Hello! We're Your Great Grandparents: Recent Episodes
Lucy Armitage
This year, Patricia and Ken, my Mum and Dad, have become great grandparents for the first time. (Hello Evelyn!) As a way of saying Welcome to the World to a whole new generation of our family, it feels like a good time to capture Mum and Dad talking about their own childhoods: who their parents and grandparents were, what it was like growing up in the 1940s, how they met each other... this podcast is a cheery wave from Patricia and Ken to all of our family.
This episode starts sadly, with Ken (my Dad), talking about when his own Dad, Clifford, died (in 1969)- and then remembering his Dad, his Mum and National Service. Turns out, Ken learnt to fly planes before he learnt to drive a car...
Hello - Lucy here. This is a pilot episode, with my Mum, Patricia, who's 84 years old.
Patricia is talking about Harriet, her Grandmother (who was her Dad's mum). Harriet was born way back in 1875, but she lived to be 104 years old, so we all knew her. (Harriet died in 1980.)
Harriet left school aged 11 years, and started work as a maid; first in her hometown of Gosport, and then in London and Kent.
Now and then you'll hear me (Lucy, Patricia's daughter) asking questions, and a tiny bit of Ken, my Dad (and Patricia's husband of 60 years).
You'll also hear railway announcements - Patricia and Ken's garden backs onto the train station. The photo for this podcast is of Patricia and Ken when they were courting in the 1950s. (It was taken by Geoff, Ken's big brother.)
Here's Lucy talking to Ken (her Dad) for a trial run. Ken talks about being posted from Bradford to Kent for National Service, being a Catholic, finding lodgings, and meeting Patricia, my Mum. (Ken and Lucy refer to a book sometimes, which is a book Ken filled in a couple of years ago for Maurice, one of his ten grandsons.)