PEOPLE LIKE ME (Part 1)
Story contd.

Just before I left Altrincham to join William we heard some shocking news: one of the girls in Maddie’s year at school, who had also joined BOAC as a stewardess had been killed in a Comet plane crash. Maddie was still flying and she had a frightening incident when the plane she was in developed a problem, and was forced to circle the airport for hours to use up petrol. Maddie had to keep herself calm and reassure the passengers. They landed safely and she was given a citation from Sir Miles Thomas. We all hoped that she would find a safer and less stressful job.

I set off down south with the luggage, a few prejudices and a slight chip on my shoulder - I was a northerner after all. I determined to be open- minded and give people the benefit of the doubt but I knew I was going to miss the cheery, friendly, general nosiness I had known all my life. The thought of an uncaring society frightened me.

I soon had the flat looking as if it belonged to us and our first visitors were Maddie and her boy friend George. They had some great news; they were going to be married and were buying a large house, with the aunts in Caterham. Maddie’s son Matthew was going to leave boarding school and be educated locally. They seemed very happy and it was great to think Maddie would be reasonably close.

We met our neighbours in the flat above. She was Rumanian - very sweet and friendly but I didn’t take to her husband. He looked and sounded exactly like a wide boy – a spiv. During the war a spiv was a person living by his wits and engaging in petty black market dealings. You wanted a bit of extra bacon, sugar, coal or petrol (gas) the spiv was your man. Never mind that the sailors in the Merchant Navy and on tankers risked and often lost their lives providing these things; the spiv didn’t have a conscience. William said I was imagining things and when they asked us to go out with them for a drink we agreed.

It was a perfect summer evening and the spiv took us to a pub on the river. We sat in the garden with willow trees drooping elegantly in the water, where the swans were like a corps de ballet warming up for Swan Lake. William went to get drinks and I tried to be as friendly to the spiv, as I genuinely felt to Renata his wife. After a few sips of wine I began to feel more charitable and I thought maybe he wasn’t such a villain after all.

He certainly was good company and told us how he got round the gas and electricity charges. Both flats had separate meters and the money was collected from the meters by Mr Sweeney. The spiv had manufactured a shilling (the required coin) on a wire so he could insert it in the meter and then retrieve it. I looked at William’s face and could see he was shocked. This was cheating – not the gas board etc, but the Sweeneys who were providing both our families with homes at a reasonable rate at a time when there was a great scarcity.

As the evening wore on the spiv said you couldn’t sit by the Thames on a summer night without tasting a Pimm’s. I had never had one and he told me that Pimm’s #1 was a mixture of gin, quinine and herbs made into a long drink with lots of fruit floating in it. Pimm’s #2 had a Scotch base and #3 a brandy. I decided to try one but William said he would stick to beer. It did taste delicious and looked so pretty but when I tried to stand up to go to the rest room I fell over. Suddenly I felt very ill, my head was swimming and I had to be half carried to the car.

The next twenty four hours were the most wretched I had ever spent and almost put me off alcohol for life. Later we discovered that the spiv had thought it would be a jolly wheeze to put a double rum in the Pimm – in addition to the gin. I think I was right about him the first time.