The Autobiography of Ruth Tagg Caley

In some of the schools they had to wear uniforms, a blue jumper and red blouse. Theuniforms were worn so the poor and rich were dressed alike. On the way to school we had tocross a wide street with lots of traffic. There was an island in the center of the street with a clocktower and water fountains on all four sides with animal heads and the drinking water flowed outof the mouths of the iron animals. The clock struck off the time of day and night in all kinds ofweather. I liked the English school very much because I learned a lot in a little time. They didn'tcall them grades, they called them standards, or forms.It was in the year of 1914 that World War One broke out. I can remember many mothersshedding tears, and we children wondered how the mothers of some of our play mates would getalong. There was Lillian who lived upstairs, she had one brother. Their mother had been awidow for years. When she got upset or nervous she would go to her husband’s grave and sit andsmoke cigarettes and darn socks. She worked everyday and was poor.One day she cooked a rice pudding for the evening meal and was all she had in the houseto eat. Her son ate all the pudding, when he came home from school. The growing boy washungry. Cathy's mother was also a widow, with little income. There was Gladys White wholived four houses away. She was fourteen and retarded and later they had to send her to a specialschool. But all the neighbor children seemed to like her.We all played hop scotch, and jump the rope. We lived in the big house those days, itwas three stories high, sometimes we sub rented. The house was not ours, but we were there along time. The war got pretty bad over head in London. Food was rationed, we had to get upand out every morning and get in line for bread. Tea, sugar and milk were rationed, and manyother things. Before the war the baker’s cart used to come down the street and the man wouldshout his wares, as he pushed his two wheel cart. An old woman hollered out cat’s meat, 3pieces, for everybody had cats. Sometimes my father used to send me on errands for supplies forshoe repairs. Perhaps something he ran out of, or special pieces of leather.I would go on the play scooter and could travel real fast on it. Boys and girls rodescooters those days. The scooter was not mine but I used it often. It belonged to the twin girls,they got it for their birthday, it cost four shillings and six pence (about one dollar and a quarter).It was a good one, sturdy with iron wheels. I remember when they first got it, mother let me takeit, but I had to scrub the handle bars before the girls came home because they fussed over meusing their things.One day I went for leather and father told me not to loiter along the way and come homeas soon as possible. I was gone such a long time that he wondered what had happened to me.When I got home he asked me where I had been. I told him there was a regiment of soldiersmarching and I couldn't get across the street, they were in uniform. Nobody could ever cutthrough those lines of soldiers. After that I saw many regiments on the march and sometimesthey would be at ease and sit on the curb to rest. You couldn't move for soldiers. We thought itlucky if we found a button off of some uniform and used them as a lucky charm, like somepeople do a rabbits foot. On Saturdays we helped our parents with light jobs, like taking shoes toRuth Tagg Caley pg 7