Elaine (written March 2017)

Memories of Dad

Dad was an avid collector. In his younger years he had collected cigarette cards. Even though he did not smoke, he wanted to collect the cards from packs of cigarettes and gathered them from others, making up sets of everything from cricketers to wild flowers. Later he would collect every set of cards from PG Tips tea, gathering them not just from the packs of tea we consumed but also from all his co-workers.

Church was very important in his life. He served on the Parish Council and was a sidesman at church. He was superintendent of the Sunday school. He organized the procession aound the village every Whitsuntide. Mum would use the Sweet Williams in our garden to help make up baskets for the little girls to carry. Every Good Friday she would bake hot cross buns and distribute them to the vicar and many neighbours. Dad would take us to church every Sunday morning. In the afternoon we would go to Sunday School. When school was over we would walk down to see Grandad Tustin in the cottage where dad had grown up and which belonged to Crooke Hall (later to become Lisieux Hall when the brothers took it over). The house was on the opposite side of the lane to Kem Mill, where dad had first gone to work, weaving cotton, at the age of 14. Grandad would always be sitting in his living room resting his arm on the wooden table next to him, often tapping his long nails on it. We children would sit on a green velvet chaise longue talking to him or on a small child’s seat next to the fire. We did not usually venture beyond that living room. It would be cold and damp in the hallway beyond, where large solemn photographs of some ancestors hung on the walls. Dad was always very sad that his dad never came up to visit us, even though we lived in the same village. In the evening, mum would usually go to church and dad would stay home with us and we would often sing hymns. Dad stayed very much involved with church life until one Sunday when he had a falling out with the vicar at the time, Thomas Heyes Watson. Dad never went to the pub and objected to the vicar wanting to hold parish council meetings there after church. There ensued an argument and the vicar accused dad of being a hypocrite. After that dad ended all his activities with the church, the parish council and Sunday school.

Dad worked at Leyland Motors, first in Leyland and then in Chorley. He became parts lists supervisor and was responsible for supplying parts for all the Leyland trucks and buses around the world. He knew every part number for every truck and every bus. Since orders would be placed by mail in those days, he could collect all the stamps from the envelopes and developed quite a collection over the years. He would usually bike to work leaving around 7 in the morning and working overtime to return around 7 in the evening. Mum sewed some extra big pockets in his coat so that he could bring home firewood for kindling the coal fire in our living room, the only source of heat in the house.

For most of the time we were growing up we did not have a car. Dad eventually bought a Triumph Herald when he could afford to pay cash for it to the company. He did not like to be in debt. We lived in a council house. I don’t think dad believed in mortgages. He would later purchase the house when that became possible under Margaret Thatcher. He did purchase one or two things on an instalment basis or hire purchase, like the piano he got so that we children could learn to play. He had always been sad that his sister Mary had had piano lessons but that he had never learned to play and was determined to give us that opportunity.

We never had much contact with Auntie Mary and her husband, Jack, although when we were at St. John’s School in Whittle-le-Woods we used to see him every day because he was the “lollipop man” who used to see the children across the road, the A6, in front of the school. I am not sure how safe that was because he had very bad eyesight, wore very thick glasses, and eventually went blind. Auntie Mary had left the Church of England and become a Methodist, which created quite a rift in the family.

Dad’s brother, Uncle Fred, was a lot older than dad. Fred’s children, Pat, Peggy and Betty, actually seemed closer in age to dad than Fred. Fred’s wife died of cancer when the children were growing up. We never saw much of him. I can only remember going to Pat’s wedding. At that time Fred had a lady friend, Mrs. Leigh, who intrduced us to the delights of vodka and lime. We did not drink at home, apart from a glass of sherry and port at Christmas time, diluted with lemonade for the young.

We did not have a telephone at home. They were expensive things back then. If we ever needed to make a call we would go up to the telephone kiosk at the top of Hillside Crescent. We did have a television quite early on. In the early days there was only BBC and the programmes did not fill the whole day. There would often be Test Card C displayed on the screen.

Dad liked to garden. He would grow mainly fruit and vegetables. We had lots of strawberries from which mum would make delicious strawberry tarts and turn into jam. We also had blackcurrants which mum would incorporate into pies and red currants to make jelly. Dad would grow potatoes, beetroot, spinach and broad beans. Sometimes he would go out in the evening and pick a bucketful of broad beans and boil them up for a special treat, served up with butter and salt and pepper. He would usually get a load of manure delivered each year from the farmer, Mr. Dixon, who brought our daily milk. Some summers he would go and help with the harvest at the farm. On occasion he took me on the crossbar of his bike.

Dad was proud of all of his children being able to go to the Grammar School, something that he had not been able to do. We were all able to get a good education and go on to higher education, although we did not have much money. I remember the day I had to take the train to London to go for an interview at University College London. Dad took me to the station and wanted to buy me a cheap day return ticket but that was not possible at that time of day and he had to pay full price. He got really upset because he was afraid he did not have enough money with him but he counted out every penny he had in his pockets and just had enough. He was so thrilled when I got accepted there.

Above all else, dad loved Alice, his wife, our mum. He loved her and took care of her in sickness and in health, through her long years of multiple sclerosis and her final days with breast cancer. They celebrated their Golden Wedding as we were en route to the USA on 6th April 1992 and she died the following year.

George's retirement from Leyland Motors 1979

In the years after her death, dad remained independent in his own home, taking care of himself with a little help from Maura, his neighbour. He finally came to the USA at 80 years of age to visit us in New Jersey and then again to see in the coming of the new millennium. He died on 14th March, 2006, a few months shy of his 90th birthday, after just a few weeks in a home in Whittle-le-Woods, the village he had lived in all his life.

Elaine Yeomans (née Tustin)

George and daughter, Elaine arriving at St. John's Church, Whittle-le-Woods

Elaine & Michael Yeomans with guests at Smithills Coaching House

Advance to John (written March 2017)