The Meek Shall Inherit The Hearth

Before you start thinking that the above title is a typo, please let me explain.

I have always had a fascination for people who make off-the-cuff remarks which turn out to be so clever and really quite brilliant. I'm not talking about quotes from people like Churchill where they were written for him and rehearsed. I'm talking about people who have the ability to just say random things off the top of their heads that are really witty.

The above title was uttered by my grandfather. My family are/were devout Catholics, so quotations from the Bible were commonplace as I grew up. 'Get thee behind me, Satan' was one such quotation, often levelled at me, for some reason. As a small child staying at my grandparents' house, for me, the weekends were always manic. As you can imagine an Irish/Italian household tends to have lots of children, aunties, uncles and cousins who would all descend upon the house on a Sunday. The adults were given drinks in the front room while the kids were told to go play in the fields. Yes I know, letting children out of your sight so they could behave like children is a strange concept now. This particular day most of my cousins that turned up were a lot older than me. I was about five years old. They were aged between ten and twelve years old so they were obviously far more worldly-wise and cosmopolitan, as all children in sixties Huddersfield were!

They wanted to play at soldiers and the thought of a feeble little five year old playing alongside them didn't go down well. But, as with all these occasions the rest of the kids were told to play nice and don't leave him out, pointing to me and making me feel like some unwanted haemorrhoid (I don't really know of a wanted haemorrhoid). This of course was a problem for the bigger kids until one of my older cousins came up with a solution, he told me to sit in the kitchen in front of the fire and guard it, as this was my territory. “Don't let anyone in here!” he ordered. I agreed, so pleased that I had been given such an important job and stood firm in front of the large metal fire place. The rest of the group then ran off into the fields to play in the sun, leaving me alone in the old dark kitchen.

Because it was a warm summer's day the adults were in the front garden chatting and drinking, so everyone except for me seemed to be having a whale of a time. After half an hour Granddad walked into the kitchen and saw me standing alone in front of the large fireplace, holding my stick (which anyone with any sense could see was really a sniper's rifle) and asked what I was doing.

“This is my land and I'm defending it,” I announced with pride.

Granddad smiled, then walked out of the kitchen saying, “Ah, I see that the meek have inherited the hearth!” I didn't have a clue what he was talking about. But one thing about my grandparents was their ability to make you feel loved and important. One thing about Granddad was that he was a master at teaching people a lesson. A few moments later, he walked back in the kitchen with one of my uncles, this man was one of the loveliest people it has ever been my privilege to meet, it was also his son that had come up with the idea to have me stood like an idiot in front of the kitchen fire for half an hour. My uncle had a motor bike and side car and my auntie and him plus two sons travelled everywhere in this. My Granddad told me to get my gun as he had an important mission for me, he told me not to worry he would guard my land for me.

I went out into the garden clutching my stick/ .303 standard issue rifle with modifications and telescopic sight. When my uncle shouted out, “Germans!” (sorry, but this was Britain in the `sixties.) we both then ran.

“Quick!" shouted my uncle, “Get in the side car!” This I did, and he fired up the motor bike and we roared off up the road. When we reached the top of the road he turned around and ordered me to fire at the enemy. We roared back down the road and all of my aunties and uncles plus Nonna were hiding behind the garden wall with sticks in their hands, pretending to shoot at us.

I can't begin to tell you just how excited I was I thought that my head would explode. All my other cousins saw what was happening and ran down to join in But Granddad appeared from the house saying, “back to your games lads, this is not for you!” the looks on their faces as they sat and watched the fun in front of them was also a lesson for me. When we stopped for my family to catch a breath and have refreshments/drinks (things were so much different then) all my cousins kept begging to be part of the game. Granddad told them that they were far too old to be playing with little lads like me. They begged him, saying they really wanted to play soldiers with me. Granddad turned to me and said, “what do you think, can they play?” I felt so important. “Of course they can!” I excitedly shouted.

“You know, I think that's the right decision,” he replied in his quiet voice which had a strong Irish accent. The rest of the afternoon was a time I shall never forget. Where the sun beat down and we all took it in turns to ride in the side car the whole family as one laughed, and ate and told silly jokes.

I, like lots of people, had quite a mixed childhood. There was a lot of sadness, but I was lucky enough to have grandparents who had lived through extraordinary times and had extraordinary lives. They knew the importance of a happy childhood and the importance of inclusion, spending most of their lives as immigrants. I hope that the lessons they taught me have stood me in good stead to give my family the support and love they need. I know my son always claims that he had a fantastic childhood and he wants his daughter to have the same.

So, you see that taking time to change just one life has a knock-on effect. Soon you have lots of people trying to change just one life. But the strangest thing is that I have such a happy memory which involved me and my family pretending to shoot people. 

Did I mention that I come from quite an odd background?!