Ruby Dillon (1914-2000)

My mother, Ruby Collins nee Dillon, was born in the afternoon of Saturday 26th October 1914 at home, which was 42 Maguire Street in Liverpool. She was the sixth surviving child of William and Elizabeth Ann Dillon.

The family moved to Liverpool from Manchester about eight years earlier. At the time of Ruby's birth, there was a famous murder case being tried in Liverpool. The name of the unfortunate victim was Ruby. Her parents, Bill and Lizzie, liked the name, felt sorry for the murdered girl, and decided to name their latest daughter in her memory.

Ruby remembered living at 42 Maguire Street in Liverpool. It was a terraced house that was next door to a public house. The front door of their house opened directly onto the street pavement from the front parlour that was hardly ever used except for special events and Christmas. The living room was ahead of the front door, with the stairs going up between the rooms, and this then led into the back kitchen. There was a large yard at the back. The yard gate opened out on to open ground behind the house where there were separate outside toilet facilities. The house had three bedrooms but no bathroom, and bathing was a weekly ritual in a tin bath in the living room in front of the fire. It was usual for more than one person to share the same bath water as they bathed in turn, a normal routine for any working class family.

This modest place housed a family with six children and a dog. Bill also kept a few hens and ducks in the yard for their eggs, and they were fattened up on food scraps for eating. The ducks, particularly, often wandered into the back kitchen and were treated as family pets, so it was always an upset to have to kill them for Christmas dinner.

Maguire Street was mainly factories, with few houses. Number 42 was directly opposite the “Malthouse”, a liquor distillery that also made methylated spirit. In the same street were several properties occupied by a colour, paint and varnish manufacturer, an engineering works, a mortuary, a shop fitters, an iron foundry, an oil and tallow merchant, a soap manufacturer and a public house. Notice also the large number of factory, warehouse and mill buildings in the adjoining streets.

The whole area was very busy, noisy and polluted, full of traffic and working people, and certainly not a suitable place to bring up young children. The toilet facilities for the houses can be clearly seen as separate, stand-alone buildings at the back, and were probably not connected to the main drains. Men would come and empty them twice a week. It seems primitive today, but many people lived in similar houses, and there were worse than this. The rent must have been cheap in an area such as this, which indicates that the family were having a difficult time existing on Bill Dillon’s wages as a brush maker.

One of Ruby's earliest memories from this period in Liverpool was when her younger sister Gladys was born in 1918. She knew that something strange was going on in her mother's bedroom, and remembers being sat on the top stair crying with bewilderment. A woman wearing a blue hat came up the stairs and went into the bedroom, when she came out again, Gladys had been born.

Another early event involved her mother's fox fur scarf. Lizzie Dillon was a proud woman and tried to keep herself smart, even though they did not have much money. Her fox fur was her pride and joy. One night she left it on the parlour table. By the next morning, the dog had torn it to pieces and spread them all over the room.

The children played on the open ground behind their house. They could see the Liverpool dock area clearly from where they lived. Many of the dockers lived locally and it was common for one of them to have small items that had come from damaged (or deliberately opened) bales. These were usually small edible things, such as biscuits or sweets, and they gave them out to the children as they passed in the street; it was a real treat. However, it was widely believed by the adults locally that these handouts were contaminated and caused infections amongst the children.

When Ruby was about four years old, she contracted tuberculosis of the stomach, which is a rare form of the disease as it usually attacks the lungs. It can only be contracted by eating something that was contaminated with the bacillus, and milk was a common source (that is why all milk is now tested for tuberculin bacillus). Her mother believed that the biscuits from the docks had caused it, especially as several other children were also affected locally, though it is more likely to have been a consequence of living in a poor area where such diseases were common. It was normal for children of all ages to play in the street and she may have caught it from another child.

