Rural Leicestershire

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Leaving home

2.39 minutes

[643 kb]

Interviewee:

I always remember my grandma taking me, my mum couldn't leave 'cause she'd got family you see. My grandma brought me to Leicester. And the first thing she did was take me into a hat shop and buy me a new hat and white gloves. And then I was taken up to London Road where, to the shop where I was going to work, and where I was going to live, 'cause I couldn't travel every day backwards and forwards, well there was no buses anyway, and there I was left.

EMOHA:

Why didn't you stay in the village?

Interviewee:

Well there was no employment, only the dairy and going to Earl Shilton to a factory, and I didn't want either of those things. So really there was nothing else for me, only to think of coming out of the village, which wasn't my making, it was.. well my mother and, deciding, I suppose she'd talked to the district nurse and she said that she knew of someone leaving the shop, and this lady was getting on in years and would be glad of help.

EMOHA:

Did they talk to you, did your parents talk to you about this decision, about, did they ask you whether...?

Interviewee:

Never remember my father talking about it at all. But my mother came with me when I was interviewed, and it was a very cold day, and I remember remarking, "Oh what a cold house, there's no heat on." And the lady that owned the, said, "Well we don't have any heat until the first of October." And I found out in later years that was the general thing, that people did not heat their places 'til October.

EMOHA:

What happened in you own home?

Interviewee:

I'd always been used to a coal fire at home, you see.

EMOHA:

When did you start lighting the fire in your family home then?

Interviewee:

Well, I mean we had to have fires to cook and everything when I was at home...

EMOHA:

So it's always...

Interviewee:

...it's always warm. And I found that very off-putting.

Last updated: 21/11/03
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