Nan Grandad and Olive and why i make the Roses

When my Nan and Grandad stopped travelling and the land they owned and used to stay on in the winter time was compulsory purchased by the council , part of the agreement was the council gave the gypsy families money for the land and a house to rent, as you can well imagine it was a big shock for them after being born and raised in a caravan.
My Nan loved her house but because she was so used to going out she would still get ready at 7 o'clock in the morning and sit on a kitchen chair with her coat on waiting for the shops to open at 9 o'clock she would be out and about all day i used to see her on buses all over the place she just could'nt stay in.
Now my aunt Olive lived with them and never married, she was my favourite person in the world ,words cannot describe how lovely she was, she never went out and i mean never not even up the road .
All day long she would clean the house top to bottom it was spotless. They never owned a washing machine in all the years in the house, olive would wash everything by hand on a scrubbing board then wring it by hand or on the mangle and out it would go on the great big line my Grandad put up.

My Grandad got work on the council building houses and laying pavements he liked the work as it was out of doors,he used to walk me round and point to all of the places he worked on.
He used to have a bird aviary in the garden at the house he bred finches and canaries and little singing birds as his hobby he used to breed some lovely coloured ones and good singers as well.
Well they would all tell me stories of how they made things to sell when they travelled around Kent my Nan and the other women would make flowers from paper and also from wax.
They knocked on doors and would sell quite a few to the big houses although sometimes people were nasty and said terrible things most were happy to see the gypsies and would chat and buy things year after year.
My Grandad made wooden pegs for my nan to sell and his father was a knife sharpener and people would come out to get their shears and knifes sharpened .
What with making wooden caravans to sell to other travellers and fruit and hop picking they earned quite well.

When i was a girl I asked them to show me how they made the flowers and found i was able to make them too.
Making them brings back memories.
If i would have been born when they were in the caravan i would probably be selling them door to door.
But times have changed and guess what i am selling them on Ebay now.
I even have my own website. Pretty-Paper-Roses.com.
And my lovely husband Eddie has brought us a caravan by the coast.