What did our mums or dads do?

2jays

Registered User
Jun 4, 2010
11,598
0
West Midlands
My dad became a teacher. After a few years teaching in the UK he decided he wanted to teach in Africa. When I was 18 months old my parents moved to Uganda after a few years in South Uganda, He became head of a school in North Uganda with approx 100 boys at the school

He developed the school, organised the finance of building new buildings, the largest being the library as it was important to him that every one could read. By the time he left the school there were over 500 boys at the school - oh he also had a hand in developing the local golf club too :)
As far as I understand, it is still a thriving well thought of school with girls now also attending. The golf club is a popular venue too

He then came back to England to do more degrees and went back out to Africa, Central Africa this time, to become an inspector of education. He visited all the schools in Central Africa, making sure and sometimes rewriting o levels and a levels so that they were of the same standard as uk o and a levels, but relevant to their world, not the British world.
One example he changed was the science paper asking the kids to dissect a chameleon - which was considered at the time, full of evil spirits by the community. He then was diagnosed with cancer so we came back to England when I was approx 14 years

My mum started work at age 10 working in her fathers bake house - in between going to school. At 12 she drove the bakers run... On her own

She then qualified as a cook/chef

When safe gas cookers were first introduced by the gas board, she was part of a team of ladies who visited purchasers in their homes and demonstrated to them how to cook cakes etc. she also did cookery demonstrations making "dinner party food" for all WI clubs in her area, showing the advantages of gas over electric cookers.

When in Africa, she worked in the local hotel overseeing all the staff and chefs for the hotel. She also catered and cooked the dinners for the ambassadors functions and for other "important" people in the area, one meal she cooked for over 100 people was on a couple of paraffin stoves

Back in England she worked in mental health hospital as the cook and also helped in the OT department with imaginative crafty ideas for patients to do. She hated with a passion basket making or the usual things that were normally on offer at other hospitals.

She was an amazing dressmaker. She made all our clothes without a pattern. She also had a skill in tailoring suits Anything arty crafty and mum could put her hand to it and to a high standard. I still have some material she designed and screen printed before making herself a dress

When she retired... She opened and ran a collectors shop. Buying and selling stamps/cigarette cards/coins etc. and ran a collectors auction, which covered anything anyone collected, once a month.

I first knew something was up with mum when she sold a very valuable stamp for the same price as the cost of a postal stamp 5 years ago.... She then stopped cooking for family get togethers and we would go to a local pub as "her house wasn't big enough to hold everyone" even though we had been visiting en mass for years....

Oops long post sorry :)
 

SoyHJ

Registered User
Mar 16, 2013
477
0
Hi Rosiejaaynex, welcome to TP. You can ask or say anything you want on here and someone will always be here to help and support you. Xx
 

SoyHJ

Registered User
Mar 16, 2013
477
0
My father was a sugar cane farmer in Queensland, Australia. Mum had been born in England and they emigrated to the UK when I was only three. They settled in Newcastle upon Tyne and Dad ended up being a factory labourer in some of the engineering factories near the Tyne. Not much of a demand for sugar cane farmers in that neck of the woods.....

Whenever I've been in Australia on a visit to see family, I look around and wonder how on earth he managed to cope with such a huge change in lifestyle. I don't think I'd have the courage to do what he did!
 

Saffie

Registered User
Mar 26, 2011
22,513
0
Near Southampton
My father was a teacher, later a headmaster. He served in the RAF during the war.
My mother was a nurse but, as was the way of the world then, she was never allowed to work once she married though she did a lot of voluntary work.
 

dottyd

Registered User
Jan 22, 2011
1,063
0
n.e.
My dad was a dog trainer/handler in the RAF.He met my mum in the cinema where she was working as an usherette.My dad is on the right with his friend and one of his dogs.Mum was dressed up promoting a film.

I just love all of these stories and the diversity of occupations. Love the story of the possible spy. The dog handler and Australian sugarcane worker. That's a corker that one.

Keep them coming folks.

Celebrate your oldies!
 

