Blogspot #2

No. 9 Mottisfont Close
Southampton, England
June 1966

Our first days were spent at No. 9 Mottisfont Close, at the west edge of Southampton. Auntie Dorothy and Uncle Laurie Fawson were married in 1921, I believe. Uncle Laurie had worked all his life for the UK postal system. Eric’s mother, Neva, was an attendant for her favorite aunt’s wedding when she was about 12 years old. We have pictures of that wedding and a beautiful large portrait done of Neva in her attendant’s dress.

Cousin Derek picked us up at the dock, drove us west on Millbrook Road, W., until we came to King George’s Avenue. Turning away from the water, we drove a very short block down King George, took a right onto Creighton Road, and then a left onto Mottisfont Close.

No. 9 is a red brick two-story semi-detached home that sits at the end of a cul-de-sac. Semi-detached meant it was not a row house, or town house, as we might call it. Cousin Derek drove up to the gate, which was always kept closed. Someone had to get out and open the gate, then close it again once the car was in the drive that hugged the tiny front yard, and proceeded along the right side of the house to the garage at the back.

I don’t know exactly when the house was built, but it was pre-World War II. The windows all stuck when opening and shutting. The family said that came as a result of the nearby bombing of the Southampton docks during the war. We always hear of the Blitz in London, but the docks in Southampton and the naval yard in nearby Portsmouth were also targets.

I am now so used to European and English homes that I would not notice it as different. But back then, I was seeing everything with the fresh eyes of someone who had spent most of her life in the US mid-west. I can still conjure up my cozy evenings in the sitting room, afternoon tea in the dining room, and tea-making and cooking lessons in the little kitchen. In fact, to my mid-western America eyes, everything was in miniature and every room was surprisingly distinct and shut off from every other part of the house.

Each room had a small fireplace and every room had a door that could be closed. During the winter, the fireplaces warmed the room or rooms that were in use, and the halls and stairway were cold. Auntie Dorothy, like many English homemakers at that time, still did not own a refrigerator. Perishables were kept in the unheated pantry under the stairway. One shopped for only a day or two at a time. Milk came in half-pints, pints, and quarts.

The front of the house was totally taken up with an entry way and hall which ran from the front door to the kitchen door at the back of the house. This hallway also included the stairway up to the second floor. The phone sat on a deep window sill at the bottom landing to the stairs. Obviously no one was planning to linger on the phone, as there was no where to sit down.

To the left was the door to the tiny living room. The space of this room was slightly enlarged by a bay window. This room held a couch, a couple of armchairs, the small tellie (TV), and a table or two. Five or six of us sitting there for the evening totally filled the space. It was a cozy place to spend the evening, the women knitting. Sometime during the evening Auntie would suggest tea, and the teapot, milk, sugar, and tin of biscuits (cookies) would soon appear.

The kitchen was at the back of the house, with a door to the hallway and another outside to the driveway. It held a stove with a warming compartment above. Plates were warmed before being served up in the kitchen, so that dinners were served plated. Auntie would fill the heated plates and carry them one or two at a time using mitts or tea towels to keep from burning her hands. She backed her way through the swinging kitchen door into the hallway and then turned to go through the dining room door to the table.

The dining room was the same width as the living room, with large French doors opening onto the back garden. It had a table for six, a small fireplace, a sideboard, a rocking chair, a second easy chair, and a budgie (parakeet). cage This budgie was the family pet and got more affection and attention than many people give a dog or a cat. Sometimes the cage was moved outside the French doors onto the steps to the garden for the afternoon.

While we might have an evening cup of tea in the parlor, the dining room was where we had breakfast, elevensies (tea and snack at 11 a.m.), lunch (which during the summer was always a cold plate of meat, cheese, egg, green salad, etc.), and afternoon tea. I am trying to remember if afternoon tea melded into supper or if we also had high tea, which was supper. I think we did both, depending on the day. Since it was summer, I don’t remember too many large, hot meals being served there. We did have the English roast, potatoes, vegetables, and Yorkshire pudding a few times on the weekend.

The sink was a simple, single porcelain on with a side draining board. I had never seen a “geyser.” Instead of a water tank, water was heated on demand by the geyser. There was one in the kitchen, and another in the upstairs bathroom.

Auntie Dorothy often called me the affectionate nickname of “duckie” or “ducks.” She taught me to brew a proper pot of tea, shaking her head that I had never learned to warm the pot first, steep tea, or use a tea cozy to keep the pot warm. Despite the nearly fifty year difference in our ages, we had a great time together and laughed a lot.

Our adventures overseas began in June of 1966, when we flew from the United States for Europe and United Kingdom. We had just completed our junior year at Purdue University. With just one year left before receiving his BS in Civil Engineering, Eric had applied for an internship with an engineering consultant firm in downtown London. The destination was determined because we also wanted to reconnect with Eric's English relatives while his mother was in the UK to help us. We also wanted to spread our wings and discover Europe!

We flew on Icelandic Airlines (the best bargain at that time) to Luxembourg, and took a train to the French Riviera. These were the days when luggage did not have wheels and when proper ladies took a hat along for special occasions--a fact that Eric disputed from the very beginning. Needless to say, my white straw hat with black ribbon streamers and our heavy suitcases added to our adventures over the summer. Frommer's "Europe On $5 A Day" was our guide, and we prided ourselves on getting by for $5 a day for the two of us most of the time.

When we arrived in Nice, we used Frommer's guide to find an inexpensive hotel near the railroad station. As soon as that was settled, we headed for the beach and took our first dip in the incredibly blue Mediterranean Sea.

Neither of us had anticipated a beach of stone rather than sand. In spite of the discomfort, with university exams and travel behind us we were exhausted enough to fall asleep on the stones. The cool evening air and setting sun woke us up. It seemed especially cool to us because of the intense sunburns we had earned on our first day at the beach. The train ride a few days later from Nice, France, to the coast of the English Channel was a painful one.

We crossed the Channel on a ferry. This trip had already included many firsts for me. While Eric had traveled to England with his family as a child, I had never been overseas. In the first week I had experienced my first train ride and my first boat ride. We arrived in Southampton amidst a the proverbial English rain. Those were not the days of email or easy telephoning between countries when you stayed in cheap hotels or slept on trains. Besides, we were novices and didn't know much. Each day was an adventure. We got to Southampton on a dark and rainy evening. I sat on the suitcase while Eric called his relatives. Cousin Derek came to pick us up. Another first. I had never ridden in such a tiny car or in one with the steering wheel on the righthand side of the car.

Hi! We are creating this blog for family and friends. It is time to think back over our years living on three different continents--and our present travels to a few more continents! I invite my friends to add details to our reminiscing, so that we can enjoy those memories together.