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INTRODUCTION
I was born in the year 1898 in London England. I was the fifth member in the Dean
family of six children, We lived together in the same house on the same street until
Iwas eight years of age, At this time the family immigrated to Canada.
It is now sixty five years since we left, the home-land and in the following pages I have
endevoured to describe as closely as my memory permits, all that I can recollect of my
early years in England.
Vernon Dean
MY EARLY YEARS IN ENGLAND
It seems natural that in ones very young years that their first impressions will be of their
home, and so it was with me that I first remember our kitchen, and of course Mother,
for in those years she is the key figure.
Mother was always there, but at times it seemed the place was terribly crowded by
other members of the family, which of course la only natural when one is the youngest
of a family of five as it was then.
Other things that I may recall were quite likely only in incidents that registered because
they were out of the ordinary, such as a stranger comeing in or being frightened by
soma accident as when my brother George tripped up on the stairs while carrying the
lamp to another room, and the globe fell to the floor and rolled some distance, but
fortunately did not break, nor did anything catch fire. The noise of Mother's sewing
machine, or the excitement when Nell became smothered in flying ants while out in the
garden and Mother dashed out with a towel and swiped them all off.
There was once too when we were at a rail-way station, I was being carried by some
member of the family, and as the train came roaring into the station the engine safty
valve released and blew off steam just as it came abreast of us. I was terrified of
course and clung desperately to whoever it was carrying me
I have no idea how old I might have been when some of these things occured, but I
think quite young, and later on when I was able to get about more on my own, things
fell more into a pattern so that I could tell which incident happened first and where and
when.
It was possibly when I first started to school that things began to take shape, at this
time I was about five I expect, as I recollect being in three different classes before
getting into grade two in the boys school, I was then eight years old.
Perhaps I should first describe our family, our location in London England and our
home there.
The family besides Mother and Dad consisted of George the eldest, John, Arthur, Nell,
myself Vernon, and in that order.
Our address was #3 Ivanhoe Rd. Denmark Park, London S.E, Ivanhoe was not a long
street and was slightly curved, and the number points out that our house was very near
the end. Part way along there was a lamp-post, and at this point Grove Hill Rd. turned
off right-angles up a long rise, Further along was the intersection of Avondale and
Melfort roads with the familiar round red post-box at the corner, while across the road
were several stores or shops as we called them over there.
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On
the opersite corner was a Public House which I remember smelled horribly of stale
beer as one passed the door, This has put me off the stuff always.
The shops consisted of a dairy, bake shop, Sweet stuff shop, hardware or iron
mongers shop as we called them, and a grocery.
This erea was refered to always as (The Top.) Our end of the street was a dead end,
with a high brick wall across, and it appeared there was an estate on the other side
Across the street in the corner of the wall was a big door and behind it a stable yard,
and occasionally a horse and carrage came out. Against the wall on our side an alley
led off at right angles, crossed a bridge over the railway and connected with the street
below, At our end of the alley there was an iron post set into the cement to discourage
any vehicle from trying to enter, George claimed that it was made from the barrel of an
old cannon with the cannon ball set in the top to give it a finished appearance. This
may have been just his notion.
High up on the wall at the centre of the street there was a street lamp, operated by gas
as they all were at that time and lighted each evening by a lamp-lighter man. I used to
watch him from an upstairs window as he made his rounds with his long stick which
had some provision for holding a match and I was quite intrigued with the way he
turned on the gas, struck the match on some part of the lamp and ignited the gas jet. I
used to pretend to do this with one of the many walking sticks we had around, for
walking sticks were the style then and many people used them both young and old.
The houses on this street were what I believe are refered to as row houses, They were
built in a solid row, each house being connected to the following one, which meant the
front and back yards could only be the width of the house and obviously were small
and cramped. Each house had a cluster of chimneys for there were four fire-places
and two stoves. The fronts had bay windows, and at the side-walks iron paleings and
gates.