Lindy50

Registered User
Dec 11, 2013
5,242
0
Cotswolds
This is great, isn't it? :)

Going back to my mum, she was brought up for most of her life in a corner shop in Birmingham. They bought most things in from salesmen, eg tea, biscuits etc....but the ice cream, my grandparents made themselves on hot days. With no refrigeration, they then had to sell it fast before it melted......what didn't sell, was eaten by the family. No wonder mum's had a sweet tooth all her life! :D xx
 

elizabet

Registered User
Mar 26, 2013
224
0
Southampton
My Dad was a power loom overlooker in the Lancashire cotton industry but during the war he was a prisoner of war in the Far East, in Changi camp and doing manual labour in a ship yard and coal mine.
My Mum was very proud that she was a WAAF in the war and as her short term memory diminished I heard more of the same stories of her experiences on barrage balloon sites .After the war she worked as a winder in a cotton mill ,then married and became mum to me and a homemaker.
 

Laurano

Registered User
Jan 3, 2013
24
0
Great thread!

My Mum and Dad were Bristolians and proud! My Mum used to mend stockings in a big department store in Bristol, and kept her tools of the trade so taught me how to mend my tights for school. She used to concentrate hard and pick up every stitch in the ladder, amazing!:eek: stockings were expensive after the war, so, apparently, this was common practice. Later when we were young, she did various part-time jobs, and was always there when we came home from school. She died just over a year ago after many years of ill health and a severe stroke.

My Dad, spent the latter part of the war perched on the roof of the building he lived in on Park Street, (the one where the massive slide went down at Easter)watching with excitement (7 years old)as Bristol burned after the bombs fell. He loved anything to do with the war, and just four years before he died, my brother arranged for a visit to the top of the same building for him, he loved it, the local paper attended and we had a copy of the paper framed for him. He travelled all over the world training people to use precision balances, hospitals and universities, and factories. A very clever man, devoted to his wife, first and foremost and his family. He became ill with Dementia of some kind, and suffered a degrading and dreadful 10 years, before he died 2 weeks before my Mum. A sad demise for a loving couple, and a matching pair of the most wonderful parents anyone could hope for.
 

Duncan

Registered User
Oct 14, 2009
5
0
west london
An Obituary to my dear father

My father William Gordon Forsyth, who has died aged 77, enjoyed a 40 year career in film editing. He began his career in 1950 with British Movietone News. In 1959 after two years as a reluctant National Serviceman he joined the BBC Film Department as an assistant film editor ignoring the protestations of his mother who warned him against leaving a steady job in newsreels for the uncertain world of television. Stints on sports & current affairs programmes followed & he was promoted to film editor in 1963.He spent many years working at Lime Grove Studios & his calm approach to the job meant he was well suited to the high pressure atmosphere of topical programmes.
In 1967 Gordon, as he was always known, joined the ground breaking 24 HOURS programme where his quiet confidence & unflappable approach saved many a film item from disaster. By now his ability to inspire confidence in others had been duly noted & in 1971 he joined PANORAMA as chief film editor before moving on to THE MONEY PROGRAMME. In 1976 he joined TONIGHT as film editing organiser.
There was a brief intermission between the demise of TONIGHT & the establishment of a new nightly news programme NEWSNIGHT which he joined from its inception. It was the high octane atmosphere of the news & current affairs cutting rooms that he really enjoyed & although a management role at Ealing Studios followed he accepted an off er of early retirement in 1990.
Gordon was a gentle person & a wonderful father & grandfather. He was completely devoted to Margaret & theirs was a long & happy marriage. They were insuperable until the end. He was a committed member of The Church of England & was proud to have served as Church Warden at St Dunstan’s in Feltham.
The last years of his life were consumed by dementia. Cared for at home by my mother, his beloved Margaret until two days before she died, they left the family home on the same day in separate ambulances never to return. She stubbornly refused to consider even respite care, despite her own poor health, knowing he would be completely lost without her. His last six months saw him sectioned in the most distressing of circumstances & we are grateful my mother did not have to witness his suffering which we are sure she would have found unbearable. He is survived by two sons, Duncan & Andrew & six granddaughters one of whom he never met.
 

HelenInBC

Registered User
Mar 23, 2013
242
0
This is a wonderful thread. Thank you for giving us the chance to talk about our parents this way.

