Family Connections to Crook
I wanted to share a little more about Crook and didn't want that other post to be so long. My great-great grandparents Robert Grey and Susan Dodd (the ones who were married at that church I visited in Bishop Auckland) lived at Jobs Hill and Billy Row prior to their marriage, which are sort of like suburbs of Crook.
Another connection to Crook is correspondence that my grandma had with an Edith Cooper during World War II. No one seems to know how my grandma knew this person; I'm assuming she is a distant relative of some kind.
My grandma kept quite a few letters from Edith and they are fascinating. It's mostly just friendly day to day conversation, but are a true look into what life was like during the war.
I wanted to share some of the cute and interesting things Edith wrote about.
July 3, 1944
Another connection to Crook is correspondence that my grandma had with an Edith Cooper during World War II. No one seems to know how my grandma knew this person; I'm assuming she is a distant relative of some kind.
My grandma kept quite a few letters from Edith and they are fascinating. It's mostly just friendly day to day conversation, but are a true look into what life was like during the war.
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| Here's an example of a letter from Edith, with a line cut out from whoever opened the mail to make sure nothing sensitive about the war was shared. The line before the cut-out says, "It's fortunate that Hillery was born when she was. If she would've been a week later Gin wouldn't have been able to see her because of the invasion." This letter is dated July 3, 1944. |
I wanted to share some of the cute and interesting things Edith wrote about.
July 3, 1944
- "I'm always looking for the postman, aren't you?"
- Clothes cost "coupons"
- Not being able to find make up since the war began
- Talking about someone being in the south of England and safe from "flying bombs"
- Grandma must have sent her stockings because she was over the moon about them
- Asks how prices are - "Are they sky high?"
- Rations of sugar and butter
- Get 30 coupons for 6 months, 16 coupons cover all clothing necessities
- Knitting fair isle style
- Cigarettes, requests corn cob pipe for Gin (husband)
- Gin using corn cob pipe at work because "cigarettes are desperately short at the moment," "scrounging around at least 10 shops before one manages at least 10 cigs"
- Grandma sent evaporated milk, which were "an exact replica in miniature of the size I buy on points"
- She mentioned how my Uncle Merrill stuttered and that it usually fixes itself. I didn't know my uncle stuttered as a kid!
- Wool was scarce because the mills closed due to fuel shortage
- Husband Gin was in Normandy because she refers to him playing cricket for the first time since he's been back
- Doesn't know what Grandma means by "sheer." "Is that like crepe or silk?"
- Grandma sent coconut; it was the first coconut she had seen for 8 years
- "The kitchen range we have is so old as the ancient Britons and takes loads of coal"
- Talking "new look" fashion; she likes the full skirt, just not too long, just to the top of the calf
- Asked about grandma settling into being a full time housewife and that she may miss the office if she has the time to do so
- "The world situation doesn't bear talking about. We seem to be in dire straits according to Sir Stafford, Cripps, and Co. We seem to be waiting for his Marshall Plan to materialize and his Communists seem to be laying to stop it so we're in a see-saw."
- The children first had mumps, then whooping cough, now measles
- They had an aluminum bungalow bath on the middle of the kitchen mat; "what a boon it would be to have a bathroom, someday we may have one"