The Xmas It Rained Money

Imagine walking down a cobbled street, late December mid 1960's. It's at a the time when the average wage for a woman was approx £12 a week, for men £23 a week. You aren't the first and certainly wouldn't be the last wishing  you had a little more money at Xmas.

Suddenly something flutters in front of you and lands on the cobbles. lt looks like a tube of paper. You pick it up and unroll it ... it's a 10 shilling note! Wow! ... you can't believe it. Then you notice other tubes lying on the street. lt can't be, surely? ... but it is! More 10 shilling notes and even £1 notes! ... and there's more fluttering down. Oh my god, you really can't believe it now ... your Xmas's have all come at once! (Pre-decimal days, 20  shillings = £1)

Ok, l'll come clean ... l made some of that up. The truth is that my kid sister, who was 6 yrs old at the time, was playing in my grandmother's bedroom at the pub l've just talked about. lt was late Dec and it was 1966. She was found by mother rolling up 10 shilling and 1 pound notes from the drawer that my grandmother kept the pub's takings in (no, there was no safe). My sister found that when these notes were rolled up they were just the right diameter to go through a little hole in the glass of the bedroom window ... SO SHE DID!

How long she'd being doing it no-one knew or ever found out but my sister said lots!. The takings hadn't been counted yet as it was from the midday takings and pubs closed at 3pm in those days. My grandmother wasn't even mad at my sister when my mother told her what had happened. She said it was her own fault for not getting the window fixed ... and whoever found it would probably spend it in the pub anyway. She still used to laugh about it whenever it came up for years to come.

Merry Xmas Nan, you were the best!