Tues. Sept. 16, 2008 Stoke Upon Trent & Silverdale

Today we drove to Stoke Upon Trent, which is really a large, dirty city. We weren’t horribly impressed with it. It impresses me as one of the cities I’ve read about where the city was dirty and the air was smoky, very much an industrial city with the dirty smoke coming from the factories, etc. In fact, as we walked around the streets and looked at the big, old buildings, we realized that all the old buildings were black brick. When we got closer, we could see that the brick or stone underneath wasn’t black, but the stone was stained black from the smoke or whatever was in the air in the past. We do know that the area was a coal mining area.

John Richard Clay (my great-great-grandfather) came from this area, and we don’t know much about what he did here, but we suspect he was a coal miner here because that’s what he did when he went to America. In Silverdale, right outside of Stoke Upon Trent, where he was born, we found a monument in memory of all the coal miners who had lost their lives in the mines since about the time he would have left. His parents were supposedly married in Stoke Upon Trent. I guess this guy was an interesting guy. Mom said her grandpa (his son) said his father was “a bounder”. I guess he left for America, left a wife and a couple of kids here, and told them he would go raise money and then send for them. He sent money to them a few times, and then all of a sudden there was no word from him. Eventually, his wife raised the money and they got to America to find that he had a new wife and family in America. Can’t wait to hear the whole story from that guy!!!

We intended to hit some of the pottery factories today, and we did go to the first one, although this wasn’t a factory, it was just a place where they sold seconds or overstocks or something. It wasn’t very big or nice – had some pretty pieces, but nothing like what we thought we were going to find. And it was in a really ugly, rundown area – most of the buildings around were deserted and empty or boarded up. Nothing pretty about the area at all, which is very rare for England. By the time we found it, Pam had decided she was hungry, so we decided to find food first, but there was nothing at all – no food places, just empty, ugly buildings and a few pubs or hotels that weren’t open for lunch. We got back in the car and drove back to a shopping center we had already been to earlier, because we KNEW where to find food there. After we got food into Pam and Mom and coffee/tea into Pam and Roger they were all a little better natured. We had too much trouble with everyone being polite and nobody wanting to say what they wanted or where they wanted to go, so nobody was making any decisions, and everyone was getting testy but not really saying what they wanted. Maybe we’ll learn from today, and tomorrow we’ll all be a little more vocal about being hungry or thirsty or tired, etc. It’s really interesting dealing with American and English people together on vacation. Pam and Roger are used to sitting down and having tea or coffee every time you turn around, and we don’t care if they do, we just don’t need hot drinks all day. So they think we don’t drink enough. Mom and I finally bought a bottled water and we just refill the bottle and pack it around with us all the time – cuz we just want a drink of WATER! I did assert myself last night and buy myself a pint of milk JUST TO DRINK – not to put on cereal or in coffee or tea, but to actually just drink. It tasted SO good! I was dying for a glass of milk with my breakfast, but they don’t have very large containers of milk because they don’t drink it like we do. So today when we went to the store I bought a liter of milk – just for me to drink in the next few days. Silly, the things we miss from home! Mom bought herself a container of Ovaltine today too.

We decided to forget the potteries, buy some groceries, and come back to our little cottage and rest up and hope for a better day tomorrow. Tomorrow we’re going to head for an area that is supposed to make the past come alive – It’s called Shugborough, and it’s supposed to be a “working historic estate” where people in costume from days past show you how things were done in the past. They say you should allow about 3 hours for the visit. Also tomorrow we’re hoping to go to the Wedgwood pottery visitor centre, and maybe see some beautiful Wedgwood. Don’t know if we’ll find something we can’t live without, guess we’ll see. Anyway, we’re hoping tomorrow is a better day. There’s a castle I’d REALLY like to see too – called Tamworth Castle. It’s supposed to have rooms all made up like back in history, etc. I’m the only one that wants to see it, though, so I might get out-voted or we may just not have enough time, but I’m going to keep reminding them all of it, just in case we have time. It looks really fun.

We did try to get my blog online today – we took the laptop in to the shopping center because Starbucks had wireless access, but you had to pay 5 pounds for it (almost $10) and it only gave you access for 24 hrs, and it was too much. I know there are places that offer free internet access; we’ve gone by a few when I didn’t need it. It’s weird how not being able to get this online for others to read it has made me homesick. I’m really looking forward to the rest of our trip, but I’m also missing home and my family, and knowing that friends and family and MY HUSBAND was reading what I was doing each day made me feel closer to home, I guess. I’m trying really hard not to complain too much, cuz I know Mom’s missing Dad, too. We keep seeing things that we know he would have loved to see or experience, and sometimes she talks about it and sometimes she just gets quiet. I wish he was experiencing this with her too – even if it meant I wouldn’t get to. But…. She’ll have lots to tell him about someday. Ok, enough of my whining. I’m headed to bed so Mom can complain about my snoring tomorrow. She said this morning that she kicked my bed twice last night to get me to stop. Sigh. Just makes me homesick for my husband – cuz then it would be me trying to get him to stop snoring! Love you Herb!!!! (This is a picture of some of the fields in front of our cottage)