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Doreen
hippies understudy


429 Posts
Posted -  17/12/2007  :  22:32
Childhood memories of Doreen Gail Bancroft (nee Maisey)Originally written in spanish 1998.translacion by DoreenGail Bancroft.

                             BIRTH ANYBODY ELSE BORN IN A PUB?

Edited by - Doreen on 01/01/2008 11:45:22 PM


Dordygail

always the one to make the best of things.

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Doreen
hippies understudy


429 Posts
Posted - 18/12/2007 : 00:19

English version. of(LA POSADA)as hearsay will have it:

ROOM IN THE INN

I was Born one day on the 31 of july (the day of abundance) at 11. 59 pm, in a second floor room under the thatched roof of
the chequers a medieval inn, the only watering post fo miles, situated in the village of pampisford cambridge .
The elders of the village, clients of the inn, had watched happyly, and attently the window
above the principal door.
That night was clear n and warm, a soft breeze ruffled the geraniums ,and forgetmenots
hanging from the baskets on the wall, the perfume of the flowers was mixed with the smell of ripe barley in the nearby fields.
The mixture of warmth, and sweet smells making the three elders of the village sway just a little as they sat on the wooden bench beneath the window, well that ,and the beers, after all it was friday night , official day to have the extra tipple so to speak.
They had watched my mothers bursting belly grow for months, nothing , not even sitting the night out would deter them being the first to know, and difundir the news through the village.

My mother coped with the inn that day single handed, as my father was away at his parents funeral way up north in Maiseyhampton.
The first pains had come hours before the oficial time for closing, but she held on as she could, the old boys had noticed something was amiss but said nothing, just watched , and waited.
Mother closed as quickly as she could , not an easy task with the drunks on friday night
that were in no hurry to go home.
At last they were all gone , but she noted that the three wizend had taken to the bench outside listening for teltale sounds.

My mother had held on as long as she could,she had telephoned the midwife as soon as the bar was empty, then she hastened to prepare the bed as was the custom with layers of newspapers and sheets.
In our district there were two midwives who took twelve hour shifts.
the two midwives were very distinct from each other in their caracters.
one was homely bright ,gentle , and smiling,easy going,
the other was a stiff and eficient , with no country aires or graces,
her uniform was always impecable, starched like a knife edge.
Of course we had the latter.
the midwife was preparing my mother , taking her pulse, washing
the necesary bits, and asking all the pertinent questions.
One of which was..Kathleen have you emptied your bowels?
mother thaught about it a moment , and replied yes.
the answer was quite honest for her part, sin sospecahar que se referia a una lavativa, also she had been the day before ,and in our household it could be quite normal not to go in two weeks , as my mother ( a Londoner)firmly believed that anything green would be poison, so vegetables didnt get into her kitchen in those days.
My mother was in pain but she was not frightened , i was her second child , and the birth of my elder brother three and a half years my senior did not present any problems or great distress.
because of the three wise old men under neath the window she held back the cries, and the midwife was quite tranquil thinking that it would take hours yet.
The thing was that if a child was born in a midwifes shift , that midwife haad to stay with the mother and baby untill a doctor arrived
to give his blessing to the good condicion of both, this sometimes took several hours as the doctor could be called out on urgent cases.
and as mother wasnt screaming she was surprised when my head poped out, she leaped to her feet to catch me, which she did admirably, she also caught everything from mothers bowels , full in face frock pinny ,and coifer.
so the first words that i heard were:
!!Shit oh SHIT!!! its a girl .....shit.

The church clock struck twelve


The three wise men down in the street, leaped about celebrating
shaking hands with each other, saying congratulacion, weve brought another baby into the world.
(I think it has something to do with colective male ism)(chauvenism)

Edited by - Doreen on 01/01/2008 11:40:21 PM


Dordygail

always the one to make the best of things.

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Doreen
hippies understudy


429 Posts
Posted - 18/12/2007 : 00:51
                                                  :baby
this is me 5 months

Edited by - Doreen on 01/01/2008 11:47:47 PM


Dordygail

always the one to make the best of things.

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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 18/12/2007 : 07:34
Keep going kid......   this is good.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 18/12/2007 : 07:34
By the way, what year.....?


Stanley Challenger Graham




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stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk Go to Top of Page
Doreen
hippies understudy


429 Posts
Posted - 18/12/2007 : 11:32


quote:
Stanley wrote:
By the way, what year.....?

hahahaha you never leave a stone unturned do you Stanley hahahaha
thats a question you dont ask a lady,
 but as im no lady ill tell you , 1953 .
here a few more details for you:

The Queen was crowned 2 june , Westminster

The film Peter pan,

Book, Alfred  C.Kinsey, sexual conduct of weomen.

James Watson biologist, and Peter Crick Bioquimico, estructure of ADN

Ana  Maria Patron Garcia,Mike oldfield, Pierce brosnan,Jean-pierre Jeunet,Andrew Wiles,Valeri Gergiev ,Saturu Nakajima, were born.