Ruby became an in-patient at Fazakerley Hospital in Liverpool for about a year . After that, she was then in and out of the hospital as long as they lived there. Antibiotics had not yet been discovered, and nursing care was the only real treatment available. Her all-abiding memory is the medicine she had to take: layers of oil and water of different colours, which was shaken into a crude emulsion and tasted horrible. She had to take a quick spoonful followed immediately by a sweet to take the bad taste away. This was the only medicine she received, and she took it for years. It was probably based on cod liver oil and used to ensure she had no vitamin deficiencies and, while it did her no harm, it is unlikely to have done much good for her tuberculosis.

The Dillons were a typical working class family. They lived in rented accommodation, Ruby's father, Bill Dillon, had to work long hours to make a decent living, and even then they did not have much money, other than for the essentials of life. The children were well cared for because her mother was a proud full-time mother and housewife. But the children were expected to go out to work as soon as they left school, to contribute to the family’s finances. Ruby's elder brothers and sisters probably left school when they were 12 and, though their wages were small, made some contribution to the household expenses.

Extras and luxuries were rare in their house. Ruby’s first real toy was a doll that she bought for herself when she was about 12 years old. She paid for it with money she earned running errands for anybody willing to pay her, and gives us an early insight into the determination and strength of her character.

Ruby's mother, Elizabeth Dillon, never liked living in Liverpool away from her family. She always wanted to go back to Manchester and they returned in about 1920. They moved to a rented terraced house at 26 Rolleston Street in the Ancoats district. By this time, they had seven children. Bill, the eldest was about 18, then came Cyril 17, Lily 16, Norman 9, Edward Clifford (Teddy) 8, Ruby 6, and Gladys 2.

Ruby continued to be a sickly child and receive treatment for her tuberculosis. She had to attend the outpatients department at the Hardman Street Chest Clinic in Manchester every Thursday, and her mother would take her on the tram. They had to wait in line before she was examined in detail, and then her weight was checked; it took up most of the day before they got home. The nasty medicine continued, but rest and nursing were the main remedies. She was not allowed to attend school in case she infected the other children, though she did mix fully at home and when playing in the street, but nobody seemed to bother about that.

Ruby’s tuberculosis seems to have cleared up by itself by the time she was about eight years old, but she had never been allowed to attend school. Fortunately, Ruby's elder brothers Norman and Teddy were bright and taught her some of what they learnt. Her mother, Elizabeth Dillon, was a determined woman and knew it was up to her to get Ruby into proper education. They went to see the head mistress at the local school, which was attached to St. Philip’s church where they had married. The Headmistress was a Miss Duss, a big, fat woman who was very strict, and she refused to take Ruby into the school. She, no doubt, had to consider the welfare of the other children in the school, and Ruby was a health risk. On the way out, they met another of the teachers, Mrs Wilkinson. Elizabeth approached her and asked if she would help. She agreed to take Ruby into her class, though Miss Duss was still not in favour of it.

It was probably September 1923 when Ruby was finally allowed to attend the school, at nearly nine years old. She then had to suffer the humiliation of entering the lowest class with her sister Gladys, who was nearly four years younger. Ruby joined a special group of six children on one side of the class and Mrs Wilkinson worked with them individually. She learned fast. By the end of her first school year, she had progressed to the top class in her own year and was recognised as being a bright pupil in her own right.

Every morning, Miss Wilkinson lined up the children to inspect their hands, shoes and hair. If they did not come up to scratch, they had to report to Miss Duss. Ruby loved Miss Wilkinson and every Friday at the end of the day, she gave every child a boiled sweet to suck on the way home. In the winter, a roaring fire was lit in the classroom, so they were always warm, and at morning break Miss Wilkinson served them hot cocoa in an enamel mug.

Ruby was an intelligent child, and she loved going to school to learn new things. She couldn’t wait to get there most days. Unfortunately, Gladys was never as bright, tended to get into trouble easily and frequently skipped school. On one occasion, Miss Duss had Gladys stood on a chair telling her off in front of Ruby and asking her, "Why can't you be as clever as your sister?" On the way home from school that night, Ruby hit Gladys for showing her up in front of Miss Duss, but perhaps she should have made some allowance for their difference in age, but she could be a bit unforgiving.

