Open Writing

Work was only ever part of my life. The family was always of top importance. Susan grew up, had several boyfriends, spent some months in France perfecting her already excellent French and finally brought Howard Packman home as the fellow she wanted to marry and who wanted to marry her. He was an only child whose father had died when he was young. An enterprising young man, he ran several different businesses at different periods of his life.

The wedding reception was in Regents Park and they settled in Howard’s nice St. John’s Wood house, but moved from it into three different homes. Howard became a second son to us.

Eventually a son, David, was born to them - a fine sturdy boy. After 18 months they wanted another child but nothing happened. Finally Susan went to see the famous Prof. Winston. After a remedial operation she produced a fine daughter, Rachel, nearly six years younger than David.

Daniel went to Highgate School, although in retrospect it was not his type of school as he was not inclined towards sport. He continued his education after Highgate, studying accountancy and business and afterwards went in for store management. He became manager of one of the stores in the group. I could see that he was no longer happy there and suggested that it might be time for him to join J & S Davis. He came gladly and brought considerable skill with him.

Hilde encouraged him to leave home when he was about 23 years old, and he shared an apartment with scout friend Paul and later his cousin William. Finally he brought Laura Green home and married her. They moved twice into ever-larger homes. Their current Radlett home also houses the specialist history books sold by her and her father.

Daniel and Laura also produced two lovely children, Joanna, and two years later, Oliver. We grandparents are indeed fortunate with two sons, two daughters and four special grandchildren.

Non-Dental Activities

Although the business was a full time activity, I was beginning to follow a broader lifestyle and became more involved in Synagogue affairs. Gradually I took over the running of the library and became the representative of the Synagogue on the Garden Suburb Fellowship Committee, which provided a social centre for the elderly Suburb residents.

Having found from my days at Berkeley Street Synagogue that serving on the Council was not for me, I tried to influence events by writing letters to the Synagogue magazine under the pseudonym of Jonathan Ben Daniel. This worked well until a warden became offended when he was mentioned in a light-hearted way. As a result, anonymous letters were declared illegal.

I also took up the risk that national voting papers were potentially not secret. One’s voting paper was marked with the voting number. Potentially a political movement could let it be known that they intended to ascertain who were the enemies of the people by having the ballot papers examined to see who had voted for the ‘wrong party’.

On several occasions I asked the voting clerk not to put my number on the voting paper. When he did, I said, “You have destroyed my secrecy,” and took my paper without voting with it. This caused him to call the policeman who was on duty. He asked me what I was doing. When I told him, he made a telephone call and apparently was told that I was entitled to take my voting paper.

This I then sent to one of the local papers explaining the potential loss of secrecy. After repeating this operation several times without apparent success, I became a normal voter - much to the relief of the voting clerk.

I became a fairly regular writer of letters to the media, and a number were published. One of my hobbyhorses was writing to point out that those who were trying to stop the use of topically applied fluoride to the teeth were severely mistaken.

Today it is accepted that the topical application of fluoride in toothpaste and mouth rinses is wise, as is the one part per million fluoride in the water. The enormous change in ‘keeping teeth for life’ shows how effective is this procedure.

In 1964 a personal friend, Michael Goldhill, and I became interested in an old dilapidated large house near Hampstead Heath and made an offer for it, intending to build several houses there, move into two of them and sell the rest. The seller decided on an auction of the large property, which our solicitor attended on our behalf, with a limit on what he should spend.

The property went for a few hundred pounds more than the limit we had set him, and the buyer did very much what we had planned. At least it saved me from becoming involved in the property business.

Helping Family and Friends

From childhood our elderly cousins, Tilly and Nan, had been a close part of the family. They had never married and had needed financial and practical help from our parents since our childhood. We continued with this family responsibility until both needed to enter homes for the aged until they died.

It also meant lending or giving money to other members of the family when they got into financial difficulties. This was not always successful, when the indebtedness was due to gambling debts, because the basic problem remained.