Basil, Dick, John

Mother hadn't the money to feed us very well and (she told me this much later) found corned beef tins and fried potato popular with us all and very cheap. When the doctor asked her about our diet, she had to tell him and he suggested she varied it more. I certainly remember going shopping with her and my mouth watering at the sight of all the shiny red apples, but she hadn't the money to buy any for us. Missionaries were badly paid and six, seven when our father came home, a lot of mouths to feed.

When father finally came home I remember how wonderful it was when we were all out walking and he took me on his shoulders.  I knew then that the giant who lived in the large gasometer couldn't come and take me away!

On one occasion, I fell over the side of a breakwater into the far deeper water on the other side and looking up and seeing the green of the water above my head.  I was hauled out and led home, dripping wet (and probably howling), by our teen-age 'Mother's help'.

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