Ruby tended to resemble her father in appearance, though had a similar physique to her mother. She was a gregarious, outgoing child who liked to be involved in everything. Every year in the summer, the Lord Mayor of Manchester sponsored an outing for the poor children of the city. In about 1925, Ruby managed to get herself invited to one of these through the local church. They were taken to spend the day at Squires Gate Holiday Camp near Blackpool. Her mother was not too happy about it because Ruby was too old really, and she certainly did not consider that they were a poor family. When the evening newspaper appeared that day, she was horrified to see a picture on the front page showing a group of the poor children, with Ruby right in the middle of the front row for everybody to see. It was typical of Ruby to push herself forward to the front so that she could be seen. The neighbours all saw Ruby in the paper, and it was some time before Lizzie could go out and face them, she was too embarrassed.

Christmas was always a big family occasion. On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, Lizzie would go to the market and buy a goose, all the trimmings, the fruit and vegetables, and the Christmas tree. Somehow there always seemed to be plenty for everybody. Even though they had a working class existence, there was never any sense of poverty or deprivation amongst the children in the family. This was their position in life, they accepted it and never questioned it. On Christmas Day, the children's stockings usually contained an apple, an orange, a selection of nuts, and a sixpence. If they were really lucky, there would also be a small toy. They received their Christmas breakfast at the Methodist Church. After the service, they received a large slice of bread and jam with a mug of hot cocoa, and then Father Christmas gave them a small packet of sweets to take home.

Christmas dinner was usually followed by a family singsong around the piano. Many families like theirs had a piano. Lizzie's youngest brother, Fred Taylor, was a talented boy soprano, developed a good voice and became a professional singer. He and his wife, Queenie, worked as a double act on the northern Music Hall circuit. They often visited at Christmas, and then the singing would really get serious. Fred always called Elizabeth "Lizzie Ann" which must have been the name she was known by within her own family from being a child.

Despite being Music Hall artistes, Fred and Queenie didn't earn that much money and tended to spend it very quickly. Consequently, they were always broke. They were well known locally and did summer seasons in the seaside towns. Ruby particularly remembered them being at the Honken Head Hotel in Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man. In later years, they worked for Lawrence Wright, a well-known music publisher, and they travelled worldwide promoting popular sheet music. A family story (which may not be true) has it that Fred wrote the song 'Roses in Picardy' during the Great War, and sold it in a pub for £5. This was a considerable sum in those days, but it would have been worth a great deal more, as it became one of the most popular songs of its time, especially with the soldiers serving in France.

Ruby’s favourite aunt was Auntie Tilly, the wife of her father’s brother Ted. This photograph of Tilly Dillon was taken on 5th July 1931 when she was about 40 years old. She was a nice, hospitable person, with a pleasant sense of humour, a ready smile and willing to help anybody. Very house proud, she cleaned and polished everything to a high level.

Ted and Tilly had no children and were fond of both Ruby and Gladys, who spent a lot of time at her house when they were children and often ran errands for her. Both of the girls visited her regularly throughout her life, until she died in the early 1960s. Ted died before Tilly and she remarried a kind, easy-going man called Charlie, and outlived him too.

Auntie Tilly and Uncle Ted lived just a street away from Ruby's house at 43 Clayton Street, in a two up, two down Victorian terraced house. They were better off than most, because they had no children, and were particularly fond of Ruby and Gladys. When they were in their old age, Ruby and Gladys always talked fondly about Auntie Tilly, and they particularly remembered the occasion that she sent them shopping for a jar of pickled onions. By the time they got back, they had drunk all the vinegar out of the jar. Ruby always had a taste for acidic things and could suck a lemon without flinching.

As Ted and Tilly Dillon were relatively well off, they often went away on holiday, their favourite place being Blackpool, and they always brought back presents for Ruby and Gladys. When Ruby was about eleven years old, they gave them a fashionable fur bonnet that tied under the chin, with a matching muff. Ruby was thrilled and loved to wear them, though Gladys was not so keen.

