Lest It Be Forgotten After I Am Gone: The Difficult Years - 5
...One evening a young man came in during an extremely busy session and managed to grab a tray of diamond engagement rings that had been taken from the window for display purposes. I took off after him and managed to reach him just as he was getting into a get-away car...
Raymon Benedyk takes on another job and finds himself caught up in a drama.
Before the end of 1965, when it was obvious that sales were too slow for the office to continue, I got myself another daytime job working for a jeweller in Camden Town. It was a family run business with two brothers and wives and the parents of the sons all taking their share of time being in the shop. They told me at my interview that they were expecting to expand to another shop in the spring and they needed someone with some experience working with them. I told of my time in New York, and in Liberty's, and they seemed overjoyed that they had found just what they were looking for.
I joined them just before Christmas 1965 and we were very busy in that shop I can say. One evening a young man came in during an extremely busy session and managed to grab a tray of diamond engagement rings that had been taken from the window for display purposes. I took off after him and managed to reach him just as he was getting into a get-away car. He took fright and flung the tray away, scattering the rings everywhere.
I took the decision without hesitation of gathering up the rings rather than to continue to grapple with the thief and let him go. Fortunately, with the help of passers by, all the rings were found and none were lost. However, my boss in thanking me said it had been an unnecessary action on my part
since the rings were insured!
It was shortly after that episode, in January 1966, that my boss told me that they had decided not to take the other shop and that my services were no longer required.
One of my colleagues in the Britannica office who had not been successful in selling the publication and not lasted there, because we lived quite close to each other we continued to meet from time to time. When he left he got a position in a gaming casino as a cashier at the cash desk, a position of extreme trust and well paid. He got me an interview with his boss and I was taken on in February 1966.
It proved to be a winner from the start with wages of £35 per week and tips. It was almost all night work however, from about 7.00 pm until gaming ended for the night or morning as was determined by the punters who were in the premises. On more than one occasion it was necessary for me to stay on duty almost 24 hours until the evening when the new crew arrived, because a wealthy punter, although continuing to lose, wanted to carry on playing, trying to win back the money he had lost! If he had shown signs of being successful, the management would have closed the table. That is how casinos work!
**
If you wish to make a donation to the Elsa Benedyk Memorial Fund, set up by her friends and colleagues entirely without Raymon’s knowledge to provide funds to support the children's ward of the Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem to commemorate her life of work with children in her nursery schools, it would be most gratefully received. The amount that you give will not be revealed to Raymon. He is not a trustee of the fund. Your cheque, payable to the Fund, should be sent to the fund's Treasurer Mrs I Dokelman, 14 Charville Court, 30/32 Gayton Road, Harrow, Middx HA1 2HT.
