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To all the children that lived in Troon through the fifties, as I did, and believed in the magic of Xmas for far longer than the children of today, may this story amuse you........ Gran's Story by Rosemary Pooley Chaffe © Most
of the children who lived in Troon in the fifties knew my gran's shop,
Mrs. Dunn's, "If
you're not good Father Xmas won't be bringing you any presents, just
an empty pickle jar and two sooty sticks" This was something that we
children in our family always heard in the months before Xmas and we always
accepted,innocently, that
all children, wherever they were, heard the same message. However,
one day in school I mentioned the phrase and no other child had heard of it - some children called me "nuts" and said I had made it
up. I was impatient then for my mother to come home from work, so as to ask her
about it, but when I did my mum told me to ask my granny, as she was the one who
knew the whole story. So I did, and this is her story. My
granny was born at the turn of the 20th century and was part of a large
family, one of, I believe, eight children. Her father was a business man,
in
the greengrocery trade, which meant that he and his wife attended the
markets
of the towns around, especially at Xmas time. Whilst
they were away from home the children were looked after by a lady in
the village, Mrs. Glasson. One particular Xmas, when my gran was about 7
years
old, one of her brothers, Leonard, was being very naughty, causing Mrs
Glasson,
their child minder many problems. She
tried all manner of things to get him to behave but finally lost patience with
him and said,
"naughty boys are reported to Father Xmas, you wont be having any
nice presents tomorrow,
just an empty pickle jar and two sooty sticks". My gran said that
Leonard and the rest of the children laughed at this, as they had always had
their presents in
the past. What happened afterwards my gran only heard about when she got
older. Her
parents came home late, from the market in Redruth and in passing said that
they hoped the children had been good.
Usually the answer would have been "yes", but on this particular night
Mrs Glasson told them exactly what the day had been like and what she
had told Leonard. My great grandfather, by all accounts, was a fair, but firm,
man and decided that his son needed to be taught a
lesson. So it was that on Xmas morning, when the
children woke up, everyone found a stocking containing a shiny new penny, some
nuts, an orange and some other small gifts,
everyone that is apart from Leonard. In his stocking was an
empty pickle jar My
gran said she could always remember, vividly, the awful atmosphere in the
bedroom when the rest of them realised what had happened. She also remembered
her mother being in floods of tears throughout the day. Each
child, The
day just dragged on and all the children couldn't wait for bedtime to come.
Leonard was the first one up the stairs and that night there
was none of the general chat, they all went to sleep right away, just in case.
The next morning when they woke up all eyes were turned to Leonard's bed. There,
on the end, was a stocking with presents in it and a note to say that Leonard
had been good, so Father Xmas had called, but to remember that if he wasn't
good next year then he knew what he would get. The children never forgot this experience and when they grew up repeated it to their children, one of which, was my mother. She, in turn told it to my sisters and me and I've told it to my children, and latterly to my grandchildren. I feel special, inasmuch as no other family has this, it is like the beginning of a legend that hopefully will continue to be passed down through time, for as long as my gran's descendants live. © This story may not be reproduced in any way without permission from the author. Troon Tales 2 - David Scantlebury- 'Three Beats on Hark' Troon
Tales 3 - Trevor Andrews- 'Charlie Pascoe' Troon Tales 4 - David Oates - 'Sound, sound your instruments of joy!' Troon Tales 5 - David Oates - 'Tryphena' Cornish interest contributions - Trevor Andrews -'Abednego Uren' Poetry contributions- David Oates 1. Pain of parting © 2. Redruth railway station at night ©
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