Shortly afterwards, Uncle Ted spotted Ruby in the street on two consecutive days when she should have been at school, and recognised her because she was wearing her fur and muff. So Auntie Tilly came around to their house when Ruby was eating her tea one day to find out what was going on. It emerged that she had been skipping school because a new headmistress had started and Ruby was frightened of her. When Lizzie got to find out about it, she gave Ruby the customary “good hiding”, took her to school the next day and reported her straight to the headmistress. She never dared to skip school again.

This is typical of the immediate discipline that was handed out by parents in those days. A slap on the legs or arms was normal and, for a severe transgression, some fathers could be extremely harsh, though this was not common. The children soon learned not to misbehave, as they were aware of the consequences. It is worth mentioning that people in general were respectful of anybody in a position of authority. Teachers took no nonsense and children would be caned or strapped across the hand for all sorts of misdemeanour; in severe cases they were caned across the bottom, though this was usually reserved for the boys.

By the mid-1920s, Ruby's parents, Bill and Lizzie, were in their early forties and it was becoming easier for them to manage as their youngest child, Gladys, was now about 8 years old. Ruby's elder brothers and sisters were out to work, but the younger children were still expected to help out in the home and they all had their jobs to do. Teddy’s weekly job was to wash the stone kitchen floor, finishing off with a rubbing stone that dried to leave the floor chalky white. The doorsteps, outside toilet and the edges of the back yard were all whitened in the same way. Ruby and Gladys helped inside the house and ran countless errands to the local shops. A regular weekly errand was for two half ounces of thick twist tobacco for Bill’s pipe.

They had a piano, like many families at the time, and several of the children learned to play. Ruby was always keen to try anything and she learned when she was a child. She was encouraged by her father, who seems to have been the musical influence in the family, and he would sit by her in the evening after tea and help her with her lessons and practice. She enjoyed learning but, as she grew older, she lost the enthusiasm it and stopped, as other interests became more important.

Working class families could not usually afford much of a family holiday, neither could they get the time off work unless they worked in a factory that had an annual “Wakes Week” closedown. Ruby was 12 years old before she first went on holiday, when she was taken to Douglas in the Isle of Man by her mother and her mother’s sister. Her parents usually took separate holidays, Lizzie going with one of her sisters and Bill going “home” to Ireland with one of his brothers to see his family.

In about 1927 when Ruby was nearly 13 years old, the family were fortunate to be rehoused to a new council house at 5 Seymour Avenue in Clayton, a district further from the centre of Manchester along Ashton New Road. It was a modern semi-detached house in a quiet cul-de-sac on a new estate, and had three bedrooms, a bathroom that included an indoor toilet, and a garden.

After they moved to Clayton, Ruby had to change school to Seymour Road School, which was just around the corner. She was in trouble on her first morning at her new school when the register was called. The routine was to reply “Here Miss” and put your hand up at the same time. Ruby replied but did not know about putting up her hand. She had to stand out at the front of the class and was given a sharp rap over the hand with a ruler as a punishment. It was common for authority figures to pick on a newcomer, just to show who was in charge, and hard to imagine today’s children being treated in such a way.

Typically in their family (and every other large family), the older children were expected to help to look after the younger ones. Ruby always had to take Gladys with her when she went out to play, but she did not always want to and tried to get out of it. There was a four-year age difference and to her Gladys was just a child. At the top of Seymour Avenue, there were some high privet hedges and, on one occasion, Ruby pushed Gladys into them in an attempt to get rid of her. Gladys went home crying to her mother, so it worked, but Ruby was in big trouble later.

