Everyone and Everything

by William Forde

  “The Children of ‘Narrow View’”

  (A story about unfairness, discrimination and inequality)

  The village of ‘Narrow View’ was a village just like most other villages in the country. Indeed, there was not anything unusual about it at all.

  The villagers had their own school, their own church, their own police station and their own shops, just like any other country village.

  When a child was five years old, he or she went to ‘Narrow View First School’ where there were seven class teachers, the head, a secretary, a caretaker, two cleaners and a lollipop person that looked after the school crossing.

  Whenever anyone was ill the villagers went to ‘Narrow View Clinic’ and was seen by Dr Philip Brown. Any prescriptions made up, were made up by Mr Smith the chemist. The village policeman was PC Patrick Plod.

  Whenever anything broke down and needed mending in the home, Mr Cox the plumber, Mr Jones the joiner, Mr Boots the builder or Mr Edwards the electrician could always be relied upon to fix it.

  Whenever the family car broke down or needed servicing, Mr Mould the mechanic of ‘Narrow View Garage’ was the man who made things right again.

  All the food that ‘everyone and everything’ ate in ‘Narrow View Village’ was available from Mr Bloggs the Butcher, Mr Green the greengrocer and Mr Blimp the Baker.

  'Everyone and everything’ in ‘Narrow View Village’ seemed content and settled in their ways and every Sunday they attended ‘Narrow View Church’ where Mr Vixen the vicar led them in Thanksgiving.

  ‘Narrow View Village’ was just like any other village; that was until a nine-year-old stranger called Bobby Wise came into their midst.

  Bobby Wise came and Bobby Wise went, but ‘Narrow View Village’ knew that she had been a visitor and ‘Narrow View Village’ was never quite the same again.

  Bobby Wise was a nine-year-old girl who lived in the country at ‘Wise Farm’. She hadn't any brothers or sisters and her mum and dad were farmers.

  On the farm where Bobby lived, the crops had been picked and the harvest had been reaped, so Bobby had come to ‘Narrow View Village’ on a four-week holiday and to broaden her education.

  Bobby had an aunt who lived in ‘Narrow View Village’ and her parents had given their daughter permission to stay with Aunt Helen on condition that she attended ‘Narrow View School’ during the day and attended ‘Narrow View Church’ for every Sunday service.

  Bobby had not been in ‘Narrow View Village’ very long before she began to realise, that it was to her mind, a most ‘unusual’ place. The people who lived there had most ‘unusual’ ideas and most ‘unusual’ ways of doing things.

  Bobby had not been a visitor very long before ‘everyone and everything’ else that lived in the village began to realise that she was the most ‘unusual’ girl that they had ever met.

  During Bobby’s first day attending ‘Narrow View First School’, she remained very quiet and observed all the goings on by ‘everyone and everything’.

  What Bobby observed during her first day at school, was to her mind very ‘unusual’ indeed.

  The school secretary was a woman. The school caretaker was a man and the two school cleaners were both women. The lollipop person was a woman and six of the seven school classroom teachers were women. All of the people who worked at ‘Narrow View First School’ were ‘white’ people.

  During Bobby's first week in ‘Narrow View Village’, Bobby remained very quiet and observed all the goings on by ‘everyone and everything’.

  What Bobby observed during her first week in the village, was to her mind very ‘unusual’ indeed. The doctor, chemist, plumber, joiner, builder, electrician, garage mechanic, butcher, grocer, baker, vicar and police constable were all ‘men’, and they were all ‘white’ men.

  The reason why Bobby found ‘Narrow View Village’ most ‘unusual’ was because of the way that she had lived on ‘Wise Farm’ for as long as she could remember.

  It was very different to the way that ‘everyone and everything’ in ‘Narrow View Village’ had been accustomed to.

  On ‘Wise Farm’, mum, dad and Bobby all shared of the work ‘equally’.

  There were always some jobs to do on the farm that were unpleasant, like cleaning out the pigsty and mucking out the stables and bringing the cows home when it was raining. And there were some jobs that were very pleasant, like driving the tractor on a warm summer’s day.

  There were also some in-between jobs like milking the cows and collecting eggs from the chicken coop that were neither pleasant nor unpleasant; depending on what the weather was like or how tired your hands happened to be.

