Precious Memories

A Memory of East Ham.

My mum Jane Deal was born in West Ham on the 7thJune 1926 and later moved to East Ham 185 Central Park Road on the corner with Ladysmith Avenue. She lived there with her parents Jane and Arthur Deal. and her brothers Arthur and George and her sister Joan who still lives in Langdon Crescent.Her father worked for BICC as did her brothers. She used to tell me stories of what she got up to. She used to return jam jars to get the money back so that she could go swimming and walk the mile to the baths. She belonged to the Band of Hope and went there on Sundays. One memory was going to the market with her mum and having g a tantrum until she got a glass of sarsparilla. She left school at 13 and a half when her school closed at the start of the war. She worked as a tayloress for a Jewish firm making mens suits and later army uniforms. She survived the blitz and luckily their house survived too. She had a best friend called Ivy Johnson and they went out everywhere together. I wonder if Ivy or any of her family are still in the area or anyone else who remembers the Deal family? In later years my Grandad and my dad used to go to the Boleyn or Central pubs when we visited them. We had some wonderful Christmas parties with all the uncle's, aunts and cousins getting together at 185. Some equally good New Years parties or as Nanny Deal called it "old year's night". There was "first footing" at midnight and all the ships on the river blowing their horns and the the banging of dustbin lids. I used to go to Central Park and play on the swings with my cousins . They ran rings round me as I was the country girl come to town! It's sad that most of them are gone now but happy memories remain.

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