Emmie Jacobs 4

On the  back of the small snap was written, again in faded ink, or it could have been indelible pencil. "1926" . Indelible pencil and purple lips; she remembered those pencils and the man in the shop who licked the end to write the price. She couldn't remember the shop. It could have been the hardware shop.  In her memory it seemed to go with long brown coats and bags of nails. Strange how memories danced through her mind when she was alone in the house.

The photo broke into her reverie and danced her back into the present moment and then danced her back again into an uncertain past. The two girls in the photo were obviously friends as they linked arms and laughed into the camera. They were wearing those girdle waist dresses in a light colour. They could have been white, as the black and white photo only gave a hint of shade. The dresses had those scalopped hems. She remembered her mother had something similar in a pale green, eau de nile she thought it was. It had hung in her wardrobe unworn for many a year smelling  of camphor to ward off the moths. Inside the dress there was one of those camphor rings like large polo mints hanging from a purple thread. She had got the dress out one day and her mother became quite cross and said it was not to be touched. Emmie remembered the label inside, "Marshall & Snelgrove ".  I wonder what happened to Marshall & Snelgrove she thought. She remembered the one on Lord Street in Southport but it disappeared. It was near the Kardomah coffee shop where her mother sometimes took her. Here she slipped away again  into the world of coffee and extra special chocolate Kunzle cakes. These sweet remembered pleasures brought the hint of a smile to dance across her lips, a summer day in Southport with Kunzle chocolate cup cakes.

"I bet that was where the girls were, a summer dance." There  used to be summer dances in the park by the bandstand. That was where she had first met David. She remembered the rose garden and the lake. She  had seen him with some friends sitting round a table  drinking cream sodas, no alcohol allowed in the park. He seemed to be a regular to the Sunday afternoon event, as she was, although she had also noticed him rowing a skiff on the lake, a lone rower skimming the surface with the oars. He seemed quite accomplished. 

Then there was the Sunday when he came over to her and asked for the dance. Her friend Lily had gone to the ladies room and although a little uncomfortable taking a partner when her friend was not there, she knew she would not really mind, probably have a little joke about it on the way home. After that it became a regular occurrence and would have become more frequent if David had not been called up. He was almost seven years older than Emmie and they just caught him at  the end of the war. They met again two years later and were married in the  local registry office. It was a very private affair, just a couple of witnesses from work and a cream tea at a nearby Lyons Corner House. 

When the first child was born Emmie wanted her christened in church and so she went to the local Catholic,  St Johns. It was only then that Emmie  found out that David was Jewish by birth and this caused complications. They both had to fill in forms to ask the church for permission.  David had no living relatives. He had been brought up by friends of his family when he came here in the thirties. The war had completed the separation. Emmie was a long way from her parents who still lived up north and she did not wish to involve them. It was too complicated. The forms were signed and they went through a short ceremony on their own to bless the marriage in the Catholic church.

The child was baptised Mary Louise and they were joined by a few close friends for the christening. David was quite happy to have everything signed up and never returned to the idea of his Jewish childhood. In fact it was only after the baby that Emmie returned to her church. They had already decided that the child would be brought up as a catholic even before the papers had been signed.

Emmie had to give up her job at the Revenue when she got married and found it hard, at first to make ends meet. David had a regular job in the tailoring. He had been an apprentice before the war and got his job back but his wages only just covered the rent and basics. She was sorry that the time she had spent doing the shorthand and typing seemed now to be wasted. Maybe she would come back to it later when Mary had gone to school. A little part time job would be nice.

JL July 7 12:12