Hoping "Mother is not so troublesome" .............. stories from a Didsbury postcard

Now there may seem nothing remarkable about number 6 Castle Street in Widnes.  

It looks exactly like the house we bought in Ashton-Under-Lyne in 1973 and could pass for the two up two down that my grandparents occupied for over thirty years.

And Peter’s painting could at a pinch be any of the thousands of such houses built during the 19th and early 20 centuries.

But what is interesting about number 6 is that in 1956 it was the home of Mr and Mrs Edwardson who received this postcard in the summer of that year.

It was sent by Mrs Rye who reported that they “were having lovely weather” in Manchester and hoped “it is the same in Widnes.”

Now what I found a little interesting is that while the card was addressed to Mr and Mrs Edwardson it was written to someone else.

The someone else we will never know but Mrs Rye hoped that “Mother is not so troublesome” and asks “to be remembered to mother.”

All of which makes me want to know much more but stubbornly the message offers no more clues other than that Alex had arrived at her destination and the weather was also fine.

I suppose the preoccupation with the weather is understandable given that this was early July and most people still took their holidays in Britain where the sun and clear blue skies can never be relied on.

The message provoked quite a discussion in the house with a whole set of theories about the identity of the person Mrs Rye was writing to.

These ranged from sister to sister in law and even carer but in the end we were no further forward.

And I suppose that pretty much is that and points to the simple observation that messages like this were too personal for them often to be understood outside the family.

But at least we still have them, unlike today when the text, email or phone message is lost as soon as they are made.

For only a handful of people will keep or transcribe a text message and certainly will not go to the bother of recording the reply.

All of which is a loss, not because I wan’t to pry but these messages are the voice of the past and mixed in with the observations on the weather will be a vast array of comments about all sorts of everyday news.

Sadly not in this case, although it did lead Peter to paint number 6 and that is a little bit of a start.

Painting;  number 6 Castle Street Widnes © 2013 Peter Topping
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Picture; Wilmslow Road, circa 1956