They were split level houses as the terain sloped down to a railway at the rear, and as
it ran through a cut, there was a sharp slope down from the front of our garden to the
tracks.
There were also iron paleings at the foot of the garden to keep people off the right-of-
way. One of these was loose at the bottom and we were able to lift it out to the side
and sneak out when we thought no one was watching.
We still have a post-card picture of this street, but un--fortunately our house doesn?t
show as we were too close to the end for the photographer to get it in.
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Our front door was set back in a bit, so as to protect the man-hole for dumping the coal
into the coal cellar from the rain, The door itself had two glass panels of different
colors for some reason, and the usual iron knocker and letter slot,
It entered into a passage with the upstairs stair-way at the far end, and on the right
hand was a door leading into the living room, This was a good sized room and was
connected to another room by folding doors.
Four or five stairs led down from the end of the passage to the kitchen which was a big
one, and we had all our meals there execpt on holidays and Sundays . The stove was
built into the brick wall and burned coal. Above it was a mantel piece on which stood a
clock, a square greenish tin which always held tea.
A similar tin stood oposite of a reddish color, but I can?t recollect what was kept in it, It
was not used much, but the tea caddy ( as it was called) had the paint completely worn
off from continual use where Mother?s thumb and fingers grasped it.
On the same wall were the shelves, counter, and cupboards that housed the crockery
and many other things. Across from that was the food cupboard.
An opening led into what we called the scullery, and this was a general work erea with
counter and sink, but only one cold water tap. In the corner there was a built in water
heater constructed of cement with a fire-place underneath. We called this the copper
(why I don't know, unless the big round water container in the centre was made of
copper. It was the only means of heating water (excepting by the tea-kettle) and was
used on wash days or at any time a great amount of water was needed. Some years
later when Dad had gas installed, the range was in this room too. A door opened to
the back garden.
Then there was the booby hutch, Dad took advantage of a door leading from the
kitchen to build a tiny room to house the mangel, I have never seen one since, but it
consisted of a machine with two large wooden rollers, and cranked by hand for the
purpose of smoothing such things as pillow cases and sheets in preference to ironing
them.
The upstairs, or second story was also on two levels, and consisted of three good
sized bedrooms and one smaller one, the room located directly above the kitchen was
also equiped with a built in cook stove witch indicated that these houses could if
necessary hold two tenants, and I can remember there were people living both up and
down stairs in the house next to us, but our house was none too big for all of our
family.
Most houses it appeared were rented, but Dad owned ours.
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Our back yard and garden was obviously small (although as a child it appeared quite
big to me),
The house being narrower at the rear allowed a strip of yard up beside it, and there
was a fish-pond there, The whole yard was cemented or paved excepting for four foot
strips on each side for gardening purposes and on the left hand side was a sicamore
tree, It seemed a huge thing to me.
Dad had built a porch over the back door with a glass roof and upper sides so as to
avoid darkening the kitchen window, and I can remember going down with Arthur to
help carry back the panes of glass, How Dad entrusted us with such a precarious job I
don?t know, for there were many panes, I could carry only a few, but Arthur seemed to
have a huge load, and it was only a miracle that we got home without comeing to grief.
Perhaps we were not suposed to bring so much in one trip.
So this was our home, and I expect it was typical of the average middle class home at
that time.
It seemed Dad was quite vague in my memory for a long time, This was
understandable as of course he went to work before I got up and arrived home after I
had gone to bed, so that week-ends were the only opertunity I had of seeing him, and
he seemed to me then to be somewhat over-powering, and interupted the usual run of
the household. For one thing on Sundays we always had our meals in the liveing room
( or as we called it ) the front room, and Mother made something special of Sunday
dinner, Everyone was present, and it was usually roast beef and Yorkshire pudding
with all the trimmings.
Dad always went to church on Sunday mornings, and may have taken some of the
other members of the family, I don't remember but in the evening Mother went, and
when I got older she used to take me, of course I couldn't understand a bit of it, but the
idea was I suppose to keep me out of Dad's way so as he could have some peace and
quiet.
