Various Homes 3: The Furnished House

Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia

When we arrived in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia in 1950, we lived for the first six months in The Furnished House. My Father had rented this while our new home was being built. I remember the outside of The Furnished House better than the inside because during all the years that I cycled to school I would pass it. The house was a bungalow, similar to others in the road. I had a small bedroom and my brother had his own room as well. We didn’t have any toys or books because our freight from England hadn’t arrived. I did have Dolly and her small suitcase of clothes, because she had come on the voyage with me. She had  broken her arm when she fell out of the top bunk on the ship, but Daddy was able to reattaching it with a piece of wire. As you can see in the photo, she was almost as good as new, although the end of her nose had chipped off in the fall. If the photo were larger, you would be able to see that she was made of sawdust plaster. I don’t know why she is dressed in winter clothes when I am wearing a summer frock. Perhaps it is because it was her best outfit, knitted by my aunt before we left England. We had our first Christmas in Rhodesia in The Furnished House. Soon after that we moved into our new home.

Hanoi Images: around Long Bien Bridge

Water tower built by the French at the end of 19th century. There were standpipes for people to come and get water.

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Statue commemorating the Battle of Hanoi against the French in 1946

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Shop selling cigarettes. 15.000 is about 50p. Read the bottom of the Marlboro packet

Pagoda scenes. Once the prayers are over there will be a welcome lunch.

Small street temple

Art Deco gate

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Beef galore

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Ready for a wedding. The green and yellow cakes are called husband and wife cakes. Why a purple one? I don’t know.

Buying creme caramel straight from the source.

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Over and under Long Bien rail and road bridge. The girders came from France and the bridge was opened in 1902. The train has rumbled over since that date. When the bridge was bombed by the Americans, it was swiftly repaired.

Sunday lunch under the arches

The railway track is a favoured place for wedding photos. A train had crossed not long before I took these photos.

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Banyan tree and dove cote in Long Bien train station.

Mosaic wall decoration

Various Homes 2: London Homes

When the war ended and my Father came home, we moved from Whitby to London. Here, we lived in a flat in Snaresbrook. I do not remember much about it as I was very young, except that it was an upstairs flat with an outside metal stairway. As earliest childhood memories seem to be of unpleasant events,  I do recall the pain of  falling off a low wall into a bed of stinging nettles. Fortunately, there were dock leaves growing nearby to alleviate the pain and quell my tears. My other memory is of the cold winter of 1946-7. The water pipes froze so a bowser came each day to deliver water. My Mother carried down buckets, and I went with her, taking my toy kettle.

About the time my brother Michael was born in 1947 we moved to a house in Kent, on the outskirts of London. I have a picture in my mind of a large double-storey house with an enclosed back garden. In my childhood eyes, the most prominent feature of the garden was a walnut tree. My Father put up a swing for me from one of the boughs. I spent many hours swinging high on the wooden seat hung on long ropes. Michael, when still a baby,  was ill with complications of whooping cough. To help him breathe a kettle was kept boiling in his room. The dark wooden chair where the kettle stood was whitened by the steam.  My final memory of the house is the day we left to go to Rhodesia when I was six. The neighbours came out to say goodbye and many of them gave Michael and I sweets. I had a small brown cardboard suitcase packed full of sweets and chocolate. – enough to last me for the two-week voyage to Cape Town.

Sadly, there are no photos to go with this post.