Leyland Station.

[LDunlop76]

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Originally posted by William R
Getting back to SM, I didn`t reaslise that there could be two tarred with the same brush. The only things we missed were the broomstick, pointed hat, black cloak and black cat.

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Hey! That's disrespectful to witches! [] (Very tongue in cheek riposte..... but I know a couple of witches and they're not the evil people of fairy tales)I don't think my mother-in-law was quite on the scale of your step-mother, Bill, but she was an extremely difficult woman! Her first husband soon sought solace in the arms of others ( "the floozies") and her second husband (my husband's father) was an absolute saint for putting up with her. She was one of those people who is snobby 'without due cause', coming from an ordinary background herself. She always looked down on her sister-in-law just because she came from Liverpool, was horrified when a doctor complimented her on retaining her Derbyshire accent (she thought she'd eradicated it!) and took great offence when, attached to the Brit forces in Aden, she was treated as inferior by superior officers' wives..... even though she did the self-same to lower ranks' families herself. She had an irrational hatred of the Welsh. She disliked me (she told me many times a daughter-in-law should be shorter than the mother-in-law - make sense out of that one! Heck, it's hard to shorter than 5 foot!) and didn't like the fact I was better educated, but I didn't realise the extent of her dislike until after she died, when husband told me how hard she had tried to talk him out of marrying me!Husband ran away to sea at 17 to get away from her and only visited her at Christmas and her birthday. It was me who went round every week and took the grandchildren to see her. Boy, could she hold a grudge! She regularly mentioned her feelings of hurt at a comment someone had made during the war! (All the poor soul had said was that Joyce had passed on her cold - it was said in jest, the way you do at work.... "Aww, thanks for passing on your cold, Joyce!" kind of thing!) All the rest of her family had fallen out with her. Her funeral was a very small affair - just husband and I, our two kids and my parents - none of her family... and of course she had no friends left because she'd had rows with everyone who'd ever shown her any friendship. Sad really. But somehow it was always the other person who was at fault and Joyce would never apologise. She once locked herself in her room for a full year - father-in-law had to take her meals up to her. That was before my time, fortunately, but once when we were staying with her, we had to sit out in the garden the full day as she turfed us out of the house when she took offence at something I'd said - something so trivial I can't even remember what! If it hadn't been the Outer Hebrides we'd have packed up and come home. Fortunately it wasn't raining, so we sat it out until father-in-law came home and negotiated our re-entry to the house! That was around the time she turned day into night and only got up in time for "Coronation St" then went to bed at 5am.... but complained when her husband turned in for bed at 11pm, not taking into account that he had work in the morning!Like you, Bill, I could write a book! She could certainly out-mother-in-law all those mother-in-law jokes!

[William R]

Linda,Back again after our rest. SM used to annoy neighbours by hammering on the floorboards next to the party wall. Don`t know about the neighbours, we couldn`t stand it! Thank goodness hammer drill hadn`t been invented then. We had an old vacuum cleaner with a rotary brush which was noisy, she used to put it on a piece of loose lino next to the wall and leave it running. Other times, took the bulb out of the light and switched light on/off continuously as it made a noise, just to annoy. She used to cut half the privet hedge, and leave Alec`s half; his side just looked unkempt, ours looked stupid. What about lighting a fire in the garden when lady next door had hung washing out? No, I don`t think we`ll write a book about it, people wouldn`t believe it nowadays, What`s the next stage after eccentric?? What a laugh we must have seemed. Cheerio, Bill.

[Thornley]

WOW, and I thought I was the only one with family horrors. My aunt, I have to say is one of the most evil (strong I know but true) women I have ever had the displeasure of knowing. She sounds like agood mixture of the SM and the Mother-in-law[] It is so sad when people make such a good job of making people dislike them. []
Vanessa.

[LDunlop76]

Oh, good grief, Bill! At least my M-I-L usually just took the hump at others - your S-M was a dab hand at creating offence! You can take out injunctions against neighbours like that these days.

