A story from yesteryear…

This is an excerpt from Ric’s mother’s letters she sent home while she was travelling the globe…

As I foretold in my last screed, everything has come right again, and at 5.30 on Tuesday night we signed the Missive, paid a quarter’s rent, and took possession of a flat.

All this after an unceasing search on my part, during the most awful heat, all through a strange city and walking thousands of miles over granite cobbles and pavements. I never realised what an awful amount of courage is required just to get on a tram in a strange place, and be whizzed off to ‘parts unknown’.

I felt that I was taking my life in my hands every time I did it, and wondered if I would ever see Eric’s dear little moustache again. Truly a terrifying business. After ploughing about in slums, and all sorts of horrid places, and interviewing endless offices labelled “McSporran, Kilt and Haggis. House Factors” and finding nothing but attic flats, (up five flights of stairs and a community bathroom) or bed-sitting-room with use of kitchen and bathroom, or else “Tasty furnished modern flat, suitable for married couple, 8 bedrooms, 3 reception, 2 bath, h and c, 2 garages, kitchen, chauffeur’s quarters and rooms for staff, etc., Very Mod terms” – well, after all that I was half dead with exhaustion and disappointment, when Roy rang early one morning and said, “Mrs Frood heard from a friend that there was a board up outside a flat in Dennistoun. Get a green tram outside Marks and Spencers’ in Sauchiehall Street, and go to 6 Ingleby Drive. Can’t stay to explain further, Goodbye.”

First I found Sauchiehall Street on foot, then the tram stop, then decided that by “green tram” Roy must have meant the bright orange two-decker tram with narrow green stripe round the top (almost invisible) and uttering a few prayers for my safe return, I set out on my perilous journey. The conductor directed me to Ingleby Drive, and it was 10 minutes’ walk from the tram to the flat. Apply to McSporran and Haggis for information, at a different address, which I did, and walked 20 minutes back along the tram line, to be sent back to Ingleby drive for the keys, which were left at a house further along!

I examined the flat, which had been occupied previously by a man and his two sons, and there were entanglements of odd electrical wiring all over the place and festoons of flex and gadgets in every odd corner.

The place was fairly clean, however, and beautifully light, but certain repairs want doing to window cords and blinds. The sitting room is lovely, a good size with a lot of windows at one end, and a single one at the other end, a good plain mahogany coloured mantel shelf, and a built-in cupboard. It is a large enough room to be both dining and sitting-room, which means that we can use the proper bedroom for a spare room, because it is very small, and the medium-sized dining room will be our bedroom. The kitchen is large and light and airy, with lots of cupboard space and an alcove at one end big enough for a double bed – a common idea in Scotland, where nearly every main kitchen has an alcove that can be curtained off, with a bed in it.

The stove is a long fuel one, with gas rings set on top of the oven end of it, and in the oven as well, so the range need only be burning when hot water is wanted in the tank, for baths and things. Everyone burns coal in the fuel stoves here, which is a messy business, but doesn’t worry me. The bathroom is quite all right, although the bath is a tiny bit leprous, but we can paint that quite happily. There is a hall, out of which all the rooms open, and on one side of the front door is a place about as big as the Roseville pantry, only wider, with a few shelves and hooks. We shall hang all our overcoats in there, and shall use it as a wardrobe too, to save buying one until we are rich. It has a door and is close to the bedroom, so it will be quite handy.

The other side of the front door there is another room, the size of the maid’s room at the flat, only long and narrow, and rather dark because the window is small and high up, and only opens into the hallway entrance to the building. This will be a fine place for all our baggage to be stored in, and Rufus and Beezer can sleep there at night too, so it is very handy as well.

Eric could only examine the flat from the outside, because when I took him to see it that evening the woman who minds the keys was out. He peered under the blinds and saw enough to satisfy him, and we went straight to the factor’s and fixed all the business arrangements. The rent is £43 p.a. with rates amounting to about £17 a year. Even at this (and they may be less) we shall be paying less than 30/- a week, and that includes electricity too, so we are lucky again with our rent accounts.

In the next instalment, I shall tell you of Jane’s exciting adventures while she bought furniture for their new abode, and how she got on with setting up her new house.