"We all grow up with the weight of history on us."

     "We all grow up with the weight of history on us.  Our ancestors dwell in the attics of  our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies."        ~Shirley Abbott

Frank Shelton, 3-4 years old with
his dad, Joseph Shelton 

         Joseph Shelton was born November 13, 1897, in Arnold, Nottingham, England.  The second eldest of six boys, he left school at age 12 with rheumatic fever and consequently, wasn't able to read and write until he was in his 20's.

      His father, John Thomas Shelton, had a little hardware shop at the bottom of Atherley's yard on Front Street in Arnold.  He also had a horse and dray (cart) and peddled household wares such as kerosene, gas mantles, clothes pegs, and other necessities to the villages around Arnold--Lambley, Lowdham, Oxton, and Calverton.  When Joe left school at 12, he helped his dad and eventually took over the business when his dad died at age 42.
      In 1914 at age 17, lying about his age, he went into the army with the Sherwood Foresters.  He was in Dublin, Ireland in 1916 in the Irish Rebellion and fought in WWI in 1917.  He was mustard gassed at Ypres,  Belgium, and did not regain consciousness until he was back in England.  He told Dad that he bayoneted and killed a German soldier; after rifling through his pockets, he found a photo of a wife and children.  He had nightmares about that until he was 30.
      After recovering from his war injuries, he worked as a coal miner. After a nationwide strike in 1926, miners wages were cut by 50%.  By 1935,  no longer able to make a decent living as a miner, he went to work in a factory, Erikson's Telephone.

Bit of history:  The Irish Rebellion was a revolt in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916.  It was mounted by Irish Republicans who wanted to end British rule in Ireland and establish the Irish Republic.  At the time the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War.

During World War I intense and sustained battles between the Germans and Allied Forces, occurred at Ypres, Belgium.  British soldiers nicknamed the small city "Wipers" because of the difficulty of pronouncing Ypres in English.  Mustard gas was used for the first time ever near Ypres in the autumn of 1917.  The symptoms of mustard gas (Yiperite) are the formation of large blisters filled with yellow fluid on exposed skin and in the lungs, intense itching and skin irritation, and an increased risk of developing cancer later in life.

Joseph Shelton, age 17, in uniform

Left to right, Albert Strutt, Hannah Strutt, Emily Shelton, and Joseph Shelton--my grandparents.

     Joseph Shelton, Pop, on the far right, was a jolly man, an exuberant hugger.  He loved to play cards and gamble, especially the horses.  He also loved to sing.
     Maureen remembers Pop giving her a drink of Advacar (an egg based liqueur that tastes like egg custard) at Christmas and having "crackers" to pull.  A cracker is a decorated paper tube, twisted at both ends.  A person pulls on each end and the cracker breaks, a small chemical strip goes "pop" and the contents,  a small gift, a joke, and a paper crown fall out.
     Pop had a lovely garden on the side of the house; he grew many things, but I loved watching him take a fork and turn over the "new" potatoes (immature potatoes harvested during the spring).  They were so good boiled and served with mint.  He also carved the loveliest miniature chairs.  I adored him.

Joseph Shelton, Barbara, age 18-19, and  Emily Shelton

"Love is all we have . . . .

"Love is all we have.  The only way that each can help the other."  --Euripides

Joan Shelton (Momma) said of her dad,
      "My dad, Albert Edward Strutt, was born in November, 1887 in Oxton, a village near Nottingham.  The Strutt name is one of the oldest in the village.  My dad's family lived in a 3-story Georgian type house that belonged to the village squire.  It was one of three behind the local pub, The Green Dragon, which still stands in Oxton today.
     My granddad was the head gardener at the manor house; when Dad left school, he was taken to work there in the garden alongside his dad.  There was no industry in the village so most lads worked the land.  Dad stayed at the Sherbrooke home, Oxton Hall, until he rebelled.
     It was the custom in those days that if any member of the squire's family passed by the workers, the workers were compelled to stand, doff their caps, and wait for the person to move past.  Dad got the idea that the squire's three young daughters were 'passing by' a bit too often, so at some point he refused to stand and doff his hat.  He was reported to the squire and let go.  His dad later apprenticed him to the local blacksmith, and that became his trade for life.

