Jellied Eels and Zeppelins (8 page)

While I was seeing to the wine, Mum warned me to watch out for flying bits of snail shell. As I got up on a stool to look inside the cage, it came off its hook into my arms and I fell backwards tipping the bowl of blackberry wine all over me head and me lovely linen dress! Luckily Mum managed to get all the stain out by soaking the dress in salt water in her old copper!’

Ethel in the 1920s

Another amusing incident occurred one night, when, as a young woman in the 1920’s, Ethel had been ‘out on the razzle’ with some friends:

‘I remember ever so clearly - I’d been out and got in at 10 o’clock, ‘cos you went to bed early then, when you’d been working hard, and this night, Mum and Dad had gone to bed.

Dad never used to turn his light out, he used to sit there with his watch - ‘See the time, you’re a minute late,’ he used to say. Anyway, I went into the bedroom and switched my light on … we had those casement windows, you know, and mine was open a little bit to let in the fresh air (it was summer time, see). Well, what happened was, I pulled the bedclothes back to get in and there was this spider. I’ve never seen one so big in all my life and I’m not exaggerating. Its legs were
huge
and they was all
hairy
! I screamed and pushed the bedclothes back. Now I don’t dislike spiders and I really don’t like to kill ‘em, but I couldn’t touch that one, it was
massive
; it must have been a foreign one come over in a box of bananas delivered to the grocer’s at the top of Edward Road. I flew into Mum and Dad’s room calling ‘Dad! Dad! Quick!!’

Now, my Dad used to wear those old-fashioned shirts with the collar attached (I used to ‘ave to scrub ‘em) and they always had long back tails. He always went to bed in ‘is shirt and my parents’ bed was one of those on the old-fashioned wooden frames with the springs. My Mum was rather on the plump side and used to sleep against the wall. Me Dad jumped out of bed so quick and me poor ol’ Mum was tipped into the corner!

Suddenly realising that he’d only got his shirt on, me Dad pulled the tail of it between his legs to hide his privates - and I’ve never forgotten the way he ran down the hallway, it was so funny! My Mum had a good sense of humour and I can laugh too. It’s a good job I can, what with some of the things I’ve been through!

Anyway, when Dad came out of my room, he said that he’d knocked the spider to the floor with his slipper and crushed it. Honest to God, it had black hairs on its legs and was
that
size. It certainly frightened the life out of me and my Dad, and we don’t scare easy!’

Ethel holding her certificate pronouncing her a life governor of the Connaught Hospital

Ethel’s great sense of humour and fun was also to be put to good use raising money for charity, in particular, for the Connaught Hospital, of which she became a Life Governor in 1939. With her late friend Doris, Ethel used to parade in Walthamstow Carnival each year:

‘The first year Doris dressed up as a soldier and I went as an English lady in a petticoat (I showed me knickers!). I also wore a crinoline bonnet and carried a parasol. I must have been 19 or 20 then. The following year, I was a Spanish man complete with black hat, jacket and mandolin and for the final time, Doris and I entered as the Bisto Kids. We sent away for the clothes for that, but we had to find our own shoes. They sent us the wigs and everything. I made a sawdust pie with pastry on top and stuck wire in it with cotton wool on top to look like smoke. And we won second prize! Doris’s nephew had a little barrow. Doris asked if we could borrow it to push me up to the podium to collect our prizes. It was so small, I couldn’t get out of it afterwards, ‘cos me hips stuck!! The other funny thing was, we won a camera from Ensign, where I had worked since I was 14!’

Ethel and friend Doris at subsequent Walthamstow carnivals

Ethel and Doris got up to many more pranks with their friends and colleagues when they went on their many days out together before the start of the Second World War:

‘When us girls had our Sundays out, we used to go sometimes to the Kursaal at Southend. If there happened to be a ride that hadn’t attracted many people, Doris used to ask the attendant to let us girls go on for half fare in return for shoutin’ and hollerin’ a bit to attract more trade. We used to go on those rides where your skirts blew up, like on the Big Wheel. We thought it was real funny. We never used to wear trousers in those days, we had dresses on!

But they wouldn’t let us go on the railway thing - roller coaster, I think you’d call it now - ‘cos it was too expensive. Very high it was. My chap Joe, took me on it once, ‘cos I said I hadn’t been on it before, but he didn’t want to sit in the front. When our turn came, he had to sit in the front seat ‘cos it was the only one left. Joe was terrified and turned really green. When he got off, he couldn’t stand. The ride was terrific and I really enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t go on it now!

