Kath & Zillah at Kath’s, Brockenhurst Court, Station Road, Sutton Coldfield February 19th, 1992
[The following notes are rather fragmentary.]
In this recording the sisters talk about social change, for example the motor car and the radio. Kath recalls the ‘cat’s whisker’ which was required to use the wireless, and fetching it “so that grandma can listen to the service”. I didn’t realise that before the advent of the loudspeaker people listened to the radio using earphones, and so used to have to pass the earphones round. But the family had a telephone before everyone else; it was on the wall in their parlour. They talk about the cinema they went to in Dudley Road – the ‘flea pit’. Tickets one shilling and nine pence or one shilling and sixpence before 1:00. How they persuaded their father (Pop) to come and see a new film called The Jazz Singer, which was the first, or one of the first, ‘talkies’.
There is mention of Alec’s Aunt Winnie (Winifred Gammelien), who played the piano in the cinema. “A wonderful woman … cross-eyed… with red hair.” Henry Ford really liked her.
They talk about Zilla Eardley’s sister, Mary. And about Zilla’s daughters, who were, in order of age: Auntie Ada, Gertie and Florence (Nana). The family home in Laxey Road Birmingham is mentioned. The story of the Saturday penny comes up again, and how, as a very young child, Zillah junior walked from Halesowen to Rotton Park Road. Through Bearwood and Quinton, looking for signs to Kidderminster. By 3:00 PM she was nearly collapsing. Auntie Kath got into trouble for that. The two sisters, who were more fun loving than Betty and Connie and more daring (for the time) used to go off walking with the boys.
Zillah was run over by a car once but she lay flat and it didn’t make contact with her. She emerged shouting: “I’m not hurt, Mother, I’m not hurt!”
They recall games they used to play in the middle of the road: Sheep sheep come over!
There are memories of their garden, which was rather neglected, where there was a shed for Zillah to do her violin practice. Kath, Zillah, Zelda and Rene (Highfield) used to play a lot together. There were no school dinners in those days and they came home from school for lunch. The only day that the table wasn’t laid was the day that grandma (Zilla?) died. They came home to find a bucket on the kitchen floor. Flo Glover was living with them then. There is the story of Pop having ‘saved’ Grandma once before by staying up all night feeding her sips of brandy when she had double pneumonia.
Kath and Zillah recall some of the games that they used to play. Some of them were war games: Now we’ve only got one arm. Shoot bang fire – now he’s dead all over.
Kath and Zillah but were both keen swimmers. Kath says, “Your mother had a better dive than me”.
Kath: “We slept together till the day your mother got married.” By then the family were living in Station Road, Sutton (where this interview took place). Then there are more memories of family life in the homes in Rotton Park Road and Station Road, for example, how they had candles to go to bed and chamber pots (there was no inside toilet).
Nana seemed to have had easy confinements. The midwife and Dr Dale came to the home for each confinement. Afterwards the children all lined up outside to go and see the new baby. Frank – the last one – was 11 and a half pounds. He was dark haired and dark complexioned and Zillah said to the people who kept the shop down the road “We’ve just had a black baby!”
They recall the outbreak of flu after the First World War (which most of the family seemed to have contracted), how when your nose started to bleed it meant you were beginning to get better. There’s a memory of Pop walking up and down pacifying the smaller children when they were ill with flu or when Nana was ill. At this point in the recording about 45 minutes in I’m interrupted by a phone call.
When it resumes they talk about their brothers and remember Tony’s furious temper and how he would go stiff with rage. Their mother used to say to them: “If you don’t behave yourself I’ll jump up to the ceiling and never come down again.” They agree that their mother must have been quite broad minded: she was known for her risqué rhymes and songs. There are memories of grocery shopping then and memories of swimming competitions and, in later years, of playing tennis at Anchorage Road. And people who came into their lives and stayed around, such as Henry Ford and his friend Ralph Pember, and Len Simmonds. How Kath went out with Henry for a time. Kath didn’t want to marry him so she introduced him to Brenda. Then how Ted once carried Brenda up to bed because she had mixed her drinks. Zillah and Henry fell out for a time and Zillah went out with Alec. Memories of the King George V Jubilee and the big celebration that took place in Sutton. You could by a ‘stick’ of beer, which was 1/3 of a pint. They remember Alec’s car which he nicknamed Tallulah Bedstead and which was featured in a magazine article with a photograph. (I wonder where that went). The Blue Boar Inn where mother got drunk. They remember a friend called Doris Wilcox who was evidently very poor. She used to come to their house with her little brother who said: “Can I have my afters before?” How Nana used to feed all comers, even the gardener.
Fond memories too of their cousin Rene who was eight years older than Connie. She could play the piano and sing. She sings a snatch of song: For all of a sudden, you pulled down the blind.
Kath recalls how sad she was when Rene left them.