You're Just a Product of Lovely-ness

Mmm.

Toffee. I love toffee.

When I was little there was a lady stayed in the next block of cottage flats to us. she was a downstairs house too, but you entered her house from the side, not the front like ours. I think perhaps it was a one bedroomed flat, and not two.

Her name was Mrs Frater, and there was a Mr Frater. I don't know who stayed upstairs from Mrs Frater, but Mr and Mrs Gray, and Mrs and Mrs Young stayed in the doors closest to us. Daw-Daw, (Big and Little) stayed up the stairs. (Neither my sister nor I could say Docherty).

The Daw-Daws had Billy and Margaret, commonly referred to as "Billy up-the-stairs", or "Margaret-Up-The-Stairs". On Friday at five to five, my sister, before we had a TV would run up the stairs to watch "CRACKERJACK", with the Up-The-Stairs Billy and Margaret.

Mr and Mrs Young had a grand-daughter, June. She was commonly referred to as "June-Over-the-Fence".

But I digress.

Mrs Frater, on occassion would invite me in, if I was being quiet and sociable. I was fascinated by her bathroom. It was all pink, and tiled, and she had a telephone on the end of the bath. It was only as I got bigger, and much more savvy with the world, and shower units,that I discovered that the phone I insisted on speaking into constantly was actually a shower head, which rested on it's gold plated hooks beside the taps. How I must have entertained her with my ignorance.

I digress further.

At Halloween Mrs Frater, after Mr Frater had gone on to the Mother Ship, would not open the door to children, but she would pop round to see me the day after with a packet of her home made toffee. She didn't like to deprive me, despite not wanting to open the door.

That is a bit nice isn't it? And it has left me with a happy memory associated to Toffee. A phone that wasn't a phone, and a lady who made me feel special by giving me toffee, when she wouldn't give it to any of the rest of the children in the street.