Chronicles of a Village Childhood

Hobbies and interests. Eluned Rees realises some endured more than others.

Let me begin by saying what was NOT of interest to me. I was not fond of sport, apart from watching and playing a little tennis; nor was I interested in sewing or knitting, even though my mother and grandmother were extremely talented at both.

I do remember, though, sitting with my friend Sylvia, Number 3, doing endless cross- stitch in school one afternoon a week. I have a few pieces still, a small bag, bits to put on a table, blue holey material for each stitch to put in each hole. I’m sure others of my age will remember this. We had a white cotton bag in which to keep all our materials, with our initials sown on the front. As we sat next to each other, our bags said SAD JEW! Sylvia Ann Davies and Jane Eluned Williams. Quite funny!

Children go through various stages of interest in different hobbies and I was no different. Reading was, and is, my main interest, as well as writing poems, stories and keeping a diary, but there were others. I began collecting coins, and loved learning that it had a proper word - numismatics. The vicar of Pontyates at the time, Revd Alex Clark, was kind enough to give guidance and advice, as well as an occasional spare coin as, like me, he was a numismatist! They stayed with me until recently.

Even though I was not a doll lover, people would give us dolls from other countries, especially my grandmother in Morriston, who went on exotic holidays to Europe on the train free, as my grandfather worked on the railway. There was not much point in these dolls in their plastic boxes - too cold to play with.

Creating and keeping scrapbooks was popular in the 50s and 60s. We would keep concert and play programmes, record of visits on holidays or with school, and would glue them in carefully. My mother had Woman’s Weekly regularly and tried to encourage an interest in English poetry by cutting out poems from the magazine to be glued.

You will be surprised to learn that at one time we started a Royal Family scrapbook but, although I still have the other one, you will not be surprised to learn that the Royal Family one somehow disappeared from our house!