Beginnings

We lived in a caravan for a year, with a porta-potti outside surrounded by hay bales. No roof, so you got a bit damp if it rained. When we moved into a house, you couldn't drink the water from the taps. Drinking, cooking and clothes washing water had to be brought in by bucket from a rainwater tank on the side of the house. The telephone was a crank telephone; you picked up the receiver, wound the crank (which rang a bell in the local post office) then told the operator which number you wanted. The next house had lovely water in the taps, but no electricity. Candles and kerosene lanterns, woodburning stove for cooking and heating lukewarm water. At Christmas time I would spend two days chopping wood so there was enough keep the oven hot enough to roast a turkey.