Norris's Memories (page 2)
Among the notes that my father made at a time in his life when old age curtailed his ability to toil away in the outdoors, there are some verses that he put to one side. I think appropriate to share this one with you now. It is true to every line of his time growing up in Ditcheat.
A Country Boy
Many a time when I was a lad
I listened to tales from my old Dad.
Tales of joy and tales of strife
when folk enjoyed a harder life.
When man would toil from dawn ‘till dusk
just to earn an honest crust
I remember too when I was a lad
of all the fun there was to be had.
To stand by a field on a summer’s morn
and watch a machine make sheaves of corn.
We’d chase the rabbits for miles with sticks
and watch the farmer thatching ricks.
To ride on a wagon back to the farm
and play in the yard without risk or harm.
We’d wander for hours in leafy lanes
and hear the whistle of far-off trains.
I remember the rooks near the old church spire
and fresh buttered toast around an open fire.
But when I look at my young son
will he ever know such simple fun?
When grown to a man will he look back with joy
and be glad he was born a Country Boy.
J.H.S.
Norris's time at home
"I can't remember doing anything constructive until I was about five years old, other than following my brothers around.
Sunday was special day because Dad came in from work about 9 o'clock and we all sat down to breakfast.and he was then at home until 3:30 when he had to go back to milk the cows. My older brothers would help him clean out the hen house, also to saw up logs, with a cross cut saw that was about five feet long. It had a handle at both ends and needed two to pull it backwards and forwards. I would help mother to wash up breakfast things and to do the vegetables for dinner. As the years went on, I replaced my brothers and my sister Faith who was six years younger than me, helped Mother.
At 10:45 we went to Church leaving Dad to have a good wash in the tin tub, the water was heated on in two large pans on the kitchen fire. When we came out of Church we always visited Sarah Humphries who lived in Church Row Cottages. Sarah was bedridden and looked after by her neighbour, Mrs Ashman. From spring to autumn we took her bunches of wild flowers and in the winter small bundles of fire lighting wood which we gathered from dead wood off large trees and hedgerows. When I say we I refer to my brothers as Sarah died before Faith was old enough to carry on our good deeds. After dinner Mum and Dad would have forty winks, my brother David and I would go back down the hill to Sunday School.
On summer evenings we all went to Church, back down the hill again via the stone steps in Ditcheat Hill. This was an opportunity for Mum and Dad to meet friends and have a chat, living on the hill they saw few people. Often we would walk part of the way to Wraxall with friends then walk back over the fields up the hill to the Castle and home."