  On ‘Wise Farm’, Mum, Dad and Bobby shared all the many different jobs, which had to be done.

  For instance, they took it in turn to milk the cows, to collect the eggs, to gather the sheep, to feed the ducks and to drive the tractor.

  Yes! Bobby even got her turn to drive the tractor and this was one of the favourite jobs she shared with the rest of the Wise family.

  They also took it in turn to do the unpleasant jobs and they shared the work of keeping the farmhouse tidy and the surrounding gardens free from weeds.

  There was no such thing as ‘jobs for women’ or ‘jobs for men’ at the Wise farm. One day, Dad would cook the meals, Bobby would wash up and Mum would paint the barn door. Another day, Mum would cook the meals, Dad would iron the clothes and Bobby would drive the tractor.

  Each night, before the Wise family went to bed, they would all sit around the fire with a nice, warm drink and decide what had to be done tomorrow and whose turn it was to do it.

  After harvest on market days when crops had been sold, all of the Wise family would sit down and decide how best to use their money.

  Sometimes, all the money would be spent and sometimes all the money would be saved. Often, some of the money will be spent and some of the money could be saved. Sometimes any extra money would be spent on the farm and on other occasions, it might be spent on Mum, Dad or Bobby’s needs, whichever was the greater.

  There were many different animals upon the farm, many different crops in the fields and many different kinds of flowers in the garden, but Bobby, Mum and Dad each knew precisely how important and special ‘everyone and everything’ were to them in their own different ways.

  The Wise family knew that the eggs from the hens were no less important to them than the milk from the cows, the wool from the sheep, the crops from the fields or all the flowers from the garden.

  ‘Everyone and everything’ on ‘Wise Farm’ was important in its own special way.

  Every colour on ‘Wise Farm’ was appreciated for all its own special beauty. It was lovely to see the brilliance of the yellow corn in the sun on a summer’s day. Nothing looked as shiny as the black fur on Sam, the sheep dog when he got his new winter coat. The whiteness of the sheep’s wool at shearing time was a sight to behold. The brownness of Barney the bull and the mixture of black-and-white Friesian cows made a marvellous picture on a summer's evening. The many different colours of eggs were just as beautiful to the Wise family as the many different butterflies, which visited the flower garden and the many different smells around their farm.

  This was the kind of life that Bobby had lived on the farm. It was the only kind of life she had ever known, and she loved every bit of it!

  During Bobby's second day at ‘Narrow View First School’ Bobby began to join in the games with the other boys and girls in the playground.

  At first, the boys objected to one of the girls playing football with them, but as soon as Bobby started scoring goals, they had to admit that she was every bit as skilful a football player as any of the boys were.

  They did not realise that Bobby had had more practice than all of them at bobbing and weaving and ducking and diving. Well, I mean, have you ever tried to catch a hen that did not want to be caught or round up a stray sheep that didn’t want to be put back in its pen at the end of the day? Bobby had, many times!r />
  During Bobby's third day at ‘Narrow View First School’, a career officer came into the school to talk about different kinds of grown-up jobs. All the children in Bobby's class made up the list of jobs that they would like to do when they each left school.

  The finished list was one of the most ‘unusual’ lists that Bobby had ever seen. All the boys wanted to become lorry drivers, doctors, surgeons, solicitors, policemen, pilots, firemen, footballers, mechanics, etc and all the girls said what that they would like to be nurses, nannies, teachers, cooks, secretaries and hairdressers, etc. Some girls did not know which job that they would like to do when they left school. There were some girls who wanted to do one type of job, but did not say which job they would prefer to do.

  When Bobby’s turn came to place her name on the list of jobs, she ticked off lorry driver, footballer, train driver, air pilot, mechanic, painter and farmer. All the girls were very quiet for a moment and all the boys laughed and became very noisy when they saw the different jobs, which Bobby had chosen.

  "Girls can't be footballers!" said one boy.

  "Women don't drive lorries," said another boy, “or fly planes!”

  "Farmers are always men!" said Philip Drew, adding, “It’s the woman’s job to be the milk maid.”

  "And so are painters and mechanics!" said Thomas Small.

