I


f there were any pedo-


philes around— we never came across them. I don‘t think any parent wor- ried nor had qualms about us being out for so long and so many miles away. The whole outing would cost about 2 ½ d for fares and the same for food. Although I did not live in Wat- ford Road, it was where I liked to spend all the time I could as did my Mother. After all, Grandma and five Aunts live there in three separate houses. The front door opened onto a passage which ran straight to the rear kitchen/living room with its black leaded coal burning stove, kitchen table and chairs. This was a centre of everything and many Satur- day evenings was spent there - en faille —playing cards —charades, sing- songs around the old upright piano or just talking and ar- guing. The latter, usually about Mosley and his Black Shirts —Hitler‘s Germany or the two young Uncles who had gone to America to work. The arguments often got very heated particularly if Uncle Bill was there. He worked in the Docks and for those days earned good money (probably £4-5) but was very much into Communism and the Unions in the Docks. This was completely opposite of my Father who was a real entrepreneur and had always had his own business in one way or another—as did Un- cle Arthur. The big trouble with Uncle Bill was that what- ever he earned was spent in the Pub—and he usually came home with at most a few shillings (1O Pence to


22


3OPence) as my Mother was probably the most well-off, it usually meant that she and the other aunts had to ―whip around‖ to give Aunt Ellen money for food etc. Money was always tight in the East End and many families regu- larly had recourse to the Pawn Shop on a weekly ba- sis but I never saw real hun- ger as such although some diets were obviously poor. Talking of finance reminds me of Mrs. Dance and daughter, Vera. Mrs. D ―did clothes‖. She bought from jumble sales and other sources, cleaned and re- paired as required and then she, and Vera, would lug big suitcases around the houses selling their stocks. One of the aunts would announce that Mrs. D would be calling at Grandma‘s house, at say 6pm, and all the Aunts would gather to examine, try on, and bargain. Also one could part exchange. She always had good serviceable and decent clothes —and prices of 2/6d (12 ½ Pence) for a dress or 10 Pence for a pair of boy‘s shoes, she was al- ways popular. She was a hard-faced square built woman but she could be trusted and more importantly would allow I0 to 20 Pence credit for a week. Apart from lugging the suitcase. Vera seemed irrelevant and mousey Although families of six or eight shared a small 2- bedroom house with only a minute yard to call their ― gar- den ― there was a fierce pride in keeping everything orderly and spotlessly clean. The big


coal/coke burning kitchen stove was religiously black leaded everyday, the front door step was scrubbed, of- ten on one‘s knees and the narrow pavement from front wall to gutter was swept clean every morning. There were no burglaries or pinch- ing from one another—al- though no doubt there were some in other nearby areas. Every front door had a door key hanging on a string in- side by the letter box so that anyone could get into the house. The School teachers and the Church had much greater influence then and if any girl got pregnant, the boy HAD to marry her—and no exceptions! After I won a scholarship to go to a Grammar School , we moved further West into Hen- don, Burnt Oak and finally Hayes, I saw less and less of Canning Town. Finally in early 1939 - Dad and Uncles Arthur and Will took a five- bedroom house in Old Har- low. to be sure that all the family was out of the Docks area and bombing. On the morning of 3‘‘ Sept 1939 at 11.00 am we listened to Neville Chamberlain declare war on Germany. My Mother and I looked out of the win- dow skywards —expecting German Bombers immedi- ately, and she said —―thank God you are too young at 13‖. Four years later I was in the Navy and in the Far East !!!


Then began a new era and an entirely different world.


Ron Geggus


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