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Silly Snippets

Boys Will Be Boys! When my father, Lawrence, was a little boy, he used to delight in hiding under the long chenille cloth which covered the dining-table and bashing his Grandmother Betsy's toes with a toy hammer. Also it was in Betsy's best hat that Lawrence's pet cat had kittens!	A Man's Best friend - is his Horse! One of my ancestors, Ernest, drove a horse-drawn hearse, complete with black plumes. Delivering corpses all day was more than a Willgoose could stand, so he used to imbibe a drop to keep his spirits up. By the end of the day he would be so drunk that his faithful horse would take him home whilst he slept it off.
A Wish That Never Came True My mother, Rita, told me that when she was a little girl she would walk behind her mother, Edith Eliza Mason, watching the way her long skirts were kicked up by her heels to show a froth of petticoats. Rita longed for the day when her skirts would do that too, but, of course, they never did. By the time Rita grew up in the 1920s, skirts were short - so she became a flapper instead and danced the charleston!	The Sweeney Todd of Sheffield That chenille tablecloth covered many of Lawrence's misdemeanors. On one memorable occasion he decided to play hair-dresser and chopped off his brother Harry's fringe. Flushed with success, he also cut off one of a little girl's "bunches" - and this was during a time when a girl's hair really was her crowning glory!
If you have any silly stories to tell about your Willgoose ancestors, which you’d like to share with other Geese, please write to me and I'll publish them on this page kay.feltham@lineone.net

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