Waiting

I just want to unpack this week's Sepia Saturday suitcase (which features an advert for the Pacific Trunk Company) lay it out and look at all the objects they imagined a male traveller would carry.  For other Sepian adventures that may, or may not, involve suitcases see here.  I knew I would have photos of suitcases. In those times before tablets and mobiles there were always moments to fill when waiting for a train so why not take a photograph.

This Friday is a special day for me and I am featuring the reason, which is my mother, whose birthday was the 31st January.  I also always associate her birthday with change, the lengthening of days becoming noticeable and the promise of the year ahead.   To return to the photograph, taken at a different time of year, October 1958.  I would be about 9 and it looks as though my growing spurt is on the way to overtaking my mothers hight of 5 ft. She was an accomplished in sewing so the coat is one of her creations, as is the hat.  She would continue to knit hats, both when she ran a wool shop and towards the end of her life when she specialised in brushed woollen ones, always admired.  The photo shows us packed and waiting at Ulverston station on the way to Preston.   The journey would have been to visit my Auntie Phyl who lived there for a short while.  I think that was also the time I fell off the dining room chair, (yes I was swinging back on it) and put my teeth through under my bottom lip. I was in good hands though because my Aunt was a nurse and like my mother very good at needlework although I hasten to add not on me, there was more blood than injury, although  enough that I was given Dettol antiseptic mouthwashes for the duration of the stay, and afterwards.  I still remember the pungent smell.      

Sarah (Sadie) Pugh

As a child holidays were always spent visiting relations, usually my mothers sisters, or on a weekly run-around rail ticket.  When my parents became more affluent then their holiday of choice was to go walking.  Here she is waiting at the outside of the station of the previous photograph, Ulverston .  Is it me or do those plants in the background look remarkably like cabbages?  The suitcase may have changed but the strap on one of them has a familiar look to the first photo, belts and braces packing. My farther has filled the backs of this set of photographs with information, it was one of their favourite holidays.  This one says "Saturday June 30th 1984. After the holiday at Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight. I wait with the bags while Sadie goes to the phone (for a taxi) at Station Corner".  Is this before, or after, she has charged off to the phone box? She only had one pace, fast, even into her eighties she was going the same speed.  She also always liked to be busy so the walk up the hill to the phone box would fill in some of that pesky waiting time.