  Bobby stood up in front of the whole class, looked them all straight in the eye, took a big, deep breath and said out loud, “Who says that women can't to do these jobs?"

  "Why shouldn't women do these jobs?"

  "I can play football as well as any boy!"

  "I can drive a tractor and sometimes mend it when it breaks down!"

  "I am a good painter and my mother is a farmer just like my father!"

  "Who says that women cannot or ought not to do these things?"

  All the children thought about what Bobby was saying to them and, after lots of thinking and much talking between each other, they could only come up with one answer:

  "The only people who say that women cannot, and ought not to do these kinds of jobs are mostly men and boys."

  "I wonder why?" asked Bobby.

  Phyllis Cook, who hardly ever spoke in class said, "It's because the men and boys want to keep all of the best jobs for themselves."

  "That isn't fair," said Carol Barnes and one by one, all the girls in Bobby's class began to speak and air their views.

  "I would like to be a crane driver," said Sally Brown.

  "I always wanted to be a fire....a fire woman," said Polly Strong.

  "I always said that I’d be a nurse when I grew up," said Wendy Welcome, "but I've now decided that I’d rather be a doctor instead."

  By the end of the lesson, even some of the boys had also decided to change their choice of jobs. Marc Bolan said that he had seen the programme on television, which had said some of the best cooks and dress designers in the world were men.

  Tom Daley, the toughest boy in the school said that his father had always encouraged him to be a boxer, but he would rather become a lady’s hairdresser.

  Before long, the time eventually arrived for Bobby to return to "Wise Farm," but before she went back, she had told all her classmates about her life on "Wise Farm" and the way that ‘everyone’ shared all the different jobs and shared ‘everything’ pleasant and unpleasant that needed to be done on the farm.

  All the children, all the teachers and all of the people at ‘Narrow View First School’ agreed that not only was the wise way of doing things ‘fairer’ and ‘more equal’, but it was also a ‘better’ way of doing things.

  Bobby returned to ‘Wise Farm’ having had her education broadened, but she had also taught the children at ‘Narrow View First School’ some very important things.

  She had taught the girls to stand up for themselves; to speak up for what they wanted and not to settle for second best behind the boys.

  She had taught the boys that there is really no such thing as boy’s games and girl’s games – men's jobs and women's jobs, except in the narrow minds of some boys and some men and in the foolish minds of some women.

  Bobby taught the teachers that just because the boys frequently make most noise in class with their mouths, that it is unfair on the girls if teachers give the boys more of their attention for the sake of peace and quiet.

  Bobby had even taught ‘everyone’ else in the village of ‘Narrow View’ other important things about being fair and equal to boys and girls, men and women, and black, white, brown and yellow pupils from different countries and all with different backgrounds.

  Bobby had taught all of the people from ‘Narrow View’ that just because things have been done in one particular way for many years, in an ‘unfair and unequal’ way, was no reason for not changing them for the better now.

  The children of ‘Narrow View’ were pleased that they had met Bobby and when she left them, they became determined to walk towards those important changes, which needed to be made in order to make the village a ‘fairer, more equal and better’ place for ‘everyone and everything’ to live in.

  They realised that it would take a long time to bring about all the changes and that some people might resist them, but decided that was all the more reason to start sooner rather than later. They soon realised that they would also have to persuade their Mums and Dads to change in the ways they did some things as well as some of the other grown-up people of ‘Narrow View.’

  That night as Bobby prepared for bed back on ‘Wise Farm’, she thought about some of the most ‘unusual’ things she had observed in the village of ‘Narrow View’.

  Meanwhile, back inside one of the houses in ‘Narrow View Village’, a brother and sister were about to be read story by their mother before going to sleep. The woman had said to her children, "Now, what would you like tonight before going to sleep, Jayne and Richard?"

  Jayne and Richard looked at each other, smiled and said, "We would like Daddy to read our story tonight Mum whilst you read the newspaper by the warm fire."

  "What a most ‘unusual’ request," replied the children's mother, who thought about it for one minute before saying, "Yes! I think that is an excellent idea. I shall send your father up to you straight away. Goodnight children."

  The change had begun and it was all thanks to Bobby, a young girl who came from a very wise family.

  Are there any changes that you think ought to be made your home, in your school, in your church or in your village? Are there?

  The end