Poverty
One family who were always late were the Graham brothers Frank and Johnny, they were usually in bed when we called. This family were extremely poor, there were four children in the family. The father had been killed in the war and the mother depended on the widow?s pension. We would knock on the Graham?s door and usually one of the boys would put his head out of the window; when he saw it was us he would come down and let us in to wait while they dressed. They would come down in their shirts which they had obviously slept in. The room we waited in was straight off the street; there was a deal top table covered with a newspaper, on this would be an upside down loaf of bread and an opened tin of condensed milk. The two boys would swill themselves down in the shallow stone sink in the corner of the room, then cut a slice of bread and smear some condensed milk on it; that was their breakfast. We would then set off for the game. We would have our tram fare but we would usually go into a baker?s shop and buy stale bread or cakes and share them with our pals. (These brothers were always hungry and there were many families like them whose fathers were killed in the war).
These two brothers were among the many of our school friends who, along with hundreds of Liverpool men, were put into the merchant navy during the Second World War. The ship that they sailed in was sunk and they both drowned; the poor lads never knew much comfort, pleasure or happiness in their very short lives. It was families and occasions like these that helped you to realise your good fortune and the value of sensible parents. Towards the end of September the local schools would be visited by somebody from the police and the pupils would be questioned as to the family income; later on the poor children would be sent down to the local washhouse and there they would be stripped of their clothes, given a good hot bath and scrubbed down. They would then be re-clothed; the boys would be dressed in a brown corduroy suit, a rough shirt, a jersey, stockings and a pair of clogs with steel tips round the edges. Their heads were shaved to complete baldness to avoid nits and fleas. The girls were treated the same but wore a skirt and their hair was left a little longer. In the winter these children would sit on the hot water pipes or stand close to the radiators, and their clothes would smell awful. At midday on school days they would be given a pink ticket to take to the dinner centre at Blackstock Street where they would receive a plate of very thick stew called scouse and a cake or a piece of bread and jam. The clothes were a stigma of poverty but without these clothes and food these families could not have survived these hard times; the police were very good to the poor people.
Many accidents happened around the church. On one occasion Benny Gedman was climbing the church railings and slipped, the spike of one of the tailings went through one of his fingers, he stood screaming until I went to him and lifted his finger off the spike; I was warmly complimented for my presence of mind and the boy?s finger was saved. Incidents like that were always happening. I can recall a boy from a rather poor family named Joey Porter, he was always hungry. On this occasion I saw Joey about 20 yards ahead of me on the street, and suddenly he started running forward. He grabbed a handful of fruit off a stall and ran across the street without looking. He ran in front of a pony and trap and was knocked down; the wheel ran over his body but to everyone?s amazement he jumped up and continued running away. Some days after I met Joey, he was rather shaken up about the event but apart from severe bruising was OK. It appears the wheel had passed over the soft part of his stomach, he was very lucky. It must be appreciated that times were very hard for a lot of families; we were the lucky ones who came from well-to- do stable homes, but to our credit we were well aware of it.
div>
I never had pocket money, almost all activities were free. If I needed money my mother usually supplied it in return for a small chore. Me and my older brother Wilf were now expected to pull our weight within the family and each took it in turns to look after the shop, whenever mother needed us. We were proficient at serving the customers with cigarettes, tobacco, sweets, snuff, newspapers, stationery and toys etc. I particularly liked working in the shop, it enabled me to read all the books and comics. Another of my jobs was to take the money to the bank. For all my wild activities I was very reliable and could be trusted to do what I was asked to. I would polish my shoes, wash my face, brush and comb my hair; and could be very business-like, especially when I went to the bank; the bank was somewhere special, none of my friends ever went to the bank.
Bookmarks