"My mother says you've got 'ake, and she said she don't want anything else      she can't eat it."

After a long rehearsed pause, like lightning, two of something were quickly scooped up and thrown on top, then covered over, as if she had just made a rare but significant concession.

"Haven't you got the proper money, I'm short of loose," she said irritably, giving vent to her injured feelings (and to stir others to shame if they dare try to persuade another four hake out of her good nature).

I don't think Mam could really tell, if the truth be known, whether she was getting hake, or not. She'd say, 'It must be really white, and if not, take it back,' and Mrs Symons would be expected to exchange them (after a brief argument thrown in for good measure). I sometimes thought, as Mrs Symons said, that I was in fact returning good hake.

Those were our weekend supplies. The rest of the week, it was back to bread and marg, spam that ended up tasting like cardboard, and jam instead of sugar in our tea. Rationing reduced the number of family visits to and from relatives, but we were particularly honoured when our Aunt Louie, Dad's sister, turned up on the doorstep. With her once-a-year visit from the bottom end of town, her stay could be long or it could be short, depending on the illnesses, temperaments prevailing at the time, investigations, and local news, interesting or otherwise. Preliminary chitchat having been dispensed with, their first serious verbal encounter somehow took a wrong turn. For after Mam's show of various pains, and her search for a little sympathy for her recent suffering, her verbal flight into the realm of the physic was abruptly curtailed:

"Yes, yes, hmm, yes, but oh Harriet, listen to this. This happened this very morning... And the pain... Oh, and I was on my own, Harriet. The only thing it could have been, and you correct me if I'm wrong..."

"EXCUSE ME, Louie! AND AS I was saying, THIS SWELLING on MY leg could be serious. I went to see Savage, our doctor, and..."

Louie interrupted again:

"Hmm.  Oh Harriet, I was in absolute a-gon-y.  I couldn't get out of my bed, girl."

"Louie!" Mam shouted, with such indignation that Louie was suddenly knocked off her self centred 'perch', which was no mean feat.

- 21 -