Page 30 - My Story

conservationist in the north of England and Doff, living with her husband in Bournemouth. And then
there was Uncle Fred, the baker, relied upon to produce hot cross buns at Easter and mince tarts for
Christmas, unasked, he made our wedding cake. Uncle Fred and Aunt Olwyn had three children, Olwyn,
John and David. The Taylors and the Tanners lived near each other for a time and the two cousins were
known as John Lenny and John Freddy, to differentiate between them.

Slowly the news leaked out in the family that I was planning on marrying a non-Jew. All hell was
let loose. It wasn’t that anyone was super religious – it just wasn’t done. Various members of my parents’
families saw fit to write and tell me what a wrong thing I was doing, Auntie Fanny, now living in Edgeware
summoned me to have dinner with her and tried to talk me out of it but when she saw it was futile gave
up, gave me a hug and wished me well. Uncle Albert offered me a round the world trip if I didn’t marry
Peter – it must have been a relief when I refused, he never had any money! My parents said they would
never give their consent to the marriage, so we said, “Fine. We’ll wait until I’m twenty-one when we won’t
need your consent”.

I had given up selling ice cream and gone to work at a Dolcis shoe store in Marble Arch. This was
an improvement on my parents’ shop in Hoxton Street – the clientele was generally cleaner, and I was
better paid, but after a few months there Marg suggested I try for a job at The National Coal Board. The
pay and vacation were good, and I would have my weekends. I went along there and was introduced to
Douglas Liddell who offered me a job as a clerk in his medical statistics department.

I liked working at the Coal Board. I was really interested in the coalfields – who knew there was a large
one in Kent, so close to London? – and the miners and the terrible illnesses they were subject to. A
delegation from the Coal Board was invited to tour Chislet, a Kent mine, and I was included. When we
arrived at the mine, which was close to Canterbury, we were given catsuits to put on and then taken down
to the mine bottom where the current mining was taking place. The guides must have determined that
they would “show those wimps from HQ “and led us deeper and deeper until we could no longer stand
upright. One of the party was a big two hundred-pound, six-footer and he must have really suffered.
Eventually we were doing a commando crawl, or wriggle. It was quite scary. But we learned that day
what miners have to go through in a day’s work.

I went down again a year or so later to accompany (maybe chaperone) a new lady statistician and
the guides were much gentler and kinder!

So, there I was, engaged to be married (in those days if you weren’t at least engaged by the time
you were twenty-one you were destined to be an “old maid”), with a reasonable job and everything was
on hold. Peter had given me a lovely ruby and diamond ring which he had purchased from an antique
dealer near the office in Streatham. Mr. Ormsby had a good eye for attractive jewellery but no idea of
value or pricing, which was to our advantage. Over the years we bought many things from him and
discovered they were worth rather more than we had paid

Peter was a great window shopper – we never had the money to actually go shopping. We
spotted some very nice silver cutlery in the window of Garrards, which is/was a well-known silversmith in
Regent Street. It cost £250 for an eight-place setting but that was quite out of our reach. We thought we
might one day manage the silver plate for £50 – after all, the plate was guaranteed for twenty years and
we’d be really old by then! We eventually bought it with some of our wedding present money and the
plate has lasted sixty-three years, although it is beginning to wear off in places!

Jackie and Peter got married in March 1954 in Stepney synagogue where my parents had married.
I think it is the last time either Jackie or Peter stepped inside a synagogue. Jackie made a beautiful bride.
I was pushed into a really ugly grey suit which we later had altered to fit. It then looked much better. My
mother always felt that I needed BIG clothes with broad shoulders and long arms. It wasn’t until I was
about sixty that I realized I was actually quite a normal size! Peter was permitted to attend.

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