Oxton Hall, where Albert Strutt stared working in the garden alongside his dad

     Dad was one of 9 children; one sister died when she was 12.  She ate the skin of a baked potato, chocked on it, and died.  So we were never allowed to eat potato skins.
     My dad always kept himself so smart and clean.  I felt proud to be seen with him.  He polished his shoes, shaved, and wore a tie and trilby hat (a soft felt hat with a narrow brim and an indented crown) when out in public.
     Dad was a hard worker.  During the first world war he was sent to the Digby pit mine in the countryside to shoe the pit ponies, which, poor things, lived underground.  They were used to haul the tubs of coal to the shaft where the tubs were then lifted to the surface.  No mechanization in those days.  He worked there for most of the war years, keeping the machinery running and shoeing the pit ponies, working underground sometimes and other times at the surface.
     He was an avid gardener and kept the family in vegetables and flowers throughout the years.  He always smoked a pipe, and even now I can close my eyes and smell the sweet scent of tobacco on his clothes."        
                                                                                                --Joan Shelton

Digby pit mine

A pit pony

Bit of history:  'In shaft mines, ponies were normally stabled underground and fed hay and maize, coming to the surface only during the colliery’s annual holiday.  Typically, they would work an eight-hour shift each day, during which they might haul 30 tons of coal in tubs on the underground narrow gauge railway. 

     Recollections differ on how well the ponies were cared for in earlier years, but it should be remembered that they represented a capital asset to the mine, and that the best work could be obtained from animals that were in good condition."

The Green Dragon Public House in Oxton.  Dadda grew up behind this pub in a Georgian style home owned by the local squire.  The pub is still there.  Sadly, the house is not.

“We never know the love of our parents for us . . .

Frank and Gladys

 “We never know the love of our parents for us till we have become parents.”  Henry Ward Beecher  

Erik,
     Many years ago, Dad wrote down memories of his parents and grandparents.  Below are memories of his Mam and Dad, my grandparents, who I called Momma and Pop.
                                                                --Mom

 

      "My mam, born March 1, 1897 and died at age 80, was not a naturally happy woman.  There were flashes of fun that I saw in her, especially when she was at her Mother's with her 5 sisters, but she was, in general, rather serious and somber.
     She was one of 10 children, 6 girls and 4 boys and left school at age 14, which was the norm in those days.  A very good looking woman, she appeared taller than she was because of her erect posture.   She had auburn hair, dark eyes and was always quite thin.
     My mam, Emily, met my dad, Joseph, at a vaudeville show next to the Theater Royale in Nottingham.   They were married in August 1920.  Life was not easy, especially after World
War I.  There was unchecked poverty in England for years after the war.
     Mam was a good woman with high moral character.  Dad did not always comply with her regimen, and their marriage was bumpy.  She worked hard all her life and kept the family together.  After the war, Dad worked as a coal miner, but in the early 1920's there was a nationwide strike and miner's wages dropped 50%.  During my childhood, Mam ran a machine at Raleigh Cycle Company.
     Her pleasures were simple.  She loved nothing more than eating a thick crust of bread slathered with butter.  During World War II, she alone used up the family's butter ration.
                                                         

Emily Shelton

     She loved going to Goose Fair ("going down the fair"), held each Autumn in Nottingham, and looked forward to playing the mechanical horses.  If her horse won, she would come home with bits of china for the house.
     She and Dad enjoyed going to Skegness, a seaside resort, on a half day train trip sponsored by the local pub.  At Christmas, the family would go to the pantomime in Nottingham.
     In 1959, Mam and Dad came on the Queen Elizabeth to America to visit us.  Pop came again, alone, in 1963, and both came again by ship in 1965."
                                                --Frank Shelton


Erik,
     Even though Dad's childhood was difficult, he loved his mam and dad, and they loved him.  He talked about how Momma would smother his face with kisses.  He faithfully wrote an aerogram (a sheet of light blue paper, folded and sealed to form an envelope) to them every week after he left England.  That's 52 letters a year, year after year!
     I can only guess, but it must have seemed to Momma and Pop as though they'd never see Dad again once he left for America.  Dad's sister, Gladys, married an American serviceman after World War II and also left  England, years before Dad.  Thankfully they did see Frank and Gladys again, many more times.  They came to America, and throughout my childhood, we went back to England nearly every other summer.

Bit of history:  Goose Fair, was thought to have begun in 1284.  Originally it was a market fair and got its name from the thousands (20,000) of geese that were driven from the Lincolnshire Fens (a flat, low-lying area) to be sold in Nottingham, 100 miles away.  Until 1880, Goose Fair was held for 15 days in early October in the old Market Square in Nottingham City Center. It has since been moved and only lasts for 3 days now.  

Goose Fair in the early 1920's

The Helter-Skelter ride at Goose Fair

     "I remember going on a ride at Goose Fair with Dad called the Helter-Skelter.  It was a lighthouse shaped bulding with a staircase inside and a slide spiralling down the outside.  I would carry a mat up the stairs and then sit in front of Dad on the mat and fly down the slide."                              
                                        --Mom

Cock-on-a-stick

   


 There are many foods traditionally associated with Goose Fair--coconuts, brandy snaps, toffee apples, candy floss, mushy peas with mint sauce, and cock-on-a-stick (yes, it's really called that), a candy, rooster-shaped lollipop!   Momma also remembers winkles and welks (shellfish), served in newspaper cones.