SCHOOL ILLNESSES

 

Thinking back, there were some pretty nasty illnesses still around.  Chicken Pox, Measles, German Measles, Scarlet Fever and Pneumonia were all caught by my classmates.  There were no innoculations for those, although we had "had the needle" for diphtheria as a small child.  The cure for chicken pox, if you knew someone who already had it, was to go and play with them until you caught it, and then another child would come and play with you.  Because you could catch it only once, if you were lucky you got a few days off school, survived a contagious disease and improved your social life by making two new friends.

Tuberculosis was still around, and large white vans used to come to schools.  They contained a portable X ray machine.  We used to have to strip to the waist, push against a white plate, which was ALWAYS cold, there would be a whirr and that was that.  I assume that anyone who had a chest infection was summoned to their doctor.

I used to suffer from croup very badly.  When I coughed, the noise woke people up at night.  When the noise woke up half of Queens Road, Doctor Shephard was called and he arrived in his black Wolseley car.  He was an old man even (especially) to a child of my age, and quite forbidding.  He never removed his jacket.  He listened to my chest with his stethoscope, tapped my chest with two fingers, and said "You've got croup, John.  I'll give you something to cure it, and I'll come and see you again tomorrow."

He then delved into his bag and pulled out a glass syringe, a small saw, a small jar of dry penicillin powder, and a glass ampoule of distilled water.  With the saw, he made a small nick in the neck of the ampoule.  Next he fitted a needle to his syringe and drew up the distilled water from the ampoule, which he then threw away.  It was fascinating.  Then he put the needle into the jar containing the penicillin powder, and squirted in the water.  Next he pulled out the syringe (and needle), pushed his spectacles back onto his forehead, and gave the jar a good shake.  Lastly he put the needle into the jar and sucked up the penicillin solution into the syringe.  He motioned me to turn over and the next thing I knew, there was a sharp pain, followed by a quick swab with some meths.  (I recognised the smell from my Dad's camping stove).  Next morning, he would arrive as promised and repeat the treatment.  The dedication of Doctors in those days was amazing.  My mother had complications when I arrived, and Doctor Shepherd must have left his surgery to attend my mother in Cheltenham, over nine miles away.  Thinking about it, his must have been the very first face that I ever saw

The reason I mention all this illness is because TB (tuberculosis) was still prevalent.  My mother used to cough from cigarettes.  "Craven A,  For Your Throat's Sake".  Senior Service "as recommended by doctors"  My mother had the X ray, but fortunately (!) all she had was a scar on the lung which required bed rest.  We were provided, thanks to the Government, a "Home Help" who came from nearby and was paid to do domestic duties.  Her name was Mrs Messenger, and I became a friend of her son, Paul.

Momentous changes happen

Meanwhile, there had been other changes.  The Cottons had moved out to be replaced by Uncle Mervyn and Auntie Diana Grindle, (of whom, much more later), and across the road at number 9 Queens Road, the new people were the Prices and their children Nicky and Pauline (of whom, also much later).  Mervyn and Diana Grindle made a path from their prefab in Warwick Place around to our kitchen door, which went underneath the window of my parents' bedroom.  One day, when I was playing in Mum's bedroom, Diana shouted across the immortal line, (Yoohoo, Kath, the King's dead!)  And so he was.  He had been a heavy smoker.  The date was 6^th February 1952.

For a month, the red mast heads of the Daily Mirror became purple in mourning for the late King.  He lay in State for several days in the 900 year-old Westminster Hall, but amongst all the flags at half mast, Buckingham Palace did not fly any flag.  The reason for this was that the next Monarch was overseas at the time, and had to interrupt a planned visit to Australia while she was still in Africa.  Princess Elizabeth, the wartime motor mechanic, had become Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, Monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of all her Dominions and Territories Overseas. As most people know, the Royal Standard is only flown in places where the Monarch actually is.

The New Elizabethan Era had begun.  The National Anthem was always sung in those days after the cinema, concert or play.  For many months, audiences used to sing "God save the Kiqueen"  It was almost as though she didn't become Queen instead of a Kiqueen until the Coronation, which took place on a rainy day, June 2^nd 1953.