'ANNABEL'

(from 'Girls' Own Annual 1916'.)

They give me things on Christmas Day,
An' tell me 'Run along and play'
But where's the fun?  I do it all
It's me that has to bounce the ball
An' beat the drum an' jump the Jack;
An'even dollies can't talk back.
I have to play with them, you see;
They don't know how to play with me.

I don't want drums nor balls nor sleds
Nor sawdust dolls with china heads
An' make believe, an' make a noise
Oh, what's the good of stupid toys?
I want ..... a little brother!  HE
Would know enough to play with me.

Fifty Years Ago.

Although not strictly in MY Grandma's time, it is most definitely in THIS Granna's time.

I found the following whilst researching copies of The Lady Magazine for 1961 in preparation for a Talk to a ladies' organisation celebrating their 50th Anniversary.......

Switzerland - 14 days from £24 (all travel and hotels, hostesses and courier service included).

Huge double-fronted house at Chislehurst, Kent at £7,395 (we bought our own first house, a semi-detached in Aylesbury that same year for £2,750.)

3-piece suit and top coat - all wool tweed.  8 gns.

Advertisements:
'Bust Beauty - AQUAMASS can add missing inches or tone up slack muscles quickly, safely and naturally.  Many thousands of women have already proved the success of the amazing water-massage technique. '

' Looked in the mirror lately?  Find that your figure's adding years to your age?  Despair of ever recovering that youthful look and vitality?  You can check that ugly sagging stomach-to-hips spread even now if you use a RALLIE BELT.   No violent exercise required.  No drugs.  No diet. '

'BEATNIX by LIBERTY -  For the young at heart of all ages - The Pantie Girdle that's different - with 2 crotch belts and detachable suspenders .. 49/3d. '

An advertisement for De Reszke Cigarettes with a picture of a very attractive woman (from the ring on her finger, obviously married) smoking. 3/5d for 20.

'MUSICAL OCCASIONAL TABLE - only 59/6d.
A beautiful table superbly hand-worked and artistically decorated with enchanting Japanese multi-coloured designs on a black ebony lacquer finish.... brings the charm and mystery of the Orient, and will be envied by all who see it in your home.  BUT WAIT .. open the handy drawer and be enchanted by the most fascinating and melodious music, with wonderful clarity of tone to amaze you.....'
(However did we resist buying one of those...?)

'CHALEX DOMESTIC DRYING CABINET - 15 ft. of plastic-covered drying rail.  2 heat controls.  Enclosed heating element.  No sharp edges.  Finest value for money to the housewife - only £9.14s.6d.

...... Note the reference to 'housewife'  - every woman in those days was 'proud' to be one of those and many, many advertisements were directed at the little lady indoors.    There was even a book especially written for her, and advertised as follows ...

.. '  "The Complete Housewife" by Carlton Wallace (n.b. a MAN!).   This book lives up to its title as a really comprehensive guide to the efficiently-run and tasteful home.  '

Don't think that would go down too well with today's young women - how times have changed since first we two were wed.

A Point of View.

(In the 'Cornhill Magazine' Mrs. Alfred Sigwick has been discussing the relative expenses of English and German households, and explains how the German Hausfrau contrives to live more cheaply by economising in food, furniture and dress.   1904)

Oh why did I marry my Dolly?
Just look at the quarterly bills
From butchers and bakers and mantua-makers
And vendors of feminine frills!
Her wildly extravagant folly
All reason refuses to learn -
Oh why am I fated to find myself mated
With such an expensive concern?

Now Grisel, I hear is as saving
As Dolly is just the reverse;
She's thrifty and prudent, a diligent student
Of all that pertains to the purse;
She's blessed with a positive craving
For shrewd economical plans;
No tradesman can beat her, no milliner cheat her-
Oh what would I give to be Hans!

Still Dolly has points in her favour.
Mere justice compels me to state;
I like to be able to dine at a table
That glitters with plenty of plate.
I bar a conglomerate flavour
Of sausage and chicken and pork -
I loathe eating dishes of flesh, fowl, and fishes
With one and the same knife and fork.

