What a busy day today. Been at work all day, came home & hung the washing out because although it was cloudy the wind was pretty strong. Cut the grass then took the washing back in because it started raining, I just love English summers.
Before I could do anything else my Mum & Dad came to see us. We talked for a while and then my Mum said something that really shocked me. I know it shouldn't have done but it did. My Dad will be 70 in 2 years time!! OMG 70!! He doesn't even look or act old in my eyes, he's just my Dad. It's funny isn't it how you never think of the people around you getting old. We also talked about my lovely Uncle Joe the Shorter who will be 90 in September. Now there's a man who doesn't act or seem a day over 60. We call him Uncle Joe the Shorter as there are 2 Uncle Joes. One is my Mum's brother who is tall so we call him Uncle Joe the Taller and then there's my lovely great Uncle Joe who is my Grandad's brother ~ Uncle Joe the Shorter :O)
I thought I would pick Dad's brains again (as I have done on numerous occasions) about his Dad's side of the family ~ the Horrocks. I tried to explain that Chris & I had made a blog and how we had uploaded all the info we had onto the web. I might as well have been talking Japanese as neither my Mum nor Dad have a clue about computers lol. I can't 'show' my Dad what I mean either because he's blind, has been since he was 40. So I gave up and started talking about Uncle Ken ~ Jane Horrocks grandson & my Dad's cousin.
Dad spent a lot of time with Ken as a child and remebered sleeping at 689 Ashton New Road, Clayton. It was a very busy road, 4 or 5 lanes of traffic lit up like a Christmas tree with the thousands of street lights. Dad can remember not even having to turn the bedroom light on at night because the street lights made it light enough to read even with the curtains closed. To make matters worse, Ken would sleep with the window open and it was so noisy that Dad never got a wink of sleep.
He remebered Ken's Grandmother too, Jane Horrocks. He said she was a formidable lady and looked and dressed like QueenVictoria all in black & white with a lace collar and even a small mop hat on her head. I asked him if he remembered any other brothers or sisters & he only remembered Auntie Doris's Mum, Lillian. She was the daughter of Mary Alice Horrocks and when Mary died Lillian became an orphan at the age of 7. Dad said he visited the house a few times and Lillian was always in bed. He never saw her out of it. He never knew what was the matter with her, it was as if one day she had taken to her bed and that's where she stayed until she died. When I told Dad his Grandmother had been one of eleven children he couldn't believe it. He thought there was only 3 or 4 of them.
Mum is going to dig out a photo of Granny Shirt (Lily Horrocks) at my Christening. Lily was my God Mother and the photo is of me sat on her lap.
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