...a few new captions
A handful of captioned images taken from vintage sewing pattern covers and catalogue pages.
The Evacuee
The story of an evacuee
that begins in the autumn of 1940... 10 year old Billy says a tearful
goodbye to his mother before boarding the bus to who knows where. All
the other kids are just as nervous as Billy, even more so when they
arrive at the small church hall in a remote town somewhere well away
from the city. They stand in line waiting to be picked and some of
their potential hosts inspect them as if inspecting livestock,
picking the healthiest and cleanest looking ones first. Poor Billy
was always one of the last to be picked for football games and he's
one of the last today. A stern looking middle aged lady arrives late
and is 'furious' that all the 'decent' children have been claimed.
“Is this all you've got left?” she snaps at the billeting officer
as she sneers at the three remaining children. The lady reluctantly
picks the tatty looking red haired girl next to Billy, before
entering into a heated debate about whether or not she should take
Billy too. “You did put your name down for two children Mrs
Postlethwaite.” the billeting officer reminds her. In the meantime,
the smallest child is taken in by a family who've agreed to take four
instead of three evacuees. The billeting officer pleads with Mrs
Postlethwaite but the lady refuses to budge.
“I said I could house
two girls at the most and you've only got one!” Mrs Postlethwaite
retorted. “I don't like boys, I don't trust boys, and I have no
intention of housing one... especially a scratty little street urchin like
that!” she says as a well manicured nail points directly at Billy.
Halfway House
Lawrence has recently
been taken out of foster care due to him turning 16 years of age, and
has been residing in a residential housing scheme for the last five
months. It's a kind of 'halfway house' which helps youngsters make
the transition between foster care and living by their own means. The
halfway house provides a stable and secure living environment and
helps its residents to find work or a suitable college course and
assists in finding permanent accommodation outside of the welfare
system. Lawrence's current halfway house is called Elm Tree House and
is more geared towards residents with mental health and disability
issues, but it was the only one in the area which had an available
place so that's where Lawrence ended up. It's not a bad place by any
means and like most of these types of residential housing schemes,
the aim is to get their residents to eventually move out and learn to
live an independent life.