Later on, as I grew older I got used to Dad, and he got used to me, and I found out he
took us places on week-ends and holidays, and brought us presents when he came
home after being away for a long time as happened frequently.
Dad worked for Maple & co, a firm who dealt in all kinds of house furnishings, He was
termed a Carpet Planner, and his job was to go to the various places where the firm
had gained contracts and measure the floor space, draw plans and send them back.
In some cases where the orders were small, I believe he waited and helped lay the
carpet, for he had tools for doing this work. In this way he traveled all over England
and the continent of Europe and worked in many large hotels, theatres, casinoes, and
large estates.
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He was sometimes away for very long periods, and it was said that one of the boys ( I
don't remember which one ) was some months old before he was able to see him. At
other times when he was working close by in London he was home each day and
brought his tools and plans with him. I can remember the thick heavy white paper he
used.
The railway which ran below our garden caused a lowering of the horison in that
direction and there were no houses to block the view so that we had a good
opportunity to see most of the Crystal Palace as it sparkled in the sun in the summer
time, and at certain times there were fire-works displayed at night. At other times
balloones were raised from there and many of them floated right above our house and
were finally lost to view in the distance, I also saw my first air-ship at that time too, a
big brown sausage shaped afair with the gondolar hanging beneath and driven with a
propeller and a very noisey engine.
I spent much of my time in the garden on summer days watching the trains go by, and
remember that the goods trains (freights) were so much more noisey and clattery than
the fast little commuter passenger train with their tiny engines.
There was the trolly too, used I suppose by the other boys many years before me, and
constructed from an ordinary wooden box and cast-iron wheels, the front ones being
on a swivelled axle and steered by a rope. There was a nice gradual slope to the
garden so that one could coast nicely down and swish round at the bottom, but I could
not get along with the trolly very well because I was not strong enough to steer, and
the least little obstruction or depression in the cement would whip me around and send
me flying. By the time I was strong enough to handle it I had lost interest and thought I
was too big for such kids play.
Winter was different, I was confined to the indoors for most of the time and could just
talk to Mother or play with my toys while the others were away at school, I must have
liked trains, and I can remember wearing out or smashing up three of them of the
same type, (Perhaps they were of a stock type) They consisted of an engine and
tender, one gravel car, and a passenger coach. No track or propelling mechanism,
those kind were concidered too expensive. I can remember one instance when Mother
and I were in the front room and aparently I was at a loose end to know what to do with
myself. Mother said " Would you like a new train?" Of course I said I would, She
walked across to a book-shelf, removed several books and brought out a parcel with a
brand new train in it.
I was completely flabbergasted, I had no idea how she could have known it was there,
and it remained a complete mystery to me, but I can remember at a later date when I
thought I was alone, climbing on a chair and pulling out many books to see what I
could find. A dead loss of course.
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I was always intrigued with Mothers' sewing machine. She used it a lot in those days,
for with all of us there must have been lots of use for it. But I think she enjoyed running
it for she sang continually while useing it and I can remember many of the songs she
sung. It was of course a far cry from the present day modem machine, No dials or
push buttons and was not even Drop head, but was covered with a box like lid. Treadle
operated, for there were no small electric motors in those days, nor was there
electricity in the houses to run them However, there were several attachments for
hemming and tucking and so forth, but with the time necessary to attach them they
were not practical, and Mother was handy enough that she could do all these things
quicker by hand.
The machine was strictly, Hands off, as far as I was concerned but I was allowed to
work the treadle with the machine head disconnected, and I whiled away much time in
doing just that.
I once asked her if she would give me the machine, and although I thought she was
just useing it to play with, She thought for a moment and then said, (Yes, you may
have it when I am through with it) That was good enough for me, and I said no more, it
did not occur to me to wonder when she would be finished with it, I finally did gain
posession of it some fifteen years later.
