PAT GEORGE April 1930 by her sons BARRIE & DAVID
SuAndi: There are two voices in this interview, Barrie’s and David’s. Despite the age gap of over thirteen years, they agree life hadn’t changed that much in the family; it was always the same standards. Barrie: Mum did all sorts of jobs; she cleaned, she was an auxiliary at the hospital, she worked in care homes. I can’t ever remember her not working. She was the strong one in the relationship, what she said went, ‘if we are having that - we are having that, if it’s no, it’s no’ and that’s the end of it. There was no in between, there were no grey areas. He came straight home, there was no pub after work. Mum was the dominant one, whatever she said went – my Dad would always say ‘yeah’. She gave him his bus fares and his money for the bookies1. We thought he was soft, but he wasn’t. He was strong, because his strength was in saying ‘you run the house, I go to work and you run the house’. Someone in her family had been a housekeeper. So, she was quite big on etiquette showing us how to use the right knives and forks and spoons. We had to practise saying ‘How now, brown cow’, you know (laughter). Mum gave us the grounding for impeccable manners and to be confident anywhere knowing what cutlery to use. If it had been left to Dad, we would be using our fingers. 1
Betting (gambling) shop. Licensed legal May 1st 1961
142