By this time, her eldest brother, Bill, had left the army and was also living on the Clayton estate about 15 minutes walk away. Ruby and Gladys would often go down to see him. One day Gladys came home crying that a girl who lived near Bill had bullied and frightened her. The next day, Ruby went with Gladys; the same girl was there and she started to taunt them. Ruby had a similar temperament to her mother, so she was not afraid of confronting problems, and she had also learned to look after herself on the streets of Ancoats, which were much tougher than Clayton. She stood up to the girl and pushed her over backwards into a hedge. It was the bully’s turn to run home crying this time and they never had any trouble with her again. Apparently, the neighbours said that it was about time that somebody sorted her out.

At the end of the autumn term in 1928, Ruby left school when she passed her 14th birthday. While still at school, she went to work in the evenings in a local ladies hairdresser's, just sweeping up and helping out in general. They offered to take her on as an apprentice and train her after she left school, and it was agreed that she would start work with them.

She was due to start at the hairdressers on Monday of the following week, when her sister Lily came home from work one evening saying that there was a vacancy for a girl at her firm. Lily was then an egg tester working for a wholesale grocery company. Ruby asked her mother if she could go for the job as it paid about twice as much as the hairdressers. Her mother agreed, so hercareer as a hairdresser never started. On the following Monday morning, she went off to work with Lily. In those days, you had to see the foreman for a job, he took her on and she was paid about ten shillings (35p) a week, not even a lot of money then, but it was the child’s rate.

Her first job was bagging up sugar. A man filled a hopper with a large sack of sugar, it then fed down a chute, and she filled one and two pound bags at the bottom. After a while, she was transferred onto bagging flour using similar equipment. This was the beginnings of pre-packed food: it is interesting to note that sugar was always packed into blue bags and flour into white bags. Ruby’s next job was to bag dried fruit, which came in wooden boxes that were opened and the contents were spread onto a bench. The fruit was sticky and compacted into large lumps, these had to be broken up by hand and put into bags, which were passed to the next girl who weighed and sealed them. By this time, it was the summer of 1929, it was hot and the fruit began to arrive full of maggots. The girls were expected to remove them by hand and, after a few weeks, Ruby had had enough. She was squeamish about such things, it made her feel sick, and so she left. This was an early indication that she had little staying power when things went against her wishes.

Her mother suggested that she stayed at home while she found a better job, and helped with the housework. This was fine for a while, but Ruby soon got fed up with being at home and wanted a proper job so she could earn her own wages and be independent again. Her mother found out through a friend that Christy's Mill in Droylsden was recruiting girls. The company was famous for its Turkish Towels and it was the first to manufacture looped terry towels in the Britain. Ruby went to see the forewoman, who took her on, but warned her that it was very noisy and that it probably wouldn't suit her. The pay was also low and the hours were long, but at least it was a job.

She started at 7.30 am and worked until 5.30 pm from Monday to Friday, and until 1.00 pm every Saturday. Her job was to set up and run a loom weaving cotton towels. There was a boy on either side of her, each looking after his own loom, and she knew one of them from school. The job was to keep the loom running when the thread broke, which meant rethreading and twisting the cotton to mend the break. The boys were of an age where they were keen to make an impression on Ruby and looked after her. She knew exactly what was going on but was always ready for somebody else to do the work for her, so she soon had them tending her machine as well as their own. Ruby always had a lazy streak in her personality, and shunned hard work if she could. The forewoman saw what was going on and mentioned it to Ruby, though she didn’t seem to mind as long as the work got done. The boys got their reward and she ended up dating each of them in turn.

The forewoman was right, it was a very noisy job, and you had to shout loudly to make yourself heard. Ruby left after about six months, because she couldn't stand the noise of the clattering looms any longer.

It is clear that Ruby's mother, Lizzie, was very important in the development of the family; her father's, Bill, role was primarily as the wage earner. Lizzie was the constant source of advice, ideas and activity that moulded the family together and progressed them forward. If they asked Bill for anything, he would refer them back to their mother. At this point, she suggested Ruby should consider a job as a sewing machinist and found a training position for her with a company on London Road, just across the road from the approach to the railway station. Because she was learning, Ruby was again not paid much.