Many of my recollections are just short flashes of memory in which I do not remember
what age I might have been, or the sequence in which they occured.
The time I and some others were looking at a cow that had it's head close up to a gate,
and just as I was becomeing brave enough to reach out my hand to it. It gave a big
Moo causeing me to retreat quite quickly. A laugh for the others but not so funny to
me.
I was once gazeing longingly at a beautiful working model of a steam engine in a shop
window while I was out with George and wanted him to buy it for me, He explained that
it was far too expensive for him to buy, but this did not stop me in the least, Buy it
George I said, It's only a sobdom, ( meaning a sovereign) George at this time was an
office boy earning only a few shillings a week, so to him a sovereign represented a lot
of money. It became a saying within the family when any-one got big ideas in money
matters to re mark "Yes only a sobdom".
Then there was the time when the three boys were indulging in a little horse play in the
back yard, George had one of these little square weights with a ring in the top, used on
balance scales, and was swinging it around on the end of a cord and letting it loose to
strike something. I thought I would like to do that too, so dashed maddly in to grab it
from George, but in the mix-up the weight landed almost square in the middle of my
fore-head and knocked me to the ground. I imediatly set up a holler and George
picked me up and carried me into the house with me hanging on to my fore-head. But
when I drew my hand away and saw it smothered in red in blood I really kicked up a
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fuss, for I was sure I was done for. But Mother soon cooled me down, as all mothers
seem to be able to do with the young ones, and I came to the conclusion that I was
going to live after all, In fact I became quite proud of myself in the next few days going
around with my head bandaged up, especially when some-one told me I looked like a
wounded soldier. The scar is still there, but now very very faint.
When I was very young, I had a comical notion concerning the tradesmen who worked
on the streets, delivered the coal, picked up the garbage, and all such things, By
necessity they wore working clothes, and in most cases became dirty at their job,
especially the coal men. as coal was delivered in heavey sacks and poured down the
coal shutes in front of each door. Consequently they were continually smothered in
coal-dust and I couldn't think of them being in any other condition than just that, and
thought how dirty they must make the bed sheets at night and how the floors must be
in the homes of the men who worked in the streets.
And the engineer on the steam-roller, he surely must get the white table cloth awful
dirty when he had his meals. But all these confusing things seem to get straightened
out as one gets older and it was not long before I was going to have to go to school.
Going to school was something I dreaded before I ever saw it, I can?t think why. Many
children look foreward to it at first even if they come to dislike it afterwards, but to me
the thought of starting school was a black cloud on the horizon .
Perhaps I had listened to the elder members of the family speaking of the strict
discipline in the school, and of pupils being chastised for misbehavior, so that I got to
think that this kind of thing was the main procedure at school. However, I soon found
that this was not the case, and all one had to do to avoid discomfort was to behave
ones self.
Of course in those days there was very strict discipline, probably the other extreme of
the present day mamby pamby wishy washy way of carrying on, where a teacher is
afraid to correct children for fear of reprisal from doteing parents, interfereing P.T.A, or
school officials pandering to the general public for fear of looseing their jobs.
Thinking back now, perhaps there was reason for very strict discipline, as teachers
were expected to to teach very large classes, ( as many as sixty in a class,) so it was
essential that things did not get out of control, or all would have been lost as far as the
teacher was concerned.
I can well remember my first day. Mother took me to school with many misgiveings on
my part and into the head governess' office, Of course she appeared a regular battle
axe to me, although she was not, but under such circumstances young ones will think
the worst.
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Haveing given all the particulars, Mother prepared to leave, and I think she must have
anticipated a scene, for she turned abruptly and quickly left the room and did not look
back.
I was immediately panic stricken, and started to run screaming after Mother, but Miss
Oilman was too quick for me and grabbed my arm and held me, I can still remember
how strong she appeared to be as she held me with no effort it seemed, I expect this
shocked me into giveing up, and after I had cooled down a bit she talked to me for
awhile and then took me into Miss Christie?s class, which of course was the babies
class.
