The Legend of Mickey

The legend of “Mickey” as handed down to me by my Aunt Averil.

Back in the mists of time, when I were but a nipper, my parents had taken a day out in Whitby, with me in my pram/pushchair. Now I don’t know how many of you remember the Woolworths in Whitby, (I understand it is now a Poundland). It was on the West side of the river, with only a road separating it from the nearby staith, it also had an entrance on Flowergate, which allowed you access to the first floor. While walking down the aisles of this shop, we ventured into the toy section. What happened next (as I was told), I grabbed at the tail of a stuffed toy, holding tight, dragging it from the shelf, as we passed.  The toy being a stuffed mouse with vinyl face and hands, and a green and yellow material body. I refused to let go of the tail, eventually, my parents gave in and purchased “Mickey”, even though they could ill afford it, and pretty much skint themselves for that week.

“Mickey” has been around since then, as I got older and other younger family members came along, they also played with “Mickey”, from our younger brother, through to my two nieces.  “Mickey”, (you can see the effects of this on his nose, where the black has been eroded) moved house with us, when we moved out of Guisborough, initially into a bungalow, then when I moved into a flat. This is when “Mickey”, first started showing signs of old age, his once fine furry body, looking a bit threadbare, the damp air in the bedroom where he was stored wreaking havoc, eventually, his side gave in to the ravages of time and burst, there being no sound material left, he could not be repaired.

This was not to be the end of “Mickey”, I managed to rescue his face. Thinking that I might have it mounted and framed, but never getting round to it, I mentioned these plans to my sister Diane, who took it from our house (without my knowledge). Apparently while on a visit to our house to see Auntie Jean, Marion, Liam and Aliya, who were visiting from Canada, she or should I say Ellen raided the spare room and abducted him. Diane had him framed and returned him to me, I now have to decide where he is going on display.

Thank you, Diane and Ian Buckingham, you have made a grumpy old man (my wife’s claim) very happy.

John Alfred Jemmerson

John Alfred (known as Alf) was born in 1912 in Port Mulgrave, North Yorkshire, to Alfred Jemmerson (possibly also John Alfred) and his wife, Charlotte Jane née Foster. During the Second World War, my grandfather was taken prisoner in North Africa, Libya to be more precise. As a prisoner of war, he eventually spent time in Stalag VIIIb/344 Lamsdorf.

This I have only found out while researching our family tree, as Pop (as we grandkids called him) would not talk about his time during the war. I have submitted a request to the IRC and hope to hear from them with further information about his time as a POW.

Towards the end of his life, he did relent a little and wore a blazer with his regimental badge on the pocket, even attending a presentation by Lord Gisborough with other veterans of the regiment. But even then, he was very reticent to speak about his wartime experiences.

My Family and Other Stories

My plan for this site/blog is to display information relating to my research into my family history. However as it grows and expands it may cover other things; memories of childhood, family stories, trips away etc. If you see my page and believe you may have information relating to my research please feel free to contact me. Needing an image to represent this site I thought what better way to introduce myself than use one of me, there being very few photographs of me (recent ones anyway I found this one on my phone, it was taken by one of my grandkids (thank you Emily) on an afternoon walk around the boating lake.

ps, the first few pages I will be posting are pages initially posted on another blogging site, only reworked and updated.