Stalin,Maria de Teck,Eugene O,Neill,Jorge Negrete,Carlos 11 of Rumania,Osa Johnson,
 Hanz Fritz ,died.

Nobel prizes

Physics -Frits Zernike
Quimica-Herman Straudinger
medicine-Kreb y lipman
Literatura-Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
Peace- George Catlet Marshall


Dordygail

always the one to make the best of things.

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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 18/12/2007 : 17:04
I had a friend once who was a Spanish translator.  She was asked to do half of a book published in Spanish that had been written on the life of Fressinet who invented pre-stressed concrete.  She asked to have a look at a few pages of the other person's translation and on one page found several mistakes and two howlers.  The bloke had translated the 'marquesa' at a railway station as 'a tent' and where the Spanish original said that Fressinet failed to finish a bridge in the mountains because he was 'constipado' he said he was constipated.  It's Spanish for influenza I think.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Doreen
hippies understudy


429 Posts
Posted - 19/12/2007 : 10:24
HAHAHA WHAT A BLOOMER.

MARQUESINA  is a marquee,not a tent in spanish,
 
and yes CONSTIPADO is a cold.

at butlins
Mum,pregnant with me, Dad peter, and the lodger melvinn an Indian boy.
Mum Dad Peter Melvinn

Edited by - Doreen on 29/12/2007 12:39:00 PM


Dordygail

always the one to make the best of things.

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Doreen
hippies understudy


429 Posts
Posted - 19/12/2007 : 11:18
We had an indian lodger for some time in the inn who was at university in the nearby  city of cambridge,and he apointed himself cheif baby tender in the evenings while mum was in the bar ,so i was  well attended by this genle soul, i think perhaps he learnt things that no university could teach you.He would be perhaps the first person i focussed on, i would think that my mother was a man and coffee color , not a bad thing to broaden the mind.In the mornings i was taken across the road to a cottage where an old teaching school friend lived with her family,
this was auntie florrie,who compained bitterly that she couldnt play with the baby because it never woke up.
Mum had given up teaching after her first term, she had been sent up north to bradford,and to a very rough school, the kids made mincemeat out of her, so she decided that she hated children, and that was the end of her career.
 Auntie florrie had married a farm hand and had a little girl in school,
and so was free,and as good luck would have it lived in front of us.
I slept 18 hours a day untill i was six months old only waking up to feed, so i was of little trouble or joy to anybody .
When i was 3 months old we moved to cambridge complete with lodger,leaving the pub life behind us.
The next time i returned was very especial ocasion, apart from being the strongest memory for me as a baby ( i rember it like it was yesterday) i was 8 months old had never crawled, but that week i had rolled over grabbed a chair pulled myself up onto my feet and walked.
Mother was taking me to see auntie florrie to show her how i walked,
iremember getting off the bus , i recognised the small tiangle of green where the old hand iron water pump was, I saw auntie florries cottage ,and was so excited ,i was on stage so to speak, and so happy i knew auntie florrie was over there, she had opened the door having seen us through the window,she was smiling, as mother guided me across the road,Shouting !look she can walk! i remember ging down the three steps into the cottage that had a very low door, mother bending adults always had to bend a little to get through these medievil sized doors.
 I remember the nice warm smell of the cottage,the  open arms of auntie florrie , her saying how beutifull i was,and clever, the contast of light in the street, and half light  in the cottage  the crackling log fire.

Such a happy memory to be cherished always.

Edited by - Doreen on 19/12/2007 11:47:37 PM


Dordygail

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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 19/12/2007 : 16:35
Lovely!  Doreen, you're the first person I've ever heard admit to having a memory as early as me.  Thank God for that,  I am not alone.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Doreen
hippies understudy


429 Posts
Posted - 20/12/2007 : 00:24
Yes its strange how people differ in in the age of thier first memories,
i have a very vivid memory of my childhood,hence this little book,
all of it written in spanish , so its taking me a bit to translate for you  but bit by bit... , plus the fact that i type with only one finger hahaha.


Dordygail

always the one to make the best of things.

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frankwilk
Senior Member


3975 Posts
Posted - 20/12/2007 : 07:25
When I worked in Mississippi
Val took Spanish lessons from a lady who worked at MSU in Starkville. When we bought an apartment in Spain people used to comment on Val's pronunciation. They used to ask her which part of South America she came from !!!!  her teacher came from Venezuela.



Frank Wilkinson       Once Navy Always Navy Go to Top of Page
Doreen
hippies understudy


429 Posts
Posted - 20/12/2007 : 11:38
Yes Frank amercan spanish and spanish are spoken quite diferently,
just like the diference in american english , and english


Dordygail

always the one to make the best of things.