My mind is boggling at your aunt, Vanessa, if she combines S-M and M-I-L. I take it you avoid contact with her?

Why do some people develop a talent for alienating others?

[William R]

Glad you`re back Linda. One more thing, SM was an accomplished pianist and delighted in practising Chromatic Scales late at night when it was neighbours bedtime, front off the piano, lid lifted, full belt. Chopins Polonaise can get a bit wearing, but I DO like classical music when played properly (should that be correctly) and with feeling. Isn`t it funny that when you mention some SM or MIL in this vein, there is always someone to relate a similar tale. They must all be just under the surface waiting to spring upon us. I hope that our little disclosures have brought a little happiness to people in these trying times. Watching these pictures of uncontrolled looting reminds me of my days in India just prior to Independence, where thousands of people were displaced with just what they could carry, to make a new home in Pakistan/India. They had to make a long trek into uncertaintity, leaving their homes to the looters. How would we survive if we were given a few days to gather all our belongings together for the journey into the unknown? Would we know what to take and what to leave? There I go again, all those years ago, and still bad memories. Does anyone think that in years to come, these bewildered coalition soldiers who are only following orders, will sit down quietly and tell there families "I was there, I was part of it." What will their feelings be then; I know what mine are after more than fifty years. Anyway, there`s something to chew on, Cheerio from over the Pennines, Bill.

[LDunlop76]

quote:

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Originally posted by William R
Glad you`re back Linda.

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Thanks, Bill! [] I've been visiting every day, but must have missed tha grand re-opening yesterday as the forum was still down when I logged on in the morning.I shudder to think how I would cope if I was forcibly displaced from my home. My father's best friend's daughter married a Yugoslavian. Come the Balkan conflict, he went off to fight with the Serbs, whilst their home was taken by Croats. Janet was forced to flee with their 12 year-old son with just the clothes they stood up in. Travelling only under cover of darkness, they managed to escape the country and hitch to somewhere where Janet could phone her Mum in England and get some money wired out so she could get home. She had no idea for months if her husband was alive or dead. Luckily Miro survived too and now, a few years down the line, they are living back in Croatia. I can't imagine the terrors they went through.As for soldiers looking back on their time in trouble spots - I don't think any of them forgets their experiences. My Great-Uncle used to talk about landing in Avranches on D-Day plus 1. My Great-Grandfather used to tell my Mum about his time in Gallipoli. My former boss talked about his time in Cyprus. A US friend talks about his time in Vietnam. Of course to any ordinary soldier prior to say the 1970's, being sent abroad to fight was probably the first time they'd even been abroad. So even those in say the catering corps, who may not have seen any active skirmishing, would have experienced a massive culture shock being sent to the Far East or North Africa. A thing like that sticks with a chap for life. My Great-Uncle could never settle back to life in civvy street afterwards - having gained a bit of promotion and responsibilty in the army, he couldn't settle back to life as a dog's body in the UK - he emigrated to New Zealand in 52.In this country people of my generation have led our lives generally in peace and freedom. Most of us cannot imagine the traumas soldiers go through during active service. Having seen the things they've seen, it's amazing so many former soldiers can get on with their lives so well afterwards. As Bill says, the bad memories linger on even 50 years down the line.

[Caroline]

Harking back to tell John that the Peets of Bent Lane were my mother's family, she left to marry in 46 but her brother John lived in one of the houses until the 90s. Who of them do you remember?

[William R]

Caroline, Was your Mum the Sally Peet wot went to school when I did,where I was teached,up to 1939. Wasn`t there an older sister, of very slight build married to a man who was built like a wrestler? I think I`ve asked before, most likely forgot. When I go to Leyland I`m going to take a picture of our house which was in Bent Lane, I may even take one of the Peet houses!! My "archivist" daughter always wants piccy`s of "where,what, how and why" when we go anywhere, so I have to oblige. From the wrong side of the Pennines, Cheerio, Bill.

[rocketmanjohn]

Caroline,
I only remember Irene Peet, I know she had a younger brother, but I can't remember his name. Irene was a school friend of my sister Judith.
John