Here I was surprised to find that Miss Christie was a little quiet soft spoken woman who
soon dispelled all my fears and put my mind at rest so that I began to feel that things
were not going to be so bad after all.
The play-ground was my next shock, It appeared a complete mad-house, everyone
dashing this way and that in wild confusion I got myself into a corner and breathlessly
watched boys older than myself tearing after each other and tumbleing and palling at
each other untill it seemed they would have no clothes left.
It was something I had never experienced before, and it all appeared terribly
confusing, but I expect it was only a matter of time till I had become accustomed to
everything and was carrying on in the same way.
Bellenden school, Situated on Bellenden Rd. was a fair sized school and the whole
family of us attended It with the execption of Muriel who I have not yet mentioned as
she was not born till 1904 and this completed the family.
It was brick construction as most buildings were then and was three stories high,
Infants school on the ground floor, girls on the second and boys at the top, What the
complete attendance was I don't know, but the boys school held 400.
I still have one of the box-wood rulers we used, with the familiar S.B.L. on It, School
Board for London.
They were school property, but somehow one must have got in our home and was not
returned.
It seemed to me that we didn't have many relations, George could faintly remember
Grandad Dean, Dad's father, but none of the other elder ones new him, although they
talked of ocasionly seeing some of the aunts, Dad's sisters, Eleanor and Emily, who
Nell was named after, and there was uncle Jim, Mother's brother. None of these I
knew, and they were just names to me.
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I knew uncle Headly, (Dad?s brother) and aunt Susan and their two girls Gladys and
Bessie, We used to see them occasionally at Xmas. Also there was Mother's sister
aunt Emma (Botell),
They had a family of four, Annie, Ted. Ernie, and Rose. We saw them quite often, as
they lived not too far away, and these two families were the only relations I knew.
It seemed at Xmas each year we had one or the other of these two families visit us,
although the Botells could not always all come, but these Xmas parties were really
something from my point of veiw.
Uncle Headly seemed different to me in that he had a much lower voice than Dad,
Perhaps I thought he should be exactly the same be cause they were brothers, Aunt
Susey I remember as a little dark woman, Bessie, their eldest girl seemed some-what
delicate and very quiet, Gladys, the reverse, noisey and never seemed to be still. She
got into my bad books by bumping into me and bashing my head against the marble
mantel-piece and then trying to repair the damage by holding a cold ornament on the
painfull erea, which I very much resented.
I cannot remember aunt Emma being any other way than with grey hair, and she told
us later that she started to go grey when she was twenty two. They lived at Norwood,
and I have no idea where that was, but not too far from us I think, although we always
went by train. They lived at many places before, as Uncle could never hold a job in
one place for very long, but Norwood I remember the most as I was getting older then.
Aunt Emma Botell was always just plain (Aunt) to all of us, for we saw so little of the
other aunts that they didn't count, I had many pleasant trips to Aunt's place a t
Norwood, at first accompanied by either Mother, Nell or Arthur, and as I got older spent
short holidays there. It seemed that the family were mostly always away at work with
the exception of Ernie who was a postman and his delivery route was in the immediate
district. He rode a bike to some extent in his work and always seemed to be repairing it
during his spare time and this became very interesting to me, and no doubt I was much
of a nuisance to him by getting in his way and asking endless questions.
Perhaps most of my interest was taken up with the tin box of animal biscuits Aunt
always had up on the shelf, it always appeared to be full, and when I was very little I
had the idea that it stayed that way by some mysterious way, and it never occured to
me that it had to be replenished.
Another interesting thing was Aunt's hot-water bottle. It was an earthenware thing,
cylindrical shaped but flat on one side to keep it in position, with a filler cap on the
upper side. On one end a knob to handle it by, This made a wonderful imaginary dog,
and with a cord tied to the knob and a kindleing stick and a piece of string to act as a
whip, it could be dragged to every room in the house, and severely slashed with the
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whip at every time it was inconciderate enough to become entangled with a chair-leg
or a door frame.
