John Wright is a Scottish sports journalist who specialises in boxing, but he is also a political commentator and writer. He recently tweeted about his early life experiences which had made him a lifelong socialist. His story was similar to mine, so I tweeted it, but he was the only person who gave it a like, and then he followed me too. I thought I would put my tweet out here. I came from a council estate in South London. We were very poor as my dad had multiple sclerosis and eventually became too ill to work, so we were put on benefit. My mum was very house-proud, and to get a bit more money so we could have "nice things", my mum worked long hours sowing key-rings for the "Key-ring Man". We had to pull the curtains three quarters closed because she said if the neighbours saw us
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John Wright is a Scottish sports journalist who specialises in boxing, but he is also a political commentator and writer. He recently tweeted about his early life experiences which had made him a lifelong socialist. His story was similar to mine, so I tweeted it, but he was the only person who gave it a like, and then he followed me too.
I came from a council estate in South London. We were very poor as my dad had multiple sclerosis and eventually became too ill to work, so we were put on benefit. My mum was very house-proud, and to get a bit more money so we could have "nice things", my mum worked long hours sowing key-rings for the "Key-ring Man". We had to pull the curtains three quarters closed because she said if the neighbours saw us they report us to the police and would put her and my dad in prison. I couldn't understand why they would report us, because I didn't think we were doing anything wrong, but she said people get jealous.
At one point my whole family was making key-rings: My dad, my brother, and myself were all gluing them for my mum to sow. We weren't allowed to tell anyone, not even our friends. I felt shame!
Our whole house had become a factory, with leather fobs, industrial sized cotton reels, medallions, and latex glue all over the place, with my mum all day on the sowing machine, and with the rest us all gluing the fobs together, along with their medalians.
I only did it for a few months, because I would put in loads of hours but only ever get paid about a fiver (£5.00) for a week's work, and even though I had no money, I didn't think it was worth it in the end. But my mum slogged away sowing them for years, though, with my dad gluing them together for her. But we were able to afford a colour TV set, and have fitted carpets downstairs, although my mum had to fit them herself.
I ended up becoming a lifelong socialist, but nowadays I understand how life was tough for the Key-ring Man as well. A very competitive world.