Due to the failure of the shop we moved into rented accommodation. First we went to live in Liverpool Rd, as we needed more room. I think Auntie Flo Aust, who was a teacher and married to Uncle Albert Deeks , was living with us. I think we were only there about three weeks. The place was infested with bugs; my poor mother was quite distracted and quite ill. We gave notice given despite the agent pleading with us to stay; he said he would have the place fumigated etc because he knew our rent was always reliably paid. There was a lot of poverty around and landlords were keen to get good tenants. The place should have been overhauled before we went in. My parents were adamant and so we moved to Beckton Road where we had an upstairs flat and a family called Ribbans had the downstairs. Charlie was the eldest of the Ribbans family and then Mrs Ribbans had twins Elsie and Harry. The District Nurse used to come each day to help and used to bath one of the twins. One day she said "Now which twin did I do yesterday?" My mother who used to go in and help as well, said "It doesn't matter which you do today as when you've gone I do the other one anyway!" I remember on one corner of Beckton Road there was a sweet shop and on another a small draper's shop owned by the two little Miss Worms who were like two little mice. On another corner there was a greengrocer named Revell. Doris Revell was in my class at Beckton Road school where the headmistress was Mrs Franks. On the fourth corner was Bedwell's the grocer.
At school my first teachers were Miss Hooper and Mrs Tindale. There was a picture on the classroom wall of a cat about to jump on a mouse. We also had Miss Elson and a Miss Callow who was very nice and played the piano. She fascinated me as she always played a different march when we went to our classes and never used any music, but she left to get married, a clergyman I think. In the classroom the desks and chairs were in rows, which were higher at the back than at the front ( as in the picture of a similar Edwardian classroom above) and the pupils were placed in order of ability with the brightest at the back and the dimmest at the front. I was in the back row with my friend Edna, but it was very soon obvious my sight was not good enough to see the blackboard and so I had to sit at the front for a time until I got glasses. I didn't like sitting at the front as I was entitled to a back row seat because I was at the top of the class each month when we had our monthly test. One time I remember we had a question I knew the answer to and I thought my friend Edna might not know; while the teacher wasn't looking, I crawled up the steps on my hands and knees to tell her the answer. I came down step by step on my bottom and when I turned to get back in my seat the teacher was behind me watching! However she was smiling so that was alright!
I had to have glasses when I was about six years old. My mother took me to an eye clinic where I was fixed up with steel rimmed glasses. In hot weather rusty perspiration ran down my nose! Later I had gold rimmed ones. After a while, Mum took Floss to have her eyes tested. She was kitted up with the heavy eye testing frame and, as the optician slipped in the different lenses, she asked Floss, "Do you like that?" Over and over again Floss replied "No". The poor woman was flummoxed and eventually said, "Well, I can't make head or tail of her. You'd better bring her back when she is a bit older." Mum was puzzled and asked Floss, "Could you really not see through any of the lenses the lady put on you?" to which Floss replied "Yes, I could but I didn't want a pair like that; I wanted a pair like Eve's!"
Parents dreaded the "school board man", Mr Davis, coming round if their children were absent from school. I was away from school at one time as Mum suspected I had mumps. Mr Davis called and said that I must go to school. So I went and Mrs Franks, the headmistress, sent me home again and said she would deal with the school board man. I think he was a bit of a bully and the mums were scared of him. Opposite us in Trinity Street lived a music teacher, a Miss Letterill. When I was about 11 the Letterills moved away and, not long afterwards, I answered our front door and there stood four youngsters surnamed Oliver. Knowing I could play the piano, they said without any hesitation and in unison, "Our Mum says will you learn us music?" They must have heard me practising several hours a day. I took them on and soon I had six pupils; four Olivers, Alex Goult and a Miss Freeman. I got three shillings a week for three hours teaching, which was lot of many to an 11 year old.
At school my first teachers were Miss Hooper and Mrs Tindale. There was a picture on the classroom wall of a cat about to jump on a mouse. We also had Miss Elson and a Miss Callow who was very nice and played the piano. She fascinated me as she always played a different march when we went to our classes and never used any music, but she left to get married, a clergyman I think. In the classroom the desks and chairs were in rows, which were higher at the back than at the front ( as in the picture of a similar Edwardian classroom above) and the pupils were placed in order of ability with the brightest at the back and the dimmest at the front. I was in the back row with my friend Edna, but it was very soon obvious my sight was not good enough to see the blackboard and so I had to sit at the front for a time until I got glasses. I didn't like sitting at the front as I was entitled to a back row seat because I was at the top of the class each month when we had our monthly test. One time I remember we had a question I knew the answer to and I thought my friend Edna might not know; while the teacher wasn't looking, I crawled up the steps on my hands and knees to tell her the answer. I came down step by step on my bottom and when I turned to get back in my seat the teacher was behind me watching! However she was smiling so that was alright!
I had to have glasses when I was about six years old. My mother took me to an eye clinic where I was fixed up with steel rimmed glasses. In hot weather rusty perspiration ran down my nose! Later I had gold rimmed ones. After a while, Mum took Floss to have her eyes tested. She was kitted up with the heavy eye testing frame and, as the optician slipped in the different lenses, she asked Floss, "Do you like that?" Over and over again Floss replied "No". The poor woman was flummoxed and eventually said, "Well, I can't make head or tail of her. You'd better bring her back when she is a bit older." Mum was puzzled and asked Floss, "Could you really not see through any of the lenses the lady put on you?" to which Floss replied "Yes, I could but I didn't want a pair like that; I wanted a pair like Eve's!"
Parents dreaded the "school board man", Mr Davis, coming round if their children were absent from school. I was away from school at one time as Mum suspected I had mumps. Mr Davis called and said that I must go to school. So I went and Mrs Franks, the headmistress, sent me home again and said she would deal with the school board man. I think he was a bit of a bully and the mums were scared of him. Opposite us in Trinity Street lived a music teacher, a Miss Letterill. When I was about 11 the Letterills moved away and, not long afterwards, I answered our front door and there stood four youngsters surnamed Oliver. Knowing I could play the piano, they said without any hesitation and in unison, "Our Mum says will you learn us music?" They must have heard me practising several hours a day. I took them on and soon I had six pupils; four Olivers, Alex Goult and a Miss Freeman. I got three shillings a week for three hours teaching, which was lot of many to an 11 year old.
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