Meet The Family – Vic

We’ve heard from Mum, now lets see what Dad has to say…

Now someone has told me I need to write this here blog post to let people know about me and me life. I can’t say I’m that sure about this, I’m not really one for writing. Or, for that matter, thinking.

Any road, I’m just a normal bloke really. I live a simple life. I worked down pit for 30 years before it was closed. Since then I’ve spent a lot more time with me family. A very different challenge to being underground. And one I’m not sure I’ve really adjusted to be honest.

Don’t get me wrong, I love being at home, there’s nothing more enjoyable for me then taking the weight off me feet and watching a bit of Calendar. Not everyone sees it like that though, and it can sometimes be a bit of a challenge relaxing while the wife cleans up constantly all around me. And that is to say nothing of that son of mine, who has really caused all sorts of problems though I guess it’s nothing more than the usual teenage troubles. To be honest I don’t really understand him. He’s into all this writing and drama and stuff where I never really used me brain. Apart from when thinking of ways to grab an extra bit of snack without the wife finding out.

Speaking of which I think me tea’s on so I’d best go. I think it’s tinned ham. I bloody love tinned ham.

Meet the family – Dot

Let’s met John’s mum Dot. Nobody knows us like our mums. Or so they would like to think. Do you agree?

Our John’s coming ‘ome this weekend and I can’t wait! Mind you, I’ll probably want to kill him, 5 minutes after he walks through that door!! Last time he came ‘ome, I couldn’t get a word out of ‘im for t’first  day –  he just lay on that sofa watchin’ telly and eating!

I’m so proud of him now he’s at university. I never thought I’d see the day when someone from my family would be at university!  My mam and dad would ‘ave been so proud – anyway, I feel sure they are watching and smiling to themselves.

Well I’d better get on – this ‘ouse doesn’t clean itself you know! I found another one of them mucky books ‘idden in a record sleeve on t’bookcase this morning – I must ‘ave missed that one when we cleared them out when John were 15! Or could it be Vic’s?! I never thought of that – I’m going to kill ‘im!

Meet the Family…

Meet the Happy Family – John!

We had to start with John, without John, well, it would be a very different play. We see John grow up, so it’s only right to meet John at the different stages of his life.

The First Age…

I never really knew what I wanted to do with my life, my family always expected better things from me! I am just a kid trying to do the best I can, I don’t really know what I am going to do after I leave school. Do I want to go to university? Do I go the same way my Grandad did and work down the pit? All I really know is whatever I do, my family will still find something to have a go at me for!

The Second Age…

I think I made the right decision to go to uni and not end up down the pit? I mean it was about time one of us in the family spread our wings (other than Rebecca). I suppose Dad had some potential but lacked self-belief and had no support in his day to study away from home and I guess it was the same old pattern for Grandad and so on, but who knows? All I know is I couldn’t have suffered a mundane routine life of coal and “early grey.” Like my Aunty Doris would say “I like a bit of life” and I did. I don’t know what’s worse, feeling the suffocation down the pit with my Dad’s poor jokes or at home with my Mother’s poor cooking? In fact, yes, I definitely made the right decision, take Grandad’s money and run! Did I really need the money Grandad left behind? Perhaps my parents needed it more and they wouldn’t have lived a life of tinned ham….

The Third Age…

So, as from yesterday, they are all gone now. All except Rebecca, and she’s been living somewhere in Australia for nearly thirty years. It felt like I should mark the occasion by trying as hard as I could to remember them all. Which was bitter-sweet if I’m honest – and I had forgotten (or blocked out) what an arrogant sod I was sometimes. But it was good to see and hear them all again, even if it was just in my head. I hope I remembered it right.