The Society has recently been sent a pdf of "Black Country Ramblings" by Dorothy Cooper, which sets out her childhood reminiscences in Dudley in the 1930s and 1940s before she emigrated to Australia. Her husband, John Brown, writes as follows from New South Wales.
I think you will find it interesting in that it is different. While written by a woman in her sixties, it has all the character of being written from the heart of a child, in a whimsical and at times humorous vein, and in a style which is purely personal While not a top scholar at Dudley School she frequently came first in "Dictation" tests. The story starts in an old tenement -("2-down, 2-up") in Dock Lane Dudley, a remnant of industrial era housing with external toilets and laundries and no internal bathrooms. The story goes up through the War, with Dorothy and her mother sleeping under the kitchen table with German bombers overhead. And so on, with numerous childhood events eventually leading up to marriage and emigration to Australia.
Click on either of the pictures to open (and if you wish, download) the pdf.
Dorothy Cooper
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