I envy you and your memories of your grandparents as sadly I never met mine.

Maternally/paternally they all died before my birth. On my mothers side, her father died in 1936 due to complications of war wounds received in the great war and his wife shortly after.

On fathers side both parents were woollen mill workers. She was a silk spinner who contracted TB which was more or less a death sentence back then and he contracted prostate cancer at a young age which was common amongst the male mill workers in his particular line and it was found in later years that the castor oil used to lubricate the open gear sets on the looms and sundry machinery was the main cause of this condition.

So I never experienced the pleasure of weekend visits to my grandparents that most of my peers enjoyed, never had an older male mentor in my life etc. Father to be brutally frank was a bloody washout. He never took part in any family events Christmas, birthdays, never went on holiday with us or fostered the usual father/son things others enjoyed such as games in the park or hobbies etc. He never actually encouraged us in anything when I look back and it took me a long while to realise that rather than being a family man he was a man who simply had a family. A family which was in the main something he merely tolerated. The chasm between the two conditions is a very wide one believe me and is probably the reason I chose not to have a family of my own nor take no part in festive or birthday situations lest I turn out like him. Better safe than sorry as it were as I suspect that there may have been a a small element of that side of him in myself which I would never have wanted to inflict on any children I may have had.

I did question him before his death as to why he had a family yet had shown nil interest in same and his reply still turns me cold to this day.

"Your mother wanted kids I wasn't bothered."

I could go on about how the everything revolved around the selfish bastard, how we were just an hindrance to his life and the contents therein, but I'm afraid it will take me back to the dark place I took so long to get away from so will now desist.

Sorry to spoil the mood Sarge and for being maudlin but it's strange how something as simple as an old soldiers treasured possession can evoke a memory so miserable in another many miles away who has no connection to the object in the first place.


"Here's Chad with the weather" (Smiles)