Music

To continue the musical theme  -  did you know that the washboard so beloved of skiffle players was an everyday object of my childhood?  It stood upright in a bowl of hot water.  the garments were soaped and then rubbed hard on the grooves of the washboard.  Rub too hard and you ended up with skinned knuckles. There was always a lot of music in our house.  An old uncle used to sit me on his knee and sing all the old music hall songs. I can remember all the words to this day.
My mother would sing hymns while doing her chores. She was a great one for Moody & Sankey hymns with a rousing chorus. She also liked ballads and bits of opera  -  Madame Butterfly and the intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, still a favourite with me. The records on the wind-up gramophone might have been a bit scratchy but we didn't mind.  The radio had a huge battery and the glass accumulator had to be taken to the wireless shop to be refilled regularly. There was just one radio.  Occasionally it emitted peculiar squeaks and whistles.  My brother said it was Morse Code.  I thought he said Moscow and for a long time wondered at this strange Russian language.