May Queens and penny prick cards
I could go on forever about stories of May Queen which we had as children. It was a long time ago but the excitement of arranging them each year remains clearly still in my memory.

All we really needed was borrowed net curtains and endless coloured tissue paper. Then we could turn a small girl into a Queen, someone always managed to “borrow” a brush handle which was also “done-up” and used as a Maypole which some hapless boy was cajoled into carrying. (Still as he got included in his share of the takings they never needed much persuasion!) Of course knocking on doors and singing “Around the Merry Maypole” was the hardest part, there were several verses but we never got to finish the whole song! A hurried penny or two was dropped into the tin to get rid of us Pronto!
Counting the takings had to be done without someone helping themselves beforehand – but we were happy with our lot.

I went to St. Edmund’s School in Monsall, The church is no longer there but the modern school looks nice; I wonder if the pupils are as happy as we were in the old school?

We were given St. Joseph’s penny prick cards each year, the idea was if you collected a penny you pushed a pin through one of the small squares and hopefully completed the card. I think the shopkeepers on Queens Road were sick of all the children trying their luck! I don’t recall ever getting anything out of them! My parents couldn’t afford to prick the three card that my sister, brother and I brought home. I think my aunts and uncles may have helped. The laugh of this was that the money raised was for the poor children; I never knew any child that was well off! I suppose we weren’t to badly off though-both our parents worked to keep the wolf from the door!

My father bought a radio “cats whiskers” I used to think it was a funny name, we had to be quiet while he fiddled with the speaker. One day we had to be exceptionally quiet while he got something on, both he and mother looked sad listening to King Edward’s abdication, I didn’t understand why they looked upset.
Eva Cook, nee Hyde