The Nurse's Children

Both girls had piano lessons once a week. Their piano teacher taught several children at Mrs Oates house. Rodney, Mrs Oates son, had his lesson first and so Mary and Pamela could take their time arriving for their lessons. Sometimes Auntie gave them money for the bus and as they didn’t get pocket money each week they tried very hard to save the twopence fare so that they could buy some sweets as well as enjoy the ride on the bus. They didn’t manage this every time, but if they sat very still on the front seat upstairs the bus conductor didn’t always ask them for their money. When they heard his footsteps they pretended to be very interested in the view and stared out of the window, trying not to feel guilty. Quite often the conductor assumed that the two neatly dressed girls with music bags balanced on their laps, must have already paid and he turned round and went back to the lower deck. Pamela and Mary jumped off the bus at Pearles lane, waited until the bus disappeared, looked round to make sure there was no one who recognised them as the Nurse’s children and then dashed into the Post Office to buy sherbet dib dabs or parma violets. Mrs Oates never asked them how they got money for sweets; she just reminded them to wash their hands before they touched the keys of her piano.

Winters were extremely cold and icy in the 1950s but that didn’t bother the children except that they got sore throats, coughs and chilblains on their fingers and toes. On Thursday’s when they had piano lessons they could skate on icy puddles and play in the snow. Pump Hill was a very steep road near the school and they put their music bags on the snow, sat on them and whizzed down the hill shrieking with joy. One January afternoon they got off the bus in Pearles Lane and looked around for something exciting to do. They’d had to pay their fare that day so there was no money for sweets. Pamela picked up a piece of ice and began sucking it.

“I’ve got an ice lolly,” she sang.

Mary picked up a piece too and sucked and shaped it until it was square. Then she took it out of her mouth and looked through it as if it was a tiny pane of glass. They both played at making window panes for a while until Mary noticed that she had sucked her piece as small and rectangular as a halfpenny postage stamp. So she tried it in the stamp machine outside the Post Office. The ‘ice stamp’ fitted and dropped down inside the box. Mary pressed the button and out slid a halfpenny stamp. With great excitement Pamela shaped her piece of ice and got a stamp too. They were pleased with themselves, but as they couldn’t use the stamps they threw them away.