Then Grisel's bare chambers distress me;
Her dingy black stove makes me sigh
For the fire that burns ruddy and bright in my study
As soon as the summer is by;
Linoleums always depress me
I crave to be cosy and snug,
And long for a sight of the Turkish delight
Of my own most particular rug.

I can't - to be perfectly candid -
Bear Grisel in evening costume;
With her sad flannel blouses I find that she rouses
A sense of ineffable gloom;
Her woollen stuff frocks may be branded
As shoddy, and - dare I confess? -
I miss all the traces of chiffons and laces
That ought to be part of a dress.

When duns are incessantly calling,
When belances fly like a dream,
When credit is dying, I find myself sighing
For Grisel's close-handed regime.
Still, her feet look a trifle appalling
In coarse clumping boots - do they not?
And when she has got on her gloves of white cotton
I vow that economy's ROT!

(Punch 1904)

"Such Very Little Things"

A bright geranium in a pot
It cheered my spirit quite a lot.
A scent of saltness from the sea
Made worlds of difference to me.
A song the wind sang thro' the corn,
A thrush psalm heard at breaking morn
And all my strength seemed newly born.

A wish upon a picture card;
A dog-barked welcome from the yard;
A sunbeam laid across a stream
The memory-glamour of a dream;
An old friend's hand-grip, word and smile,
And life was just a grand 'worthwhile'.

(from 'Girls Own Paper').

THE GOLDEN WEDDING (by Rev.John Burbidge 1885)

Come sit you down, for fifty years dear wife, we’ve lived to see,
Since Parson Adams came to church to marry you and me.
The step of youth has surely gone, our hair is thin and grey,
But the light of love is in our eyes as on our Wedding Day.

What though I have an older look, and wrinkles on my brow?
This heart of mine is youthful still, and goes ‘a-courting’ now.
And yours, in spite of time and care, is just as warm, I know.
For I feel the pressure of your hand like fifty years ago.

What though some days have shadowed been, and friends lie in the grave.
We’ll only think of that bright day when ‘Hand and Heart’ we gave.
Day of all days, the sweetest, best, we never can forget.
And now, though fifty years have passed, undarkened by regret.

Go, fetch me down my Bible, dear, and bring my glasses pray,
And let me find the very place that tells our Wedding Day.
Our children’s birthdays all are there, now men and women grown,
And working hard, and doing well, with children of their own.

Then let me draw up to your side, as I was wont to do,
When the blush of youth was on my cheek, and I went courting you,
Our boys and girls will soon be here – we asked them all, you know
To come and keep our Wedding Day – just fifty years ago.


(On the eve of our own Golden Wedding Day this old poem seemed Just Right!)

AFTER THE WINTER

Lift up your head to the sun's warming rays
Rejoice in the light and the lengthening days.
The Springtime is touching the path that you tread
With hope for the future - so -
      LIFT UP YOUR HEAD

(Iris Heseldon)

"THE MOTHER AND HER GIRL"

(from an Edwardian '"Girl's Own Annual')

'There is no greater service that a mother can render her boy or her girl than to teach him or her to live without her.  This is a noble aphorism, which sounds very fine while the children are young and in no danger of becoming independent of the mother for some years to come.  But the finest aphorism is apt to lose its glory as the period approaches when it may be put into practical operation.  Then mental shakiness is apt to take the place of noble resolution.  But Time is inexorable, and the boy in knickers today becomes in the twinkling of an eye the boy in his first long trousers.   And the day is always unexpected when the girl puts up her hair, lets down her dress, and is transformed into the young lady.   It is a very brief span of time from the blade to the ear, and to the full corn in the ear.   Then life must be lived without the mother; when she is no longer the chief supply of counsel, or the father the chief supply of money.   It is a particularly hard time in the life of a mother when she realises that she is no longer needful to her children; when they no longer turn to her for judgment, or defer to her opinion, or feel that she is as essential to their lives as formerly.   But that time comes to all, and then it is that the mother reaps her reward as she sees that her training has borne fruit in the self-reliance of the daughter.  Her joy is then - and also her pain.  But that is life, and no method has yet been found to make the life of a mother painless. '

(sadly, for all us Mums, it is as true now as it was then.)