Norman Petyt

• General Notes
  • @NI191@
    To make ends meet Norman had never been afraid to try something new and us ually had some little plan waiting to be hatched which might generate so me extra income. The family were often used has the workforce, each one at sometime in their childhood and/or adulthood having played some part in his ventures, child labour laws did not apply and a buffet was supplied to enable a small person to see the loom, or to gain enough height for adding new and removing bobbins on the winding. Window dressing in his shop, book keeping, and market stall holder, etc.
    
    While waiting for his call up papers in WW2 he joined the Riddlesden Home Guard to do "his bit". Dads Army was one of his favourite TV programmes and brought back many happy memories for him. One other, including the books was All Creatures Great and Small, Norman and Irene loved the Dales and spent many a day roaming trying to find new places. Having some close and dear friends, Frank and Clarie that farmed deep in the dales, they could relate to many of the story lines.
    
    For holidays they, now being able to holiday without the encumbrance of children fell in love with Scotland and its islands. An abundance of photographs with Scottish heather, glens and lochs abound, showing happy times. Prior to touring Scotland they had taken holidays at Milnthorpe, Arnside, Irene's brother Raymond and his wife Clara lived here, they owned a shop in Morecambe, which had a flat above. They would kindly vacate their beautiful home to allow Norman and family to have a seaside holiday.
    
    Norman had always been a keen sports man from a very early age, winning many prizes for running, football and cricket. He followed with keen interest the sporting adventures of his grandchildren in his later years. Prizes had often been canteens of cutlery, he won so many that they were given has wedding presents to friends and family, as they were always of high quality people were more than happy to receive them.
    
    His parents died while he was young, but even before her death it seems that his mother spent most of her time in bed either giving birth or getting over a birth, or ill. The raising of the family was left to Sister Eliz a, who it is said died at age 40 from hard work. She would rise early in the morning to light the fires and heat the water, make breakfast for every one, then go and do a days work, on her return she would perform all the other household tasks. They were a close knit family and always kept in close contact with each other, his sister Ida was a special favourite.
    
    Norman always loved a good book and doing crosswords and other puzzles, and it was very frustrating for him in his later years when he was no longer due to physical problems able to potter in his beloved garden, where he had his escape hut, it was disguised as a place for keeping garden tools, but was actually the place where he kept his secret stash of beer and brandy for keeping the chill out, and cigarettes, the former two only a llowed in the house for special occasions, and then only for visitors or medicinal use as no one in the household par took of either! So it was with great frustration that he now could not even pass his time with his books and puzzles.
    
    In his younger days Norman had been a keen photographer, but sadly keeping some sort of record of what and where taken where not his strong point, the family have a wealth of black and white photographs taken with his box brownie with absolutely no idea of whom or where, which is a shame as many show family members and close friends on outings and sharing adventures. He did progress on to more modern 35mm cameras, but the indexing never got underway.
    
    His hearing too faded, and his favourite music and TV programs were played at such a volume that they had to be shared by anyone in a quarter mile radius. He had been fitted with an earring aid and a loop system for the phone and TV, but he had never been technically minded and became frustrated at not being able to get them to work, and so abandoned them as useless! Norman was just happy if things worked and never wondered how it worked, his son David was the other side of this coin, from a very early age he wanted to know how everything with moving parts worked and dissected it to make the discovery, the cat lived on a knife edge.
    
    After retiring he had filled his time mostly in the garden, decorating was in the whole left to Irene, Norman was not known for his DIY skills, using a six inch nail bent over where a screw would do was his way.
    
    The inner workings of a car after the demise of the Morris minor were a total mystery to him. Because of this failing he formed a close friendship with neighbour and local garage owner Peter Hastings. This to those on the outside seemed to be based mainly on a mutual love of toffees and verbal abuse exchanged between them. knowing that Peter was held in high regard and in his later years was Normans closest friend,  Peter was asked to give the reading at Normans funeral. Some of us are just glad that there was such a huge age gap, had they been closer in years one is best not to wonder who might have lead who astra y.

Click here for details of Norman's family with Mary Irene Newiss

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This page is within a frameset. View the entire genealogy report of Petyt families, or surname index of Petyt pedigrees or report summary of Petyt heritage from "My Ancestors and Relatives".
Family Systems Theory.

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