Sunday 16 June 2024

Happy Grandfathers day

 I see that it is Fathers Day today. 

I don't have many memories of my father. He wasn't involved in our upbringing, that job was left to our mother. I remember walking to the pub on a Sunday afternoon with mother and siblings. We were sat in the pub garden sipping a soft drink through a straw and eating a bag of crisps. After an hour or so we walked back home leaving father to carry on drinking with his mates. Later on when we were tucked up in bed, father arrived back home, and then the rows started. I was frightened of my dad so I kept out of his way. I'll say one thing in his favour, he always went to work to earn the money he spent in the pub. 

This was my English grandfather, Walter. It's a pencil drawing, my father was an artist. I went to stay with my grandparents most summer holidays. They lived in a cottage in the countryside. Walter was a quiet man, he loved his garden. He built me a bicycle with bits and pieces from old bikes. I remember trying it out for the first time. I was over the moon with my second hand bike. I didn't need a brand new Raleigh. 

Happy Grandfathers Day, Walter. 
Toodle pip.   ilona

12 comments:

  1. The sketch is Beautifully done!! Wow...
    I'm glad you had him in your life!
    hugs
    Donna

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  2. Walter looked a nice grandfather great to hear he made you a bikex🌈

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    1. He loved his garden and spent hours in his shed building something.

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  3. That is a wonderful drawing of your Grandfather - Sounds like a good man x

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    1. My father was a talented artist. He could have had a career in that line, but he needed the certainty of drawing a regular wage every week.

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  4. Your father was very talented, Ilona. That is almost photographic in quality. H x

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    1. The picture is exactly how I remember Walter.

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  5. That's a lovely drawing Ilona

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    1. Thank you. I wish I had inherited his pencil skills.

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  6. Lovely drawing, maybe he was unhappy your father because he was an artist soul and a real talent. He didn´t take the way in life that maybe should have been better for him or he wasn´t aware of any choices or there wasn´t any those days. He was really talented.

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    1. Just after the war there wasn't any choices. They had to take up employment wherever it was offered. My father brought a German lady back to the UK, she didn't speak any English, so he had to provide for her. He worked in a bakery for a few years, then found work as a steel erector at a power station, which paid better. He had a talent for pencil drawing but due to time restraints, earning a living had to come first. In those days it was more difficult to follow a dream.

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