Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A catalyst for slovenly behaviour

My grandmother said, " Them that reads has dirty 'ouses." She said this in a rich Black Country accent. She married a man from the same street, lived and died within a mile radius from where she was born and the furthest she travelled was Blackpool on a charabanc. She made chain and nails in a workshop at the bottom of her garden.
If she saw me reading a book as a child she would clack and clatter her false teeth at me with disapproval.
What she would make of my writing such catalysts for dirty homes I cannot say.
My grandfather, who died before I can remember, was a collier. He liked beer and smoked Woodbines. He would sit in the chicken house of an evening and talk to the chickens and feed them small cakes. In the winter he would bring them in to warm by the range with its blackened hearth. I think I would have liked him.
My uncle was a foundry man. He worked with cast iron, making covers for drains and manholes at Dudley and Dowells. He said that there were monuments to his work all over Britain, and there are. There is one at Ninewells in Pembrokeshire. At the end of his working day his hands would be lined like a drawing with coal dust. Sadly his lungs were too. He would bathe in a tin bath in front of the fire while we read or talked in the 'best room' next door. When he was young he kept pigeons in a pigeon loft. A great giant of a man with these gentle cooing creatures. He loved everything I did and would have been so proud.
Frances Lincoln are taking East of the Sun and West of the Moon onto their list for publication in Spring 2013.
In my case my grandmother was right. I read, I have a dirty house, but my mind is too full and lively for the dust to settle.


18 comments:

  1. nobody has a dirty house *because* they read. some of us have different priorities and cleaning is just not top of the list. yesterday I met the lady next door, best part of 90 and unable to walk down the path without gasping, sweeping said path 'because it had to be done'. I felt so sorry for her, to have had 90 years of pressing chores and nothing more important to think of than sweeping. and she gets plenty of help in the house. I love reading about your family.

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  2. MY grandmother always said that a creative mind was seldom tidy. I think she was very proud of my creativity. She had a spotless house but she was pretty creative herself. I have a lace tablecloth that she crocheted hanging above my bed as a canopy.

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  3. I didn't realise the books were causing all the dirt here - I've been blaming the poor dog. Must apologise to him.

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  4. I love the rich dialoge of famely memories - these words and memories of yours truly evoked memories of my own family.

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  5. Ah well, I've also heard the saying "A clean home is the sign of a wasted life"! I also wish I'd met the grandfather who died before I was born, he and my grandmother were both avid readers, mostly self-educated, and very knowledgeable. My grandmother, a poet and artist in a time when women didn't do that kind of thing, was a huge influence on me.

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  6. How I enjoyed reading of your memories, stories which will ring bells in alot of our hearts. As for Granny's 'dirty houses', I'm afraid I'm with Quentin Crisp on that one! ;))))

    Hugs Jane

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  7. that was brilliant,, just brilliant,, thank you for sharing that,,such personal thoughts and memories,,

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  8. Perfect, perfect, perfect. As ever, Jackie, you take the mundane and render it sublime.

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  9. There may be some truth in what your grandmother said. I would much rather read, or paint or knit or anything than do house work! I seem to be in a very Welsh frame of mind at the moment, reading both The Captain's wife (set in St.D avid's) and Ken Folletts new one which starts off in Wales, with wonderful descriptions of what it was like down the mines in the early 1900s. and I have to tell you that I was in one of my favorite book stores in Manchester Vermont (USA)- a lovely independent book store and picked out a picture book from the shelf that caught my eye; it was your lovely tiger illustration. Imagine my surprise! Unfortunately, my children are all well past picture books these days,but I still love to pick them up and look at them. congratulations on your new book being taken up.

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  10. Thank you Jackie for sharing your early memories of your family and how,in part, those memories have made you what you are today.

    Please don't worry about your untidy house -- you do what you love and that's what is important. Although I am not a writer or painter/illustrator as you are,I'm happiest when settled with a cup of tea, lost in a good book (or knitting) and having several cats on top of me !!

    Take Care,
    Judith

    PS: Your new van is absolutely gorgeous !! The little dragon hatching is brilliant>

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  11. Thank you for sharing your family memories! Your grandmother would greatly disapprove of me...my house is small, dusty, swirled with cat fur...and has piles of books everywhere. I love books and reading and so enjoy following your making of art and books. I'm sure your grandfather and uncle would both have been very proud of you! Huge congratulations about Frances Lincoln taking up East of the Sun/West of the Moon!

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  12. Oh my goodness - I know that saying well! Im a black country lass (living in Halesowen) and grew up with my nan saying that :) So reading your reminiscence really made me smile, I can hear it in proper black country right now! Your nan wasnt by any chance one of the Cradley Heath chainmakers was she?

    Congrats on the book publication!

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  13. She was indeed. Made nails and chains and paid by the capfull. When my uncle was a wee one he was dressed in a velvet dress and kept in a great barrel in the chainshop so that she could work while he played. ( Never understood the middleclass feminist idea of a woman's right to work. People of Nan's class worked all their lives). The men made great anchor chains and the women ornamental chains. She gave it all up after her 3rd child I think, maybe 4th. ( My Dad).
    Broad Black Country she was, and she kept a clean doorstep.
    When she married my grandad they had a side of ham for a wedding feast and the afternoon off.

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  14. Oh, and my Aunty Win and Uncle Wes lived in Halesowen. Cousins Keith and Judith Morris still do, on the hill at Drews Holloway

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  15. We must be kindred spirits, quiltcat, although lately my reading has had to shove over a bit to make room for watching DVD's. I'm glad to know what to attribute my furred and dusty house to, although I don't think my mom would buy that excuse. Loud cheers that EOTS/WOTM was picked up! I shall so much enjoy watching it being realized.

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  16. :) I could walk to Drews Holloway in 5 minutes taking it easy - how about that!

    They had really hard lives, working all hours for not a lot of money, keeping house, looking after the children AND the husband when he got home. Makes me very grateful for the times I live in. I worked on an exhibition at Haden Hill House a few years ago which was all about the Cradley chainmakers, especially focusing on women chainmakers. I remember hearing about babies cribs being attatched to the billows handle so that they were rocked while mom worked... It really was a different world from ours.

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  17. I have a book here called "A Cap Full of Nails' somewhere. Must look it out. Remember loving reading it when I was younger.

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