Dureing world war two, when rubber became so hard to come by I saw some of these
water-bottles in a drug-store window, and I wondered where they could possibly have
dug them up from. That was in Nanaimo B.C. I wondered why they looked so small,
but then it was me wasn't it? I had grown up.
I once went to Aunts with Arthur and Rollie Tomkins, (Rollie was a school chum of
Arthurs) They had constructed a huge kite (at least it seemed huge to me as it
towered above my head)
It was made of calico, and there had been much cutting and glueing going on in our
Kitchen, so when the big day arrived they were to take it to Norwood because there
was a suitable, field quite close to Aunts house. I didn't go to see the maiden flight,
Perhaps the biscuit tin held too big a lure, so I stayed with Aunt, Some time later a
little English bloke appeared at the door staggering under the ungainly kite which was
now a delapidated broken and muddy mess. He said the boys had asked him to bring
the kite back, That a half wit of vanda (or words to that effect) had hauled it down from
the air and stamped on it and then ran away, so then as he put it "They had gawn orf
to catch 'im and 'it 'im".
During one of my prolonged visits, Aunt took me to see Sanger Circus, It was I believe
a small one, but it was my first so of course it was just wonderful to me to see the
animals and the trapeze artists performing. There were two sailors, one balanced a
pole( I thought it was a telegraph pole) while the other one clambered up and spun on
his stomach at the top. There was the usual clown wh o led in a gray horse and
blindfolded him, then produced a red handkerchief and a white one which he hid in two
convenient boxes, removed the blind- fold and told the horse to go and get him the red
one. He did it imediately of course, much to my surprise, and I was completely
mystified as when (previously mentioned) Mother produced the train from the back of
the book-shelf.
Muriel was born in 1904 and this completed the family, I just very faintly remember this
event. There was someone strange in the house, (it may have been Aunt) and I was
told that Mother was not well but I was not allowed- to go up to see her, I was sitting on
the lower step of the stairs and watching the sun through the skylite above the front
door.
Later I remember seeing Muriel and noticing that she had very dark hair. But she did
not concern me much for some years.
It was possibly some time after this that I remember a very long stay at Aunts, Quite
likely it was the school summer holidays, and we seemed to go lots of places and see
lots of shops and things. Once when we were going some place Aunt wanted to clean
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my shoes, I thought I was old enough to do this job myself so while she was cleaning
one I got hold of the other and refused to let her have it. She didn't say much but went
off and left me to it, but when I put my shoes on there was a definite contrast in the two
cleaning jobs. Aunt comeing into the room said, ?Why you look like a pig with one ear"
This didn't go down very good with me so I went out into the garden and endeavored to
solve the problem by scuffing around in some rubbish with the shoe that Aunt had
cleaned in an effort to remedy the situation. You may be sure the results were not very
good.
It was that time too that Ernie got his bell fixed up, Ernie was quite a sleepy head and
had difficulty in wakeing in the mornings, he could sleep right through the ringing of the
alarm-clock, but being a postman it was vital that he be on time. So an ordinary good
sized bell was hung in his room and with a contraption of cord and screweyes a line
was led out across the hall to Aunt?s room and as soon as the alarm went off she
proceeded to pull the bell, Createing enough noise to wake the dead. I don't know if
any of the neighbors complained.
This extended holiday for me was in all probability arranged so as to keep me out from
under Mothers feet for as long as possible during the time I was not at school, for she
now had Muriel to contend with besides the supervision of the rest of the family as Dad
was away for long periods at times and the load of bringing up the lot of us fell mostly
on her shoulders.
