Clem Travel Iron

It was Nora’s birthday.  She had tried not to be too expectant, but Harold always bought her a little surprise.  He was in good spirits lately too, as he had finally got that promotion at the office.  They had more money coming in than they had ever had before – things were looking up.  Nora battled with a wish for a delightful little package to open.  A new chain necklace to replace the one that she had snapped, perhaps.  Or a hairdryer would be nice.

She went downstairs to fetch the morning tea.  When she returned with the tray, there was a neat, square package resting on her pillow, along with her card.  She opened the card first and leaned over to kiss Harold on the cheek.

“I wonder what this could be?”  She handled the package carefully and could glean no clues as to what was beneath the paper.  It was quite thrilling.  She peeled off the wrapping and the inner box was revealed.  She read out the writing on the label.

“Clem Travel Iron.”

“It plugs into the light socket.” Harold imparted this fact proudly.

Nora wondered if it was a trick and pulled the lid off the box.  But there it was, a small but heavy iron with an electric cord and stand.  She stared at it, wondering what to say. She could accept it gracefully and risk repeat presents of the household variety.  Or she could wail out the displeasure which bubbled in the back of her throat.  Then a thought occurred to her.

“But Harold! We always go camping for our holidays.  In a tent!”

“Aha! Not any more, my treasure!  Your holiday this year will be in a hotel by the sea.  A week in Morcambe awaits my love!”

So it was a red herring all along.  One surprise leading to another, much better one. Nora flung her arms around her husband and whispered her thank yous.

“It’s a smart hotel, Nora, so I will need my trousers to be ironed every day.  This will make it delightfully easy for you, my dear.”

Clem Travel Iron for sale in the Etsy shop, SewsAttic

 

The Diary of a Kind Hearted Man Killer is now available as an Amazon Kindle book.

Official Guide to the Yorkshire Dales

Everyone said that Uncle Arthur was a funny old sod.  He was a fixture of family gatherings, where everyone humoured his often bizarre proclamations.  One of his regular pronouncements was on the folly of ever leaving Lancashire.  He was born in Blackburn, raised in Burnley, holidayed in Blackpool and had retired to Bury – to be near his sister.  He had not once crossed the Lancashire boundary and he had never wanted to.  Why would he want to leave?  Lancashire contained everything a man needed.  Except a wife, it seemed.  He had never married.

Arthur lived in a sheltered bungalow full of books about gardening and wild animals.  He was fond of describing the habits of badgers to anyone who might listen.  When it was time to provide Uncle Arthur with more help, it was his niece that arranged the place in a care home.  She packed away his belongings and arranged the disposal of his furniture.  She boxed up those books that he had chosen not to take with him to the home and took them to a charity shop.  Among the books about wetland birds she found an oddity.  This was a Guide to the Yorkshire Dales.  The niece smiled at the rogue publication, then put it to one side to show her mother and her daughters later. They would laugh at the foreign interloper.

The Guide was still in the niece’s bag when she went to visit Uncle Arthur later that week.  She pulled the book out and asked him about it.

“What’s a staunch Lancastrian like you doing with a book about Yorkshire? You a fifth columnist?” she waved it humorously under his nose. 

He didn’t join in with the jollity.  “Oh, that. It was a lady friend that I found in the ‘60s. She used to come over on the train and visit me in Burnley every other Saturday.  But she couldn’t leave her home in Skipton.  She had ties, you see.  Her mother.   She wanted me to go and live over there and she gave me the book to try and tempt me, like. Looking back I could have done it easily but I was too stubborn wasn’t I?  Too set in my ways, damn fool that I am.  Spent the last 50 years wondering what happened to her.” 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/177989837/official-guide-to-the-yorkshire-dales?ref=shop_home_active_16

See the Etsy shop BradshawsEmporium to see this item and other similar travel ephemera.

Search Amazon for Sarah Miller Walters for more writing.