Glad you like the stories, folks, more to come as it seems the more I place on paper the more memories are triggered.
Soap costs money, so that's out for a start.
Danny, you remind me that my grandmother was widowed at 43 leaving her three girls to support. The Freemasons helped her to raise the family for in the 1920s there was no State benefits. Until leaving Binbrook for Khormaksar in 1951 soap tablets were used until wafer-thin, after which my mother collected them in a jar for melting down for recasting into new multi-coloured soap. We weren't the only family to do this. The dhobi-wallah collected soap from the OMQ but I doubt he got much from the Patch!
Unquestionably the same garment, but we called it dhoti in Poona and later in Aden, my father found it much more comfortable than khaki drill. And no, Padre Ashe was still to come in Khormaksar five years hence. I can't remember the name of Poona's padre as five-year-old G. did not see him again as he and padre disagreed following a profound theological discussion. A report on this discussion will appear later, after we've got to the snakes, but it involved the infant G's introduction of the Lord Shiva into the Sunday School proceedings. As a result it was suggested to Mummy that it might be better if young G. did not attend again, a suggestion with which he happily agreed
