The 1939 Register

And then there was that business of waiting for distance to catch up with time or the other way round so that you'd start speaking while the person at the other end was just starting as well. Oh sorry, go ahead. No, you go ahead. And so on.

 

I completely forgot about the two shops on the opposite side at the top of the road mainly because I could not find either under the 4-letter code for our road. However, as I twigged they may well have been given the code of the main road, I reduced the last alpha character and after much searching found what I was looking for. To the locals the shops belonged to ‘our’ road so worthy of mention even if only for their memory jogs.

The one I recall best is ‘HAYS hardware store’ but that was not the owners name in the Register, but as I am really recalling the post 1946 owners it is the name by which it was best known at the time we lived there. It was more or less a timber yard with its own (what we would later call a) DIY shop. Rarely a week would go by when I was not sent on an errand, this time for Dad to get him a handful of screws or nails and watch them being counted out by Mr. Hay or his wife from boxes -usually with a couple more for luck. They would put them in a square of newspaper and fold it into a little bag. They sold all types of ironmongery, sandpaper, tools, hardboard and plywood (sold by the ply not the thickness) and course timber. I never minded being sent there because it was quite an Aladdin’s cave for a young boy. Dad even bought his shed from ‘Hays’ and the owner himself came and erected it in our back yard.

(The visits must have had some impact on me because I made a career in the Timber trade and years later was Manager of a Timber Yard and Mill in Kent, complete with its own DIY store).

Next door to Hays was a small Greengrocers (the Register records the name Gee and General Grocer but that brings back no memories and to us it was just a small Greengrocers). When I say small, the word minute might best suit and was likely someone’s front room converted into a shop. It relied on an outside display to attract custom which was as well because there was little room on the inside and room for no more than two customers. It was run by an old lady (old to us kids at any rate) and she had eyes in the back of her head and didn’t like kids. To be fair she had just cause because as she relied on an outside display and had no other helper, a few quick fingered kids would often ‘pinch’ apples and run off. I did not like her and told my Mom how she treated kids. One day she took me and told the lady …’Bobby does not steal things, and woe betides him if he ever did once his Dad got to hear about it’ (very true). ‘So I would appreciate it if you didn’t say things like ‘keep your hands to yourself young nipper… (a common Brummie term for a youngster) …when I send him on errands’.

Can’t say it made a lot of difference, and anyway as I often had my mate Pete in tow -sometimes he was on the errand with me in tow – she still viewed us with suspicion. As a result, I would often try to suggest I go to the other bigger shops about 10 minutes away, but Mom would insist we use the local shop. Later the penny dropped as I began to understand the way of the world. The lady offered things ‘on tick’ so my Mom often hard-up mid-week could send me there in the week and call in and pay on Saturday when Dad gave her the ‘housekeeping’ on Friday.

This is brought home in the Register where men (not exclusively but very much in the main) are shown as wage earners whilst the women do ‘unpaid domestic duties’. Not sure what Mom would have thought of that but given she would often tell all of us -Dad included – she was no one’s servant – I would have liked to get her opinion on the matter.

 

..or perhaps not Peter. However, now you've aired the subject of having coins at the ready, here is my own little recollection of running out of coins using a phone box.

On Sunday evenings in the RAF when I did not have a weekend pass I would use the call box on camp to phone my girlfriend (later my wife). Her parents did not possess a phone but her father knew the village policeman well and persuaded him to let his daughter take a call on certain Sunday evenings on his phone. At the appointed time (give or take if someone was already using the box) I would dial the operator and ask to be put through and she would tell me to insert coins (to the value of a shilling if I recall rightly). After a while the pips would go and the operator would remind to insert more coins. One evening having run out of money and hearing the pips relayed to my girlfriend I had no more money and expected the 'cut off message'; but it did not happen so we continued. After quite some time the operator eventually cut in and said ..."will you two love birds kindly say goodnight, I've already let you carry on longer than I should". Although it was obvious she had been listening in we thought it a kind gesture and thanked her. For the record that was the one and only time it happened because on all other occasions if more money was not deposited we would hear ...'this call will end in xxx seconds'; and it did.

 

1939?

 

Shufflebotham / Shufflebottom was a very common name in north Staffordshire (the two versions often interchange) and I am very pleased to descend from such a family on my maternal side.
Coincidentally this weekend I have been researching my 3 x gt grandfather Daniel Shufflebotham in an effort to find his birth in the late 1700's.
When I first started researching my tree I thought that being such an unusual name it would be easy to follow - how wrong I was - it is comparable to Smith if not harder.

 

I am much too young to have done that type of phone call myself, but as I was born on the Indian Sub Continent, my parents had a lot of fun phoning home (Australia), to announce the births of myself and my older brother. I believe it involved a long drive, waiting to be connected and then a phone line with a long delay. I believe for one of us, our birth was announced by telegram. It is much different now-a-days, my older brother has gone back to live in the land of our birth, and communication there is much cheaper than in Australia, and the only long delays you get is if there is a hiccough in the Skype connection. (Or the power goes out over there, which it does at least twice a day.)

 

Is that supposed to mean something, to someone or were you just doodling?.....wait a minute I know, you think we have diverged from the 1939 (Register) theme. Of course you're right but it happens all the time and what makes the Forum fun. You can always post something on topic to restore good order. I've done my little bit so your turn now...

 

Ok Bob here goes...I love the 1939 Register

 

See it wasn't hard, a valiant effort; well done.

 

Brevity Bob; well done you

 

Just to let you know that the Australian Death Certificate I sent to FMP has been accepted and the record will be opened. Can see him on the original document but not on transcription as yet, should be up to date in a week or so.

 

Hi Folk

My first post here - so apologies if in the wrong place etc.

Its about the 1939 register!

My Mother or her brother were not recorded as being at home on the night it was taken. The address contains only my grandparents. Their children were at the time, 9 and 6.

They may have been on holiday at their own grandparents - one set lived in the England the other did not. At the English address this too is inconclusive as I discovered that Gr Grandmother had 2 other adult children living with her, there are closed entries but then there are children from these folk as well!

Is there anyway I can find out where my mother was? I have her death certificate (Scotland).

Any ideas I can try?

 

Possible evacuees?

 

Thank you Emjay - I had not thought about that possibility.

Parents were in Yorkshire - so could be the answer, though I am not sure if I can find out if it was the case. I think its a dead end unless my Uncle can remember anything - certainly my mother never spoke about being an an evacuee.

More questions than answers!

 

My aunt was evacuated to Oxford but only stayed a short time as she got homesick.

 

So, as I understand it from what you folk mention, the young siblings could have been sent away to a grandparent as an evacuee - just for a short time before returning home when the threat of bombing did not happen all over the UK. This would explain why they were -
a) not at home
b) no mention of being an evacuee

Thank you for the help.

I wonder if it is worth while trying to open one of the closed entries at my Gr Grandmothers home - there is a 50% chance its them. Is there a down side to asking? If mother is not one them would they look elsewhere in the register?