Her workplace was inside a factory yard, up about 40 stone steps. The forewoman was very strict and stood at the top of the steps in the morning at the start-time of 8.00 am. If any of the girls were late, even by as little as only one minute, she would not be admitted and be sent home. Ruby learned fast and, after about six months, was a proficient machinist. At about this time, the forewoman came to her at her machine and threw about 30 pairs of knickers that Ruby had sewn, into her face. She had sewn the gussets on the wrong way round. They argued, but Ruby had no option other than to agree to unpick the sewing and sew them on properly.

That night, Ruby told her mother about the incident, and that she wanted to leave. She did not like the forewoman’s attitude and could see it would not improve. But, she had left her scissors, shoes and overall behind, was frightened of the forewoman and did not want to go back to get them. So Lizzie agreed to go with her the next morning. When they arrived at the workshop, the forewoman asked her mother aggressively: “Who are you?” Lizzie was well able to look after herself, even though she was only slightly built. She replied: “You may frighten these young girls, but you don’t frighten me. Ruby’s leaving and we have come for her belongings, and while we are here we’ll also have the wages she’s due”. This caused quite an argument, but Lizzie refused to leave without the wages, which were eventually paid.

By now a pattern of behaviour was emerging. Ruby seemed to be happy try new things and to work hard within reason, but soon became bored and was not capable of staying with something for long, especially if difficulties crept in. But she would not decide anything without the approval of her mother. Ruby always claimed to be ambitious, but she didn’t have the tenacity of her mother, or the drive to make things happen for herself. Perhaps this was a consequence of being the daughter of a mother with a strong personality, so we shouldn’t be too harsh in our judgement.

In those days, people found jobs by word of mouth and from boards posted outside factories. Again, Lizzie got to know about a job at The English Sewing Machine Company, which was at the top of Edge Lane, just around the corner from where they lived. She must have been one of the locality’s best networkers, as she kept finding these opportunities. It can only be assumed that she was doing the same for the rest of her family.

This was Ruby's first job as an experienced machinist. She was 16 by now and would continue in this trade she until she got married over six years later. It appears, though, that she was still learning as she had a simple job, to sew labels into the back of men's shirts. She had to sew round three sides, cut off any loose threads and fold the shirts, but was only paid three-quarters of a penny (three farthings) for two dozen. It was good experience but Ruby soon became fed up with the routine and earning low wages, and wanted a better paid job. So after about another six months, she left when her mother, again, found out about yet another job through a friend who sewed shirts at a factory in London Road. It seems that Ruby was prepared to let her mother do all the spade work for her in finding all her jobs to this date.

This next job gave Ruby a proper chance to consolidate her expertise and become a professional machinist. She also learnt some new techniques, such as “post felling”, which is sewing the material together with two needles for extra strength. Unfortunately, after only a few months, the firm became short of work and she was laid off. The depression of the early 1930’s had caught up with her. Even though there were many unskilled people unemployed in this period, she was now skilled in a craft and was never without a job for long. It was a fortunate career choice.

From this point, Ruby became more independent of her mother and capable of finding a job by herself. There were many local factories doing similar work and she soon found another job sewing men's bib and brace working clothes. This involved sewing very stiff material, which was difficult to work, so she soon got fed up with it and moved on again. Her next job was at Bannerman's shirt factory on Bradford Road. She was required to pack shirts, pyjamas and similar items in parcels of a dozen, and found the work very easy after her previous job. She then spent time at several companies in succession over the next couple of months, mainly sewing men’s shirts and pyjamas, and ladies underwear. She was now at a point where she could turn her hand to any type of sewing job.

This period was the heyday of local dance halls and small dance bands. Just about everybody of Ruby’s age went ballroom dancing almost every night. To get into a dance hall cost only 6d (2½p) and there were many to choose from. Amongst those that Ruby went to were: the Ashton Palaise, Bradford Baths, the Co-op, Derby Street, Finnegan's, the Levenshulme Palaise, Walsh's, and Hibbert's Lambeth Palaise. These dance halls were extremely popular, and many of them continued in business well into the 1950's.

