Betty Kennard

Interviewed by Eve Klein on 5 March 2001
Subject: The Depression, Games

Betty Kennard. Yes it was. We were quite comfortable, we had help in the house and for some of the time we had a car. That was before The Depression. There were other children around and we played things like marbles, and all those usual childish things. We played with hoops, and we could walk all the way to my grandmother’s still bowling the same hoop. That was to Redan Street across Military Road. I remember a camp stand at the top of Prince Albert Street, I don’t know for how long, and I can’t remember ever going in it. I suppose other people have told you about the men coming round calling: ‘clothes prop’.

Eve Klein. No, can you tell us something about that?

Betty Kennard. They were itinerant salesmen, and the man would go along the street, calling ‘clothes prop’, and he had these long stakes that people used for clothes props.

Eve Klein. Did your mother buy from them?

Betty Kennard. I don’t remember her buying from them. She probably offered them a cup of tea if they came to the door.