Wartime in Whitstable Remembered by Paul Crampton

Author:Paul Crampton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752490151
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2012-09-28T00:00:00+00:00

The salvage shop at no. 137 Tankerton Road.

Opposite us, I met an ex-army musical director, by the name of McBurn (spelling uncertain), who had seen better days, having conducted regimental bands all over the world in his time. He was an elderly single gentleman, and found life very hard to manage. [Editor's note: Modesty forbade my grandmother from mentioning that she regularly eased this poor man's burden by helping him with his daily chores. My grandfather would also help tend the neglected garden whenever he was home on leave. In gratitude, the old chap once gave Jessie a delightful pair of art deco Limousin figurines, and wouldn't take no for an answer. I have since been fortunate enough to have inherited them.]

Also opposite was another man by the name of Jim Crow (or Crowe). He had a bed-ridden wife, whom nobody in the road had ever seen, and the poor old chap had to do all the cooking, the nursing and shopping, as well as everything else in the home. Later on, the strain must have been a contributory cause of his death. When his niece came to see to the wife, clear up the house and also take the invalid away to live with her, they called in a specialist to overhaul the patient. To everyone's amazement, she was declared to be a fit woman – nothing that fresh air and exercise couldn't put right. Her life had been a hoax for ten years; it's hard to believe that anyone could behave like that.

Yet another elderly couple across the road became very friendly with us and were a source of great comfort to us when news was bad about shipping in the Mediterranean.

One day, I went to an auction sale in Whitstable High Street and bought a job lot for 4s, because I had taken a fancy to one particular vase, but I had to have the whole load of junk along with it. It proved intriguing when I found an old Gladstone bag at the bottom of the box, which was locked. There was no key, so I took the bag to our friend who managed to break it open. We were then to discover that the bag had a false bottom, under which what appeared to be a full bottle of whisky. I knew that my husband would not be interested as he was teetotal, so I gave it to our handy friend. He looked at it carefully, and also sniffed the contents, but he wasn't sure. However, he thought it must be alright, because the label said so. Even so, he still hesitated, and it was weeks before he plucked up courage to sample the contents, and I am pleased to report that it was the real stuff. And we had great fun imagining the secret drinker who had hidden the evidence from his wife.

There was, by this time, much talk of firebombs and firewatchers would be needed, so I joined up for our road. There

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.