Page 15 - My Story

Beide hande reich ich dir
Ein fuss hin,
Ein fuss da
Rings herum
Dass ist nicht schwer

They did a beautiful job and I remember the whole family congregated at Granny’s after the show
– Granny’s flat was right near our school – and everyone continued their conversation as Jackie joined us.
I could see her getting more and more upset and I finally shouted at them all to be quiet and give her
some credit for a great performance. I don’t remember exactly what I said but, boy, was I upset for her.
What is it about so many English people that they are embarrassed to congratulate another person?
Maybe it was a generational thing and people are less ashamed to show their feelings and their
enthusiasms now.

In 1946 the troops started coming home. My father had left Gibraltar for North Africa and
contracted a middle ear infection which was bad enough for him to be invalided home. We went to visit
him in a hospital in Uxbridge but for me it was like a visit with a stranger.

My uncle Nat (him of the BA degree) was a captain in the army educational department and had
served in North Africa, Uncle Ivan had been in the Royal Air Force in Canada. As each of the brothers came
home, we had a big family party and my mother decided that her children were going to provide the
entertainment. She found a book of one act plays called Famous Women of Britain by L. duGarde Peach
and settled on Florence Nightingale. We just played the first scene where Florence and her sister Parthe
were children.

Florence (Jackie): (to her doll) You’re very, very ill and you must lie still. Yes, you must, or I won’t
take your temperature and then where would you be. Goodness me, it’s two hundred!
Parthe (me): Don’t be silly, temperatures can’t be two hundred.
Florence: Mopsy’s can and she’s very, very ill

We needed a man to play the small part of Mr. Nightingale and my mother pressganged cousin
Stanley, but he was no actor and wouldn’t learn his part so the next time around Uncle Bunny, the
youngest of the family, who was a good actor and heavily into amateur theatricals, agreed to play the
part.

Cousins Stan, Jackie and Ruth circa 1947

My mother hustled around trying to dress us in Victorian clothing and I got to wear the beautiful
black dress of my grandmother’s with leg o’ mutton sleeves that she had saved from the turn of the
century. Granny and the aunts never complained about having to sit through Florence Nightingale three
times although it must have been excruciating!

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