06-03 Uncles and Aunts

It was when we were all sitting around the table in the kitchen that you got to know the family. They loved to chat, and I enjoyed listening to their Irish accent. “Ach Ay”, was what they would say if they agreed with what was said.
They drank only tea, so I was included as well and made to feel mature. Ian and Robert were not allowed to have tea, and quickly slipped away while everyone else was still chatting about nothing. The tea was in a huge pot; they never threw out the tea leaves, always adding one more spoonful for each new serving, and putting the pot directly on the hot burner. Yuk. I remember stirring the teapot, seeing tea leaves at the bottom, all bleached white.
Aunt Bertha was the third child of Dad's siblings. She was about 5' 11" and the kindest person I have ever met. And the most unselfish. She was the only girl of seven children. and ran the household. She is seen with mother heading downtown to do some shopping. They became the best of friends.
She said she had had a romance when younger, but felt she couldn't leave her parents who depended on her. When grandma and grandpa died, she inherited the house and a fortune in antiques. And when she died, everything went to the Plymouth Brethren.
Uncle Alex was the family breadwinner, and he worked as an investigator for a company that provided services to all the insurance companies. He went to work in a motorized bicycle, and when he did work out of town, he attached a cart to the back that had a tent and bedroll. Everyone at work hated his guts and resented him because he never put in an expense account of any kind.
He cooked all his food himself, and made tea with what was called a “volcano” kettle. It was shaped like a volcano, and when put over burning leaves or bits of wood, would heat the water around the outside of the kettle. Watching him, I could see smoke coming out the top just like a volcano. Then he would spoon some tea leaves into an opening on the side.
Uncle Herbert finished his service with the British Air Force in India while we were visiting, and his arrival was a big deal. Dad hardly knew him because when he left home at age 20, Herbert was just a young child. He arrived in uniform and the first thing he did was give his Air Force cap to Ian.
It became Ian's prized possession. He even wanted to wear it to bed. I remember mother saying that Ian had agreed to sleep without wearing the cap, but it had to be placed beside him on the pillow. In the photo, Herbert is holding one of the horses that were stabled in the back of the house. They had to be walked every day.
Like any kid, I asked Herbert what it was like in India. He said that the only time he was in danger was when he woke up one morning with a Cobra sleeping at the bottom of his bed.
Aunt Elizabeth was not an aunt at the time, but the girl next door who was engaged to marry our Uncle George. She is in the photo with Robert. Every weekend, Elizabeth took me around Belfast on our bicycles. And to make sure I had enough candy, she approached her colleagues at work and traded clothing rations for sweet rations. I never forgot that kindness.
The pillar of the Bulloch family was our grandmother, and she was so proud of all her children. Uncle Leslie was in Halifax in 1947 working for the RCMP, and she wanted me to know about him. She gave me this photo of Herbert and Leslie as children. Leslie weighed 15 pounds at birth and was very handsome. He was hit over the head with an orange crush bottle in Halifax, and ten years later, at age 33, died of a brain tumour.