It was not surpriseing then that I accumulated quite a stock of toys, picture books, and
what not, and when the time came for me to return home I had a glorious time
gathering up the spoils and packing them ready for the trip, Aunt had also bought me
a new suit of clothes, Gray color, with knee pants, and coat with a wide white collar
which had embroidery or some such stuff around the edge, and which was typical of
what little boys wore at that time. I shall always remember the thrill of walking in the
door at home and showing off my new suit and all the packages of this that and the
other.
Time was going on, and I had graduated from the babys class at school to Miss
Morriss?, She had been reported to me by other children as something of a terror, so I
was not pleased.
However, I found I got along very well, and gained more confidence all the time,
although I still disliked school and latched on to the filmiest excuse to stay home which
was not easy for almost immediately the truant officer would be around and the excuse
had to be genuine.
I had got to the point where I could go unaccompanied to school and go up to the top
for a half-penny of candy or some small purchase but mostly Nell or Arthur were along,
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There were trips on Saturday nights when Dad was home when we would all go up to
the city (excepting Geo, and John) and it seemed such a mad house to me. Crowds of
people, street cars, (or trams as we called them) horse busses, hansom cabs and
trades-mens barrows, I was hopelessly confused and hung on desperately to some
other member of the family, I can remember Dad grabbing me up around the waist like
a wheat sheaf and dashing maddly for a street car. Many parts of the city I can
remember quite well, but I have no idea where they were or in what relation they were
to each other.
Dad took Nell and I to Battersey one Sunday, but I don't remember it much only that
we went on one of the small paddle steamers that plyed the Thames, and that we went
under the Tower bridge.
I do not remember George and John other than going to work each day, but I
remember Arthur perhaps in his last year at school, and then in the f ollowing year
being lab. monitor in the chemical lab. in the boys school.
George worked in the offices of some importing and exporting firm, and John worked
for Triketts who manufactured shoes.
Nell took piano lessons, and her piano had originally belonged to Aunt Ettie. I never
knew her. Her music teacher was Miss Hennly, and the main thing I remember about
her was that she had a nice Collie dog which she always brought with her.
The three elder boys had their friends who dropped in from time to time, most of them
school chums I expect, and although they were of no interest to me or I to them, I
remember them quite well. Friends of George's were Jimmy Feldwick, Titch Keeble,
Sid. Dealer and Vigo Anderson, He also spoke of Mr. Chalk, and Miss Blackwell, they
may have been some of the teachers at the evening classes he used to attend.
John had Chris Collet and Bill Greenwood, Bill was a beautiful piano player, and I can
still recall him playing Chimeing Bells of long ago on our piano.
Arthur had Harry Cook and his sister Elsie, and Rollie Tomkins Harry Cook I think went
to Australia.
Our family associated conciderably with the Tomkins, I don't know just how this came
about unless it was merely from Arthur and Rollie being chums. They were a big
family, Phil, Stan, Rollie, Hoy, Grace and Vera, I can remember many little outings we
had to parks and picnics, and I once went to their home with Arthur, and stayed there
while he and Rollie went some place. Mrs. Tomkins and I had afternoon tea in the
garden. Rollie was a life-long friend of our whole family.
It has just come to mind that there was also Cescil Carpenter among George's friends.
12
George was the only one who had a bicycle, Being the eldest I suppose entitled him to
a little more than the rest, It was a Sunbeam, and it was equipped just as well as the
present day machine with the exception that it had only one Speed or gear, Free
wheeling, coaster brake, frontwheel brake, acetylene head lamp and warning bell.
These models are still obtainable today but the most popular ones with youngsters
today are fantastic idiotic and impractical types turned out to catch the eye and create
sales.
This bike was later turned over to John, but he didn't use it much, as by this time he
had become interested in a girl friend.
John liked to dress well in his young days, and was quite a dude with his bowler hat
and walking stick, and always was more of a business man than the rest of us, His firm
offered him a chance to go up to Manchester to look over either another branch or a
factory of the company, ( I don't remember which) but I know he did a lot of talking and
cadgeing to Dad to persuade him to allow him to have a new suit for the trip.
He mig |
