This entry was written by June Sharpe, remembering some of the pre-war years of her childhood with her family
A few other things I remember from the pre-war years.
I think it was usually at Easter as the weather wasn't always very warm, but the Hocking family used to gather for picnics at Holywell, which is the beach en of Cubert. We weren't on the beach, but in the sand dunes.
Mother used to make pasties, as she was acknowledged the best pasty maker in the family, but everyone brought something. Granny Hocking used to make "SQUAB" pasties. These had a filling of apple and raisins and went quite flat in the oven. Auntie Olive used to dole these out for puccing. She cut them in the middle, pressed the sides to make a pocket and put in a spoon of brown sugar and a spoon of cream. They were really delicious.
Twice a year before the was we would go to Plymouth to shop. One of Father's friends, Henry, ran a taxi service. Either he drove us, or his son who was called Arnold did. Mother would buy us our Spring (or Autumn outfits - both May and I alike and we would all go and have tea in a restaurant, including Henry or Arnold and drive home again.
Sometimes when we went on a Sunday out to Grannie Hocking for tea, we found we had all been invited to have tea at Granny Epletts. She wasn't really our granny, but the mother of Uncle Fred, Aunt Eveline's (Mohter's eldest sister) husband. She only had one grandchild, Marjorie and enjoyed a crowd, so used to 'borrow' her daughter in law's relations. She always had a real spread prepared, and used to say "Cut away such as 'tis" and if we didn't eat enough for her liking would say "beant it good enough for ee". She lived further down the village near the crossroads. Sometimes when we were at Gran's we could climb over the hedge across the lane. The fields there belonged to a farmer called Eustace and we picked lots of mushrooms there. Also when we were there sometimes Aunt Evaline would make potato cake which we loved, with pigs chitterlings, as they often killed a pig. It was years before I found chitterlings were the cleaned and chopped up intestines.