My mom is 87 now. She was born in the dead of winter in a northern town in Manitoba, Canada. (a very cold place!) She was born very small- just 2 pounds - at home by a country doctor and no one expected her to survive for very long. They tucked her into a little box and placed it on the open oven door. Their home had no central heating, so this was probably the best way to keep her warm. They oiled her body all over and eventually started feeding her with an eyedropper. She was never taken to a hospital for care. Obviously, she survived and ended up having the largest family (5 children) of any of her siblings.
Her own mother had 15 pregnancies but only 10 of her children survived infancy. She also lost one son very young in the war. Two of her daughters died at the age of 5 from diptheria. I'm often amazed how life has changed in just one or two generations.

My mother married quite late in life for the times. She married at 30 and had her last child at the age of 42. She did office work as a typist until she met my father who was in the Canadian Army. She was a homemaker until my youngest brother was in school, then she worked in retail at a local department store part time. My father worked a storekeeper for a nearby city works department.
I've always thought I was very lucky to have my mother at home for me as I was growing up. I always felt loved and protected and could always come home to my own home after school. My mom always baked cookies and bread and everything homemade. It is something I have tried to do for my own children, although I've always had to work. (I was a single parent for most of their childhood)

I'm enjoying reading this thread. Thanks again :)
 

Rageddy Anne

Registered User
Feb 21, 2013
5,984
0
Cotswolds
My parents met in 1938 when they both worked in the rag trade in a big department store like the one in Are you being served? My father was a display manager, and my mother was a fabrics specialist and a social butterfly! No one could ever understand why she married him, though he was good looking. When the war came my father became a Military Policeman, and my mother worked in a munitions factory and then in a high street bank. I didn't see my father until I was five and he was a stranger. He briefly went back to work in the display side of a department store, but then became a Civil Servant working for Scotland Yard in London. Meanwhile my mother became manager of a dry cleaners, and then opened her own shop, starting out as a sweet shop, but quickly diversifying into everything else, only limited by the rules relating to RATIONING. Her customers were fiercely loyal because they loved telling her all their troubles....she really was the local Agony Aunt! After a few years break my mother worked in a dress shop, where customers always sought her out and refused to deal with the proprietor, which was a bit awkward! Everyone loved her, she had a warm heart and a fabulous sense of humour, while my father was quite the opposite. So of course, she died in her early eighties, still loved by everyone who knew her, and my father grumbled on until he was ninety eight!:D
 

copsham

Registered User
Oct 11, 2012
586
0
Oxfordshire
This is a lovely thread. I often see the people in my mums nursing home as "little old ladies" or "a little old man". Then I remember that they have been independent people who have done all sorts of things in their lives.

I won't share my mums life as all it does is give reasons for why we were so neglected as children and why she did not stop our abuse. Suffice it to say that as an older lady she has been sweet and kind! :)
 

Not so Rosy

Registered User
Nov 30, 2013
578
0
Dad used to be a Professional Footballer then became a Consulting Structural Engineer with quite a big practice. Sadly he designed the hospitals he keeps being admitted to.
 

Lindy50

Registered User
Dec 11, 2013
5,242
0
Cotswolds
I am so enjoying reading these posts :)

As copsham says, it's good to be reminded of the lives our loved ones have lived, whether they endured hard times, were high fliers, social butterflies, or had jobs that kept society functioning. Great to remember the contributions they've made, as well as the difficulties they (and we) have faced :) xx
 

Noorza

Registered User
Jun 8, 2012
6,541
0
My granddad was a fisherman, farmer and shopkeeper, though gran did most in the shop, I didn't know her as she died young. It was in the countryside in Ireland and it was nothing for a customer to knock the door to get a scofa loaf on the way home from the pub. A totally different more relaxed way of life than today.
 

dottyd

Registered User
Jan 22, 2011
1,063
0
n.e.
There has been some amazing careers here. All from a long ago era ( but not that long ago in years) where respect was paramount.

I think all of us should get a blown up picture of our loved one in their prime and write a synopsis of their life and career and put it on the wall of their home or care home with the title

Lest we forget underneath.

Sometimes I hear carers speaking to the elderly like the two year olds they are not.

Please keep this thread rolling and do all contribute where you can. We owe it to the people who made us feel special.

To the people who didn't get the parents they would have liked or should have had I hope there was someone in your life that made you feel special or took the time to notice what a unique and entirely loveable little person you were ;-)
 

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