The place to go for Ruby was Hibbert's Lambeth Palaise, which was behind the Alhambra Cinema on Ashton Old Road. Ruby was self-trained and soon became a good dancer, as she was dainty and light on her feet, and very quickly into the rhythm of the music. She was one of a team of girls that Mr. Hibbert organised to teach the boys to dance. For their services, the girls were allowed to have free entrance and refreshments, which were strictly non-alcoholic. The boys smuggled in bottles of beer and hid them under the chairs that lined the walls, and nobody seemed to mind. Most girls were not interested in alcoholic drink at that time. The usual arrangement was that the teaching sessions took place in the first half, before the refreshments. The boys and the girls would separate to the opposite sides of the dance floor and Mr. Hibbert would pair up the couples. In the second half, the girls and boys could dance with whoever they liked.

In her teenage years, Ruby was a very active person and into anything that was going. Not only did she go dancing nearly every night, she often went rambling at weekends with a group of girlfriends. If the weather was nice, they walked to Ashburys Station in West Gorton on a Sunday morning and took a train to the Peak District of Derbyshire to spend a day in the country. This was a common outing for working class people from Manchester, many of whom were desperate to get away from the densely packed and polluted streets.

One summer’s day, probably in 1931 when she was 16, Ruby went with some friends to Hayfield. They met a group of boys who were also from Manchester, and were camping for the weekend. Ruby took a fancy to a boy of about her age, and he asked her where they could meet. She knew, if he was interested enough, he would find her. So she deliberately played hard to get, but made sure to mention the dance halls where she usually went, hoping he would take the trouble to seek her out.

His name was Fred Collins and he was just six months older than her. A few evenings later, he turned up at Hibbert’s and they danced together. He had to be home by 10.00 pm, whilst she was allowed to stay out until 11.00 pm. It is interesting to note that both Ruby and Fred were working full time, but their parents still decided the time they must be back home after a night out. It gives a good impression of the strength of family life at the time and the importance of the parents. Ruby and Fred went out together a few more times before drifting apart and then only saw each other occasionally. They were to get married about six years later, but neither of them imagined that then.

Ruby had many boyfriends, each for only short periods of time. It was all very innocent and there was never any sexual involvement, although kissing and cuddling were allowed. She was more interested in dancing and having a good time. Her boyfriends often came to meet her from home and her mother always quizzed them. Lizzie was very protective, wanted to know where they came from, and whether she knew their family. This always included questions about their religion. Methodists and Church of England were acceptable, but if they were Catholics she would make it clear to Ruby that she didn't expect to see that boy again. “He seems nice enough, but I don’t think we’ll see him again,” was a typical response. Even though Lizzie was not a regular churchgoer, she had clear, straight-forward, protestant views, and religious attitudes were much more polarised in those days. To her, it was unthinkable for one of her children to marry a Catholic and she always nipped any possibility in the bud. Ruby was less concerned, but she would never have gone against her mother’s wishes. She was much too afraid of her.

Ruby’s childhood sweetheart was Jack Poxon, a boy about two years older than her who lived just around the corner in Seymour Road. They started seeing each other when she was about 14 years old, at first as part of a group of friends. Jack really wanted an individual relationship with Ruby and was too possessive for her. She preferred to be part of a group, going out dancing with them nearly every night. So, even though they were recognised as a couple, Ruby did not want to be tied too closely to Jack and they drifted apart.

Jack Poxon worked at CPA and their relationship started up again when Ruby joined the company. He was over six feet tall, a nice lad who always dressed well, which she liked. He was clever but, like many others of his generation and background, only had a basic education. Whilst working for the CPA, he was encouraged to attend night school, and was beginning to be recognised as a person with potential for the company. His mother was a strong, pushy woman who was ambitious for her son and encouraged him to study. She fussed over him, did not want him to waste his time with girls, and definitely did not see Ruby in her plans for his future.