We never ‘ad much money, so we couldn’t go on a lot. Once, as we went out of the Kursaal, Doris and I got on the weighing machine together and broke it, so we ran out!

We used to travel by train on our days out. We’d pick the tram up at the top of the turning, where the market was in Walthamstow, and travelled to Stratford to board the train. That was when we were going to Walton-on-the-Naze. But when we went to Southend, I used to walk to the Blackhorse Road to catch the train. London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) was the name of the railway company, and it took you right into Southend.

Anyway, when we travelled to Walton, I crocheted hats for all of us and sewed a white feather on the top. Then, when we were riding on the top of the tram to Stratford, we would be able to see the members of our crowd. I used to say ‘There’s another one - she’s got a white feather in her hat!’ If we lost someone coming home, I’d know because there’d be a white feather missing when I’d counted them all. There were usually 24 of us, you see. And, do you know - I remember every one. One used to do the bookwork for the convent school for the poor kids. She was a good person, she was.

Coming back once from a trip to the seaside, Doris was saying how hungry she felt. We got in a carriage that had a little side toilet to it. As there was no light in the main carriage, we put the light on in the cubicle and left the door open. Our manager’s secretary - I’ll never forget her, she was so la-di-da - wanted to come with us. None of us liked her very much, especially Doris, ‘cos she was so stuck up. Well, as Doris was hungry, she decided to eat this hard-boiled egg she had with her, but just as she was about to put it into her mouth, this girl yawned. Doris saw her opportunity and, in the dim light of the carriage, threw the egg at her. ‘How disgusting!’ the girl said. That started us all off and we had this amazing food fight with everything we had in our bags! Then, just before we got to Stratford, we cleared up the carriage - the windows, everything. We never did no damage, we just used to have some good fun, you know!

In the winter, when we couldn’t go to the seaside, we used to go up to London, to the theatre. My friend, Joan, who was the manager of a nice shop in London (I’ve still got a nice pair of scissors from there) said that if ever we wanted to go to the theatre, we were to inform her and she would book us our tickets for sixpence… We used to go to work on a Friday and our foreman used to say ‘Where you goin’ tonight girls?’ After work, we’d walk up Wood Street, near Forest Road, all of us together, and catch the train to go to the theatre. We’d make sure that our seats were booked, then go to the large Lyons Corner House to have something to eat like fish ‘n’ chips.

We saw some lovely shows. I remember there being one show with nude people in it, but we wouldn’t go to that one! We did see Dulcie Gray and her husband (Michael Denison) once and we did go to the White Horse theatre a couple of times too. As there were a lot of us, we got in a bit cheaper. We was artful then, but we didn’t ‘ave much pocket money, see. I didn’t earn my full wages of 28 shillings a week ‘til I was 21. I started on eight shillings a week and, until I came of age, I received tuppence an hour more each birthday. I worked from eight o’clock until half past five, Saturdays ‘til half past 12, and you weren’t allowed to leave until you’d made sure that your desk was all clean and tidy ready for Monday.

We was goin’ up to Wood Street to catch the train once, when Doris bought some stink bombs and jumping crackers from a shop near the station. She said that when we went through the tunnel at Hackney Downs Station, we’d let these crackers off in the train. She told me to sit on one side of the door and she would sit on the other. When it all went dark in the tunnel, we let the crackers off. The girls screeched and, when the train had passed through and it was light again, I saw that one girl was hanging onto the luggage rack! A jumping cracker had burnt a hole in her coat. Were we sorry, but we still chucked the two stink bombs into the carriage just as we got out at Liverpool Street! I tell you, that snobby girl never came with us again!

Doris was the one who suggested all those pranks, not me. And there was another one called May - she was just as mad. May was a lovely person, a real tomboy. She was six feet tall and full of life and fun. Whenever you went out with May and Doris, you knew you were going to have a good time. I used to do all the organising and they used to arrange all the fun.

When we went to Walton-on-the-Naze one summer, there were some photographers from the Walton Gazette up on the cliffs, who asked if they could take some photographs of us. Doris arranged us all for the pictures. Lots of other people wanted to take our photos too, as they could see what a fun time we were having! We would take any unused film from the cameras that were brought into Ensign for repair out in the darkrooms and use it up on our days out.

Ethel (2nd from left) on a seaside outing with friends from Ensign Cameras

Doris, May and I played for the Ensign Netball Team - I became the captain eventually. Doris played Goal Shooter. May only played for a little while. We used to play behind The Billet (
public house
). Doris and I thoroughly enjoyed that, but when Doris suddenly took a fancy to walking, we both dropped out of netball. The team weren’t all that good, so it was quite easy to give it up.