Did you have a garden?
Mrs T: Yes, me dad grew vegetables at the front, like, it was a long terrace you see. So he kept hens right at the back, and then vegetables he grew. And strawberry plants, I remember.
So he grew quite a lot then, to feed the family?
Oh yes he did, but most people it was, sort of, meat, fish and two, three veg. No chicken, that was for Christmas you see.
Mr T: We used to have a garden - one side was for hens and one side was for vegetables. We used to save ‘em for Christmas, like, we used to get a couple of cockerels, fence them in on their own and feed ‘em up for Christmas. And you used to kill ‘em, I’ll not tell you what we did to kill ‘em. Well, we used to chop their heads off.
And did your father also grow vegetables?
Yes, when we got to about 14 we all used to help, I did anyway ‘cos I loved gardening.
Did you ever have to help with anything in the house?
No, couldn’t do nothing in the house, me mother wouldn’t let me.
Mrs T: Ooh no!
So you were three boys then, and your mother wouldn’t let the boys help in the house?
Mr T: No.
Mrs T: So you can just imagine what it was like for me when we got married!
Download the Audio File as MP3
Show / Hide Transcription
