Open Writing

My father and I visited Spain by taking a ship from Dover to Calais and the train to Paris. A change of station enabled us to take the sleeper to the Spanish frontier. There we left the train and walked over the frontier to find a Spanish train.

This was the time of the Franco regime, and there were no foreign tourists or English spoken. It surprised me to find out that my father spoke no French or Spanish. Thus my limited Spanish from two terms at school proved in valuable. I resolved to become proficient in the language. We managed a lengthy trip by train through Spain and Portugal, where I had to convert to French.

My father was obviously highly regarded and, because of the limited value of their import licences, we collected a good number of orders. He was also owed a fair sum of money dating back to the Spanish Civil War. His customers were anxious to pay these debts (plus a substantial amount), which enabled them to import from us. At that time Spain was short of everything, and their amount of foreign currency and the value of their import licences limited our sales.

As we travelled around I kept a record of the cost of fares between each city. At the end I realised that we had overpaid the well-known British travel agent by many hundred pounds. A letter to them brought their immediate repayment of the overcharge with a brief letter of apology. However I have never used their services again.

Although I remained an enthusiastic user of train services throughout my business career, I usually found that flights to the overseas starting point made sense. For Paris it was possible to take the train sleeper from Victoria Station and leave the Paris station for a 9 am appointment. For British trips a train sleeper to Newcastle, Edinburgh or Exeter was a good way to start the journey and meant no working time was lost.

I started a London Spanish course on our return and soon after took a two-month trip to Spain. There I spoke and read Spanish the whole time and was able to build a close relationship with the Spanish dental dealers. TV, cinema, theatre, papers and conversation were all in Spanish.

I also met a 30-year-old single lady at the house of an American dentist who had resided in Madrid for most of his working life. During the Spanish Civil War he had escaped to London and stayed with us for several months, regaining his strength with the aid of my mother’s cooking. We had watched him putting on weight day by day.

I asked this young lady if she would join me to go to the theatre to see the famous gypsy dancer, Carmen Armaya. After some hesitation she answered “Sí.” So we met, enjoyed the show and I then took her to dinner.

There she revealed to me that it was the first time in her life that she had gone out with a young man without a chaperone. The only reason she had said yes was because I was English and we had met in the house of an American, so I must be all right.

There was also another young woman who was not quite so particular about a chaperone. So my Spanish matured day by day, and I was also writing letters in Spanish.

Whilst normally on a business trip I always stayed in a top hotel, this time I stayed in modest places and managed the trip very economically. It was also possible to spend time with various members of the dental trade. A weekend with a family in Seville was a delight. Two children and two mothers-in-law made a lovely Spanish family. The mothers-in-law looked after the home, attending to all the shopping and cooking.

Valencia was also great with the good fortune of being there over Easter and seeing the wonderful Easter parade, followed by a magnificent firework display.

From Madrid I took the train to Toledo. Travelling second class, I had a group of peasants as fellow passengers. A little boy, who must have been three or four years old, kept running into our carriage and pulling down his mother’s blouse, enjoying a drink from her breast.

Toledo was interesting, with an old synagogue that had later been converted to a church when the Jews were thrown out. The original building was not as tall as the neighbouring churches because it was not permitted. However, when you entered, it was necessary to go down several steps, and from the inside the building was taller than the churches.

Whilst I did some business it was really a holiday, and my Spanish became pretty fluent.