I was born in Holloway in December 1918, but moved to Tottenham before my third birthday, and don’t have any recollection of the house in which I was born.

The reason for the move was that my father who had lost a leg in the Royal Marine Artillery had a lock up tobacconist’s shop and decided that with his growing family he needed a shop with living accommodation attached. The shop was a double fronted one with one window fronting the main road and the other a side turning. My father always reckoned that the Architect designing the edifice was a habitual drinker as none of the rooms in the house were either rectangular or square; but had a tendency to be wide at the door end and tail away to only about six feet at the far end.

However the business flourished and I lived there until I married in 1943, but the intervening years were, to say the least, eventful. For one thing the family of which I was the third child increased to five children, looking back I wonder how my mother managed so cheerfully as not only did she care for us all, making and knitting our clothes, but at busy times she helped in the shop. Modern conveniences were minimal in the house which boasted a scullery with cold water only and an outside lavatory. A galvanised bath was brought into the shop parlour at regular times and we bathed in front of the fire in winter.

Our parents were liberal minded and allowed us all sorts of made up games, from hospitals to shops and our favourite Post Offices, for which we cut up old newspapers into little squares for stamps. My elder brother, who flattered himself he was a bit of an impresario, produced plays occasionally and these were a riot, with a chenille tablecloth brought in for the curtains and some very peculiar props.

There was great excitement when my elder sister won a place at the local County school and even more when my brother got a place at the Central school, whilst I followed up two years later by gaining a place at the County school.  We got on well as a family on the whole and any disagreements were soon resolved.

This state of affairs came to a sudden end when my mother suffered a massive heart attack when only forty years old and was dead before the doctor arrived.. My younger brother was just seven, my younger sister eleven, I was thirteen, my elder brother fifteen and my elder sister, who was sixteen and a half and had just started her first job stayed home and we pulled together in a shambolic way really. Relatives wagged their fingers at my father and suggested the younger members go into a home but my father was made of sterner stuff and found a woman to come in to clean.

From being a bit of a dreamer I had to become practical and soon learnt that if I didn’t wash my school blouses on Saturday they were not ready for school on Monday. I helped my elder sister both with cooking and cleaning and we were never without a meal when the younger ones returned from school. We made some mistakes but Dad was always available and had a very original way of managing the finances. This was that if we needed money for school items either clothing or trips he would say look in the money boxes but don’t forget that we have to pay our shop bills at the end of the month.

He disbelieved in banks after a crash at one of them, so that notes, silver and copper were stored in loose tobacco tins.  I don’t think any of us ever abused his trust. He also found time to ring ambulances for road accidents as we had one of the few phones in the area and advise customers in trouble or write letters for them as many were illiterate. During the General Strike of 1926 I can remember that he had to abolish the slate. This was something that regulars used and paid what they owed on pay day; but he also had compassion and when pensioners who smoked came in for a screw of tobacco (this was quarter of an ounce put into a newspaper cone) he would offer his regulars a little of the tobacco dust which was always left at the bottom of the large containers to eke out their quarter of an ounce.

I left school at sixteen and a half years after taking a one year course in shorthand, typing and bookkeeping and got my first job. I also found myself a boyfriend – a school friend of my elder brother, who came home to play billiards with him in the shop parlour. My elder sister married during the year before the 1939/45 war and my younger brother was still at school but we managed. My elder brother was called up and joined the Royal Artillery Heavy Field Guns, where because of his artistic ability, he eventually became an OP Acc. He crawled out to an observation post and drew a panorama of the landscape for the guns to find the range.

He was captured in Singapore and painted the Changi Murals whilst in captivity. My younger sister went into war work and, because of my father’s needs, I was allowed to stay at home and worked in Parks and Open Spaces on food production for the local community kitchens set up by the Council.

My younger brother left school and found engineering work, but was called up as soon as he was eighteen years of age and entered the Navy towards the tail end of the War. I was married in November l943 (in the Jewish Home for Incurables that was standing in as Registry Office during the War) and my sister came home with her young son to look after Dad. We three girls saw each other frequently and were there if needed and at last the War ended and normality returned; my elder brother came home in November 1945 in a very poor state of health, but after a good deal of treatment worked as an Art Teacher until retirement.

I had two daughters and the family were separated by necessity for work reasons, my husband (the boyfriend who played billiards in the parlour) was a local government officer and we moved to our present address from London in l961, but we all stayed in touch; only my younger brother and I are still living, but are a considerable distance apart, though we communicate weekly by phone.   My husband died in 2005 and I live alone but am still muddling through.