Pam's Stories

During the years that Pam lived alone after Hutch's death, I talked to her on the phone most mornings. I sometimes encouraged her to talk about her life years ago when conversation became difficult as a result of her increasing disability. I wrote down a few of these narratives; some of the words & sentences are hers, some parts are paraphrased.

20 July 2003
Martin's Christening.

Martin was Christened because Mary, Pam's mother's friend, wanted to be his godmother. Mary and Stanley lived in Totteridge.
In those days it was hard to get petrol because of rationing; Charles had a car, and was able to get a petrol ration to take Pam to or from the nursing home to have Martin. Pam and Hutch lived with Hutch's mother and brother (Charles.)
Those attending the Christening were Hutch's mother, Charles, Mary & Stanley, and Pam's friends from Tripoli, Tony & Jess. Tony was a doctor and Jess a physiotherapist. They all went to Mary & Stanley's after the service.

10 August 2003
The houses in Ismailia, being built by the Suez Canal Company, were built on the plan of a French house, and had big basements. There were stairs going down from the entrance hall into the basement, which was used by the French families with lots of children as a play area. Halfway down the stairs from the hall to the basement was a door out into the garden, so the children could run directly from the basement into the garden. During the war, when there were frequent air-raids, this was convenient because if you were out in the garden when the sirens went off, you could quickly get into the basement for shelter without going through the house. The bombers came over Ismailia because the canal was right there, and it was important for the British for access to the Red Sea.
Some French people had converted the kitchen into another room (because they often had many children,) and in turn put a big kitchen down in the basement, meaning that all food had to be carried up the basement stairs. Pam's parents, however, had left the kitchen in its original place.
When civilians had to evacuate Egypt because the Germans were getting close, Pam's father went to the Masonic Lodge in Ismailia (of which he was a member) and was able to let the house fully furnished to a group of army officers who were also members. They promised to look after Pam's dog while the family were out of the country.
Pam and her mother drove in the Buick to Suez, which was fifty miles away. When they got to the dock, they were told the ship was leaving for Bombay immediately. Pam's mother simply gave the car keys to a local taxi driver and they got on the ship with their few suitcases. When they returned to Egypt years later, they got the car back but after being used as a taxi for all that time is was not much good anymore.

12 January 2004
"Those were the days, before this miserable country. We had a wire haired fox terrier, which was sent out from the kennels in Uxbridge in England. My father had written to the kennels, of course at that time we didn't know where Uxbridge was. They sent it out on a ship, and we were told to pick it up at Port Said, so we went out in the pilot boat and he was sitting shivering on the deck. How he didn't fall overboard on the voyage we never knew, because he had the free run of the ship. We were told he had been no trouble at all on the voyage.
He lived with us for many years & was called Charley - Charley Barley. He lived in my mother's bedroom. He would sit by her dressing table while she did her hair. We fed him with special meat that we bought. He was a great favourite with Abdul, which was strange because Mahamedons are not supposed to like dogs. He stayed in the room by the kitchen with Abdul. We found that French people liked wire haired terriers too - a French family in our street had one too, who was Charley's girlfriend."

Unknown date. I added the dates to this narrative, otherwise it is almost verbatim
Pam was sent to school at the Italian convent in Port Said. It was convenient because it was right across the road from the house in Port Said where Pam lived with her parents. Pam's mother was happy to get rid of her with no inconvenience to herself (because Pam could just walk across the road to school.) This was when Pam was eight, so it must have been around 1933. There was a Welsh nun there who was kind to Pam. Pam spoke English at home, but all her early schooling was in Italian. On one occasion (September 1934), all the girls gathered in the school gym to listen to Queen Mary on the radio, launching the liner Queen Mary on Tyneside. Pam had been there, but the other girls in Port Said didn't know that.
When Italy invaded Abyssinia (in 1935) the children at the convent had to line up at the side of the Suez canal to cheer when the Italian troop-ships passed through with men and supplies for the invasion. Pam had to wear a black uniform; a black cape that buttoned up the back.
After four years, Pam was sent to school in England, the Towers in Saltburn. There, they weren't interested in her Italian and she had to learn to do school work in English. So, a few years later, when Pam went to Tripoli after the war to work at the hospital, she found she had forgotten all her Italian.