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Doreen
hippies understudy


429 Posts
Posted - 21/12/2007 : 19:32
My father at that time spent very little time with us, dad had been in the air force for 17 years or so,and was warrant oficer during the war in Burma,and was seen on a news reel with a gun stuck in the back of the top noch jap when they surrendered, aparently the whole japenese army surrendered  to 27 brits, much to their surprise.
when he left the forces he was leutenant,he had met my mother at a dance in her coledge, he was in charge of the raf men that were allowed to attend as some sort of a treat.
on seeing my mother he told the men that if anybody went near her they would be on a charge,mother was a bit of a looker ,ive seen the fotografs with her with the others she really stood out,so she was not acustomed to being ignored by men , she just couldnt understand it,
and thishuge  man twice her age ,and bald was the only one that came near her , she was a bit  naff about it, and when dad asked her if there was any possibility of a cup of cofee, she delightedly invited him to the kitchen , and with very sweet smiles made him one very  hot cup of cofee,laced with half a ton of salt.
He sipped the cofee, i suppose he smelt it, a man of experience he didnt flinch,
 just kept on drinking making smalltalk, when he had drunk the lot ,bade her goodnight like a gentleman, without hurry left with  no external sighns of wanting to be sick,witch of course he did the moment he found the loo.
He left mother there with her mouth open, flabergasted , she had put enough salt in to make a horse sick, and he hadnt flinched, she decided he must be a very extraordinary man,and in the end felt quite remorsfull,and a little atracted to this strange man.
so on their next encounter she was much more pleasant to him,
and the relacionship flourished,and were soon married.

Mum ready for the colledge dance, she is the one in the middle.
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Edited by - Doreen on 29/12/2007 09:44:39 AM


Dordygail

always the one to make the best of things.

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Doreen
hippies understudy


429 Posts
Posted - 21/12/2007 : 19:57
They were bileted at Duxford airodrome Essex ,where my  elder brother was born.
father had decided to leave the forces, i supposed it bored him after all the travelling during the war  years the constant danger in the jungle,life on a base must have felt flat and futile.
He felt that at 40+ he must move quickly in order to place himself in civilian life.
so at  the time i was born he had several jobs, and was never at home much.
at night he was driving a taxi , and used to sleep between journeys if he could,he had opened an estate agency in linton about 10 miles away,(with another lady)mother didnt know about either, he was supposed to be running the pub, in the evening he studied with a firm in cambridge , in order to take  his final exams as auctioneer , valuer.
on the day of the exam he was so tired that he fell asleep on the chair
in the waiting room, and when they woke him to go into the oral exam the ten minute sleep had freshened him enough to pass with flying colors and got his leters F.S.V.A quite a feat for a country lad.


Dordygail

always the one to make the best of things.

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Doreen
hippies understudy


429 Posts
Posted - 23/12/2007 : 11:03
Dad had been divorced before he married my mum, There were 3 sons.
 He had this girlfriend before and during the war,
and this was the lady who shared the estate agents buisness with him,she had also been an officer in the war, had been a flight seargent.
They had shared many experiences togerther.
I will refer to her as Auntie Elizabeth , which was what i always called her. she hsd no idea that my mother existed, and my mother didnt know anything about her either , i was 2 years old when he admitted to auntie that he had made a terrible mistake, that he had married, and had two children, and was starting a divorce.
At that time we had moved to Saffron Walden,and were living in a very nice house in a very posh part of the town called pleasant valley, i never could understand why it was called pleasant valley  because it was up the hill .
I had a bedroom all to myself with a triangular bay widow, like a book stood up on its end ,and half open.
this fascinated me, it drew me like a magnet, so high up ,and suspended in the air so to speak,made you feel like a princess
in a castle tower.
the street was not a busy thoughrofare, and in front of the house was
a piece of green  that had bald bits where the rain made deep muddy puddles,and in the middle was a stretch of gravel where a neighbor always parked his beutifull black taxi.
I had been watching from my castle window for some time , as he toiled away bucket after bucket, washing and rinsing the car polishing
carefully with a soft cloth so it should have an almost mirror like shine for the blushing bride that shortly had to be taken to the church for her wedding.
the job well done he retired to his house for a cup of tea before setting off.
 I was at the time about one and a half to two, in full learning capacity,
and a great desire to help where ever i could, so i slipped of the window seat down the stairs into the garden and out into the street.
I had decided to help....and practise a new skill learnt from watching,
i didnt have a cloth or water so i took my knickers off and wet them in the puddles,proceeded to wash the taxi.
I had made a complete circle of the car,and decided that that was agood job jobbed, and had retired to one of the muddy pools and was sat waist deep when mother found me, she was absolutely horrified when she  saw the state of the taxi bonnet all dressed in white ribbon,
and the wide stripe of mud my hight all around it.
she rushed me into the house at arms length, straight into the bath clothes and all,  and we hid for the rest of the day
.

Edited by - Doreen on 30/06/2010 09:42:53 AM


Dordygail

always the one to make the best of things.

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