Page 14 - My Story

The bus fare from Well Street to the West End in those days was sixpence and I loved sitting
upstairs on the bus, no longer with an urge to throw up, preferably in the front, while we drove by all the
famous city sites to Fleet Street where all the big newspapers were printed, then on to the Strand and
Aldwych followed by Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Street and Marble Arch.

I joined the Hackney Public Library, I expect we all did, and started reading the Arthur Ransome
books, Swallows and Amozons, Pigeon Post, We Didn’t Mean to go to Sea and many more. I also fell in
love with The Swish of the Curtain and whatever followed by Pamela Brown. We used to listen to Uncle
Mac’s Children’s Hour where many of these books were serialised.

Jackie returned gleefully to Laura Place and I cried and pleaded to continue at the Alwyn school.
It would have been a long and convoluted journey to Bermondsey by public transport. We had no car –
who did in those days? Only the rich and even they would have had limited use because petrol was still
rationed. So, having passed the scholarship, it was decided that I should also go to Laura Place, joining in
the second year which mysteriously was known as the lower IVth. I must have made up my mind that I
didn’t like the school as I went from being a bright student to a very mundane one who put no effort at
all into lessons and hated most of the teachers. The uniform was a brown tunic and a cream square
necked blouse making us all look like Victorian orphans. We wore thick brown underpants and in winter
thick Lyle stockings. In summer we had green gingham dresses and white socks and our first sewing
project in needlework was to make matching, voluminous underpants, known in England as knickers. We
had long brown raincoats and blazers, diarrhea-coloured actually, which were not brightened by the
coloured braid around them. The braid was in house colours, the houses all being named after ancient
capitals. We had red for Florence, Jackie’s and my house, yellow for Winchester, green for Athens, purple
for Rome and blue for Athens. I’m not sure what the purpose of houses in English schools is. Certainly,
we had inter-house competitions but as we were trained to apologise for every point gained I never quite
saw the point – oh, sorry!

The school day started off with an assembly when the whole school gathered in the hall, girls in
the main body, teachers on the stage, usually with their legs apart so we had a good view of their
voluminous knickers. I used to wonder at what age a woman goes into such underwear. Teachers at girls’
schools tended to be women – elderly women – poor things, most of them had probably lost their
sweethearts in the first world war when about a million soldiers died.

Assembly consisted of a prayer, a hymn, some music played either by Miss Reeve, the music
teacher or some talented student and any important announcements. You could opt out of assembly for
religious reasons but as 50% of the school was Jewish the name of Jesus was tactfully left out so that, for
example, we sang hymn number 347 omitting verses 3, 4, 7,8, 11 and 13. These assemblies, held in all
British schools, ensured that we had a pretty good knowledge of every hymn in Songs of Praise and I can
join in a good English church service to this day, without reference to my hymnal.

Jackie had obviously made an impression on the teachers in the year she had attended the school
and each new class we went into when my name was called came the question, “Are you related to Jackie
Whine?”. By the time we got to Miss Illingworth, the maths teacher I was getting tired of this and as she
said, “Are you” I interrupted with,” Yes, I’m her sister”. There was a titter from the class. She sent me
the dirtiest of dirty looks and somehow, we were never the best of friends. I liked the art teacher and
given the choice of art or music chose art. I actually liked Miss Reeve, the music teacher but Jackie was
the musical sister, she had a lovely soprano voice and I always assumed I had no music in me. Later Miss
Reeve took me into the choir as a second soprano and I loved my time as a choir member. Our school had
a big music programme. We competed with other schools in music competitions and always did well and
during my time at Laura Place we joined with other schools to sing Acis and Galatea and the Mass in B
Minor in Westminster Hall. At school we performed Mendelsohn’s Elijah in which Jackie had a solo part
as the widow - Help me, man of God, my son is sick – standing dwarfed next to the large bass singer,
Frederick Someone. We borrowed the local Police Choir for the male choristers. My friend, singing next
to me, said I turned green as Jackie was about to stand and sing her part. She, Jackie, also sang Gretel to
Isabel Baer’s Hansel when the school put on Humperdinck’s opera.

Hansel komm und tanz mit mir

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