Open Writing

In early 1919 Diamond Pinto took her three children, Iris, Enid and Edward, to enjoy the Brighton sea air. The dreadful 1914-1918 War was over.

In nearby Shoreham by Sea was a military convalescent camp where Captain Solly Davis MC was recovering from wounds obtained in the Flanders trenches. Someone (the records do not say who) told him that this family with two lovely daughters was staying in Brighton.

Always willing to investigate possibilities, Captain Solly got someone to polish his shoes and buttons (he never willingly polished his own) and set off for Brighton. There, Diamond spotted him approaching and announced, “Here comes little Johnny head in the air.”

Iris and Solly hit it off immediately and did not allow the grass to grow under their feet. They married in June 1919 at the Central Synagogue in London with a full military guard of honour provided by his brother officers. These colleagues also presented the couple with a handsome silver tray containing all their signatures. This tray occupied a place of honour in the family home, until a few years back when it was stolen from our home. Very sad.

There was only one snag during their period of engagement. Solly decided to take Iris to one of the finest restaurants in London - Simpsons in the Strand. They were, and still are, famous for their roast beef, which they carve at your table. Iris, as a modest and inexperienced girl, looked at the menu and chose the least expensive item listed - whitebait. Our father never really forgave her and used to tease her with the memory of Simpsons.

Early Childhood

All lives require a birth. Mine was on the 27th July, 1922, by caesarean section. However, this was not told to me until I was about 17. At that time such personal matters were kept very secret. During the whole of their lives I never saw either of my parents without their clothes.

My poor mother gave birth four times, and all by caesarean section. At that time it was something of a record, and the surgeon Victor Bonney was very proud of himself - and of my mother.

The first child, Diana, was stillborn on 6th December, 1920. My father never forgave the GP for failing to notice that there was a problem until it was too late. I gather I was a bit of an undersized runt, whom they didn’t expect would last too long.

There followed two brothers, Peter and Victor, each at about 18-month intervals, and my mother’s mother, Diamond, never really pardoned my father for putting her daughter through this ordeal so many times. Her view was that he must have been something of a sex maniac.

On delivery of the third son, my mother is reputed to have said, “Ah well, I suppose I shall have to spend the rest of my life darning socks.” Those were the days of darning socks, and most evenings she would be mending the socks of one of her four men.

In retrospect we lived very comfortably with cook, maid and nanny. There was also a car added to the family accoutrements, with a chauffeur as well. Obviously our father’s dental supply business was trading successfully. He travelled a good deal on selling and buying trips, and we became used to long absences. Trips to the USA were at least once a year, with almost a week spent crossing the Atlantic in each direction.

He was a very smart, well-dressed individual, and his arrival in New York, complete with bowler, overcoat, silk scarf and gloves, must have been a little unusual. On one occasion, when going through the immigration procedure on board ship at New York, he stood before the immigration officer complete in his formal attire and with gloves on, to be asked, “Why are you wearing them gloves? Have you got eczema of the hands?”

The US immigration officers appeared to me as something of bogeymen. He also told the tale of a dental trade competitor who travelled to New York on one of the luxury liners at the time and shared a cabin with his secretary. On arrival, the immigration officer saw from the passport that the couple were not husband and wife. He had them both placed on Ellis Island and later returned to UK with the statement, “Refused entry permission - moral turpitude.” Things have changed over the years!

My favourite fruit has always been fresh English strawberries. This was only a three-week July season. Today there are strawberries all the year round from all sorts of warm countries. They don’t taste the same, and I still try and reserve my strawberry eating to July. Apparently when being wheeled in the pram by my mother, with the hood up to protect me from the sun, I managed to finish her purchase of fresh strawberries without being seen - an early demonstration of liking.

Living near us were our three first cousins, Valerie, Joyce and Gordon, who were of roughly the same ages as we three boys, and provided us with great playmates. At age seven Valerie and I were married in the nursery. Since we never thought of a divorce, it is probably that both of us have been involved in bigamous marriages since.

My mother Iris’s sister, Enid, was a delicate person who withstood many operations. The family comment was that she could not have much left inside her after the surgeons had removed this and that. In spite of all this, she lived to a goodly age.

Family holidays were usually spent at Cliftonville in a rented house. The move there was a major operation with a removal lorry to take all the equipment needed for a several-week vacation. We played happily on the beach most days with our cousins.

Sometimes it was not so happy. Once Valerie threw sand at me for some obscure reason. She missed, and I retaliated with greater accuracy. Sand in the eyes is not comfortable, and she went screaming to her mother. A formal beating from my father was the result.

The only other formal beating I can recall was also connected with cousin Valerie. At school I had learned the somewhat smutty limerick about the man from Australia who painted a certain part of his anatomy like a dahlia. “A penny a smell went all very well but tuppence a lick…was a failure.” This I thought was vastly amusing and of course repeated it to Valerie. She was suitably impressed and repeated the limerick with great accuracy (she had a wonderful memory) to our mutual great-uncle George. He was shocked and inquired, “Where on earth did you hear this?” “Oh from John.”

That evening my father sent for me and delivered me a lecture on the fact that decent men never told dirty stories to girls or women, and so that I should remember that very clearly, I suffered six of the best on my bare behind. He was right in that I did not forget the lesson and carefully avoided the telling of dirty tales to girls.

Our parents appeared to entertain a fair amount, and often it was formal dinner parties with everyone in evening dress. This was always exciting to us children who listened from the top of the stairs until chased to bed.

When our Aunt Enid and her husband Basil arrived, he always made his way immediately to the grand piano and sat and played beautifully for as long as he was allowed. The piano and music were his great pleasures and he would play for hours when alone, and with never a sheet of music in front of him. His memory was remarkable.

This was the period of heavy smoking, and cigarettes were always laid out in little stands for the guests to help themselves. The following morning it was our job to clear up the debris, for which we used to earn 6d each. We were all trained to clean, tidy and do the washing up, which meant that we were probably unusually domesticated for that era.

According to parental information, I was accident prone with fallings resulting in stitches in various parts of the anatomy as a fairly regular occurrence. Apparently on one occasion I found a bottle of household disinfectant liquid, opened it and poured it down my hands and face by mistake. Much screaming from the burning that resulted.

My parents immediately phoned for the doctor. This was the era when doctors visited patients, rather than patients visiting doctors. The fear was that I had swallowed the liquid, but the doctor’s comment was, “No, he has not swallowed it. If he had he would be the same green colour as his father.”