The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*
I wonder just what Joe and Mary Ann would have made of the impromptu gathering just after Christmas in what had been their dining room.
Back from Poland was our Saul, and Emilka, and their friends Ben who is Australian and Maria who comes from Warsaw.
Had they been here a bit earlier in the year they would have shared the table with Simone and Rosa who were born in Naples and Tina’s sister, husband and daughter who live just north of Milan and her brother from Varese.
These days I don’t think many in Chorlton would be surprised at this jumble of people from all over, and given that my maternal grandmother was German and Dad’s parents were from Scotland the mix of people in the house just seems commonplace.
Nor is this a recent development, for back in the 1970s the house was the natural stopping off point for friends from France, Spain and even London while in the future we have every expectation that batches of our Canadian cousins and friends will be spend time here.
All of which has made many a Christmas dinner very special with an ebb and flow of different accents, and languages, united by all being family.
Of course Brexit has injected uncertainty into our family, and despite the vacuous blandishments of some politicians we wonder about the status rights of the Italian side of the family in Britain and equally the long term future of our son who lives and works in Poland.
Just after the last world war we were happy to welcome, first the displaced refugees of Europe followed by the Windrush and later those from the sub continent, all of which contributed and enriched the country.
That has continued and our kids like us have embraced that freedom of movement and the sheer pleasure of meeting and working with colleagues and friends from Italy, Germany, France, Spain and the old eastern Europe.
Joe died long before we joined the Common Market and Mary Ann before that first referendum reaffirming our membership of the organization.
But they were not unfamiliar with Britain’s position as part of a bigger global band of countries.
They grew up during that time when a large chunk of the world was linked to Britain by empire, trading links and that military alliance with Russia and France.
If they didn’t have friends from the far flung parts of the world they would at least have been aware that we were part of that bigger world, which on a simple level would have been reinforced every time they went to the larder and used a host of tinned and dried foods which had originated on the other side of the globe and ended up on the table in the dining room.
Location; Chorlton
Pictures; from the collections of Andrew Simpson, Hoe’s Sauces from the series Celebrated Postcards, and Staying at Home, marketed by Tuck & Sons, date unknown, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/
*The story of a house,
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house
Back from Poland was our Saul, and Emilka, and their friends Ben who is Australian and Maria who comes from Warsaw.
Had they been here a bit earlier in the year they would have shared the table with Simone and Rosa who were born in Naples and Tina’s sister, husband and daughter who live just north of Milan and her brother from Varese.
Nor is this a recent development, for back in the 1970s the house was the natural stopping off point for friends from France, Spain and even London while in the future we have every expectation that batches of our Canadian cousins and friends will be spend time here.
Of course Brexit has injected uncertainty into our family, and despite the vacuous blandishments of some politicians we wonder about the status rights of the Italian side of the family in Britain and equally the long term future of our son who lives and works in Poland.
Just after the last world war we were happy to welcome, first the displaced refugees of Europe followed by the Windrush and later those from the sub continent, all of which contributed and enriched the country.
That has continued and our kids like us have embraced that freedom of movement and the sheer pleasure of meeting and working with colleagues and friends from Italy, Germany, France, Spain and the old eastern Europe.
Joe died long before we joined the Common Market and Mary Ann before that first referendum reaffirming our membership of the organization.
But they were not unfamiliar with Britain’s position as part of a bigger global band of countries.
If they didn’t have friends from the far flung parts of the world they would at least have been aware that we were part of that bigger world, which on a simple level would have been reinforced every time they went to the larder and used a host of tinned and dried foods which had originated on the other side of the globe and ended up on the table in the dining room.
Location; Chorlton
Pictures; from the collections of Andrew Simpson, Hoe’s Sauces from the series Celebrated Postcards, and Staying at Home, marketed by Tuck & Sons, date unknown, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/
*The story of a house,
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house
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