"Thought for today:
"One of the earliest rhymes I ever learned was 'Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.' I later discovered that the reason my mother pushed this motto down our throats was to make up for what food deficiency was ever present and because she knew that more heat could be generated quicker by many bodies under the sheets and coats of a bed than in front of an electric-barred fire with no shillings to light up the gas. She also knew that hunger bites less in one's sleep than when wide awake.
When we were growing up, each year my mother would take us to a camping site in Cayton Bay, Scarborough. The fee for accommodation would invariably be paid for by my father working through his annual week's holiday while we combed the Scarborough sands, plus my mother's failure to pay next week's rent and the grocer's food that we settled up for every payday; one week later than we'd eaten it! We would always arrive on the first day of our holiday with litttle money left to buy the essentials like one week's food provisions for up to seven hungry children. As our family was large, the owner of the site allowed us to rent an old railway carriage that he kept in the field and reserved for large Catholic families. The old carriage had been painted white on the outside and a dark colour of paint on the inside ceiling roof to disguise the damp ceiling mold.
These were the days of the 50's when children were reared on lots of fresh air, Beano comics and appreciation for what we had instead of regret for what we didn't. They were also the days when we often retired to bed early to avoid any remaining pangs of hunger, and yet, they are fondly remembered times; the happiest of childhood days by me and my siblings." William Forde: January 14th, 2014.
