Town Mouse or Country Mouse?

I’ve lived in towns and the country, though the towns I lived in weren’t heavily populated and quite small in comparison to some. I prefer to live in the countryside with easy access to town if I feel the urge to go there.

During the long summer holidays when I was small, I spent time at both of my Grandmother’s houses, one in the country the other in the town.  I loved both.  My Grandmother in the country had an outside chemical toilet and if you wanted a bath it had to be dragged in, water heated in a boiler and the bath in front of the fire filled up.  Needless to say bath night was once a week.  You made do with a good wash everyday in between.  She cooked on a fire too, though she did have a stove for cooking the roast on a Sunday.  There were plenty of books or I went to play with the girls who lived on the farm across the road.  I later found out that they were my distant cousins.

Town Grandmother’s house was busier, there were more people to pop in for a cup of tea during the day and we went to the shops every day too, to buy groceries and bread.  There were also relatives nearby to visit.  On Friday we went on the bus to the market in the City to buy fish.  The buses seemed to run every ten minutes so you just went when you were ready.  Very strange for me coming from a place where there was a bus three times a week.  I played with the girl next door who took me to her friend’s houses so that there was quite a gang of us at times.  Sometimes I stayed and did huge jigsaw puzzles with my Grandmother; we used to cover the unfinished puzzle with a cloth at meal times.  My uncle, who was only 5 years older than me, read super hero comics, so I read them too.  I was also allowed to choose a couple of books from the library on the weekly visit.  I was also given something to do in the greenhouse.  I remember watering the passion flowers and learning what each part of the flower meant. 

The best part was bed time.  Every evening it was my Grandfather’s job to put me to bed.  First we would go into the dining room and talk about the picture that was hanging there.  It was a stage coach at an Inn collecting passengers.  Then I had a fireman’s lift up the stairs! Goodness knows how I settled down to sleep after all of the giggles that involved.

Probably the best part of being at either Grandparent’s house was that I was the only child; at home I had two sisters and a baby brother.  For a little while I got lots of attention.  I used to cry when I went home.

So which are you – Town Mouse or Country Mouse?

As a reward for reading this far you can now watch the theme song from Green Acres!

Here's part of the first episode too.