As Jack progressed at work, his mother made it clear to Ruby that she was not good enough for her son and might hinder his progress. Mrs. Poxon was so concerned that she even went to see Ruby’s mother to discuss it. However, Lizzie’s view was not to worry, they were young and probably nothing permanent would come of it. This was not enough for Jack’s mother and, eventually, she came between them.

They finally split up when he was promoted to work in one of the company’s factories in Huddersfield. This was probably in 1932, when Ruby was about 18 years old. Jack had younger twin sisters and they used to spy on Ruby and report back to their mother. She would then write to him reporting on her having a fling and going out dancing whilst he was at work in Huddersfield. He came became concerned about these reports and came home one weekend especially to ask her to give up her dancing. But she refused and their meeting ended in a big argument. He continued to send her many letters whilst he was away, but this annoyed Ruby and she was determined to finish their relationship once and for all when he returned. Jack returned from Huddersfield after about a year and was appointed as a junior manager in CPA. Ruby told him, though, that she did not want see him again. By now, she had other boyfriends and interests.

One of Ruby's friends at work was called Marjorie, who was a few years older and more experienced, and she took a fancy to Jack Poxon. Though she did ask Ruby for her permission first, which gives us an impression that other people saw Ruby and Jack as a couple, despite how Ruby was feeling about their relationship. Ruby gave her permission gladly as it would distract him and stop him from bothering her. She knew Marjorie was more willing than her to do "things" (Ruby’s word) to attract Jack, and he didn’t have a chance against her. Eventually, Jack and Marjorie married, but they had no children and do not seem to have had a happy marriage. In later years, Jack started up his own textile business, but was not important to Ruby in the future, even though he appeared on the scene from time to time.

At about this time, several significant events took place in Ruby’s life. On 1st July 1933, her father died of stomach cancer when he was only 55 years old. He had been unwell since about Easter, and was buried in the local graveyard at St. Cross Church in Clayton. During this period, she met Fred Collins again at Hibbert's dance hall, and it is likely that he sought her out deliberately. As usual, the boys and girls were separated to opposite sides of the dance floor ready to pair them off for lessons. Mr Hibbert started to pair up Ruby with another boy when Fred spoke up from the back. He told Mr. Hibbert that she was his girl and that she had to dance with him. So he was allowed to have the first dance with her, but had to wait for the second half for any more. It seems they were both ready for a serious commitment by this time and, from then on, they were considered to be officially “courting”.

In about 1935, Ruby left the CPA, possibly as part of splitting with Jack Poxon. Her last job there was to sew the whipping around the edges of blankets to finish them off neatly. This was fairly basic work and the pay was poor, so she found herself a job making ladies underwear and nightwear, working for a Mr. Appelbaum in a small factory near to where she had previously worked, just off London Road in Manchester. The work was more interesting and better paid and she enjoyed working for Mr. Appelbaum who was a nice man. It was only a small factory after the CPA, and only about a dozen people worked there, but Ruby earned over £2 a week, again on piecework, a good wage for a young woman in this period.

Within the year, the work had run out, so Ruby crossed the road to work for a Mr. Goldstone for a short period, but the pay was not very good. As soon as Mr. Appelbaum got more work, she went back to him. In between his normal jobs, he made garments for the growing retail chain of Marks and Spencer, which originally started in Manchester. They paid the lowest rates for work and this had a direct effect on the girl's wages. Ruby felt exploited, not by Mr Appelbaum but by Marks and Spencer, even though he probably made sure to be less affected financially than his employees. But she needed the money and the job had to be done. This experience left a big impression on her and, as a consequence, she hardly ever shopped in Marks and Spencer’s for the rest of her life.

Ruby worked for Mr. Appelbaum until the time she got married on 26th December 1936, after which time she never worked again as a machinist. Though, for the rest of her life, Ruby could sew any material in any way necessary, an invaluable skill that was envied by many.