My parents, Donald Gocke and Susan Rickard, were born and brought up in the Canning Town area in the 1920s, up to and through World War II. In their later lives, my mum and dad put together a history of their lives and experiences, for my brother and I to pass on to their grandchildren.

 

My father took great pleasure in talking through and laughing about recollections with my mother, and then typing them up on his old Olivetti manual typewriter, to build a wonderful picture of the lives they experienced, with all of its challenges at the time.

 Saturday Mornings

All the jobs to be done in the house were written on a piece of paper and put into a cap. We each picked and had to do the job. There was no cheating and not much moaning as we know we had to do it. My Dad cleaned and sometimes mended the shoes. My eldest sister, Priscilla, would be at work as a shorthand-typist at the Lamson Paragon Paper and Printing Works in Custom House. On Saturdays we got between one and three pence (old money before decimalization) according to our age, but only if we could honestly say we had cleaned our teeth all week with either soot from the chimney or soap.