Photos
The manor house at Newlands Corner
Valley View, Kent - a camp where we went on weekends
As the war slowly came to an end the other children moved back to London and my Mother and I decided to stay in Guildford. There was a close-knit group of Jewish refugees living in Guildford, mostly German and Austrian and also some from Poland and Czechoslovakia. And Mother had many close friends including the Goldsmith’s, whose son Philip I see when I’m in France and the family Dukasz, whose daughter Sue lives in Canberra, Australia. I visited Sue in March 2000.
My Mother had started a ‘well baby clinic’ for the Borough of Guildford using exercise equipment originally developed for the treatment of polio. My Mother learnt these exercise techniques to help me overcome the effects of my polio, which I contracted at age 5 or 6.
At first we lived in other people’s houses where my Mother kept house and cooked in return for two rooms. Eventually my Mother bought a house on Lincoln Road in the Stoughton area of Guildford and took in boarders. I attended Woking Grammar School for Boys and eventually matriculated. My Mother wanted me to be a scientist and I went for one year to Guildford Technical College studying Chemistry and Physics and hating it. I was a terrible student and eventually my Mother took me to a career councilor who suggested that law or real estate would be a more suitable field for me. I enrolled in the College of Estate Management of the London School of Economics taking a mix of day and night classes. My first job was as an apprentice with Charles Osenton, Estate Agents in Guildford. It was here that Mr. Smith, one of the owners would come downstairs from his office and say, “Samuel, get your hat and coat on and come with me”. And we would go inspect and measure a house that Mr. Smith had been instructed to sell. I soon decided that I needed more opportunities and moved to London, where I became a property bookkeeper for Goddard & Smith a very large (real) estate management company. While continuing with my studies I became assistant property manager at Swears & Wells, a chain store company with retail shops in London and many other English towns.
Around 1956 my Mother came to America to visit her sister and attend my cousin’s wedding in New Jersey. This is the first time the two sisters had seen each other in 17 years! While there my Aunt asked my Mother if, “Ralph would like to come to America” because my Aunt was willing to provide my affidavit. My Mother answered, “Of course not, who wants to live in a land of savages”.
When Mother came home and told me the story I said, “Wait a minute”. Somehow I knew that if I did not go I would regret it for the rest of my life. So at age 27 I came to New Jersey and hated it! I got a job as a bookkeeper in Manhattan and did some post-graduate work at City College of New York in the field of Land Economics.
My Mother had started a ‘well baby clinic’ for the Borough of Guildford using exercise equipment originally developed for the treatment of polio. My Mother learnt these exercise techniques to help me overcome the effects of my polio, which I contracted at age 5 or 6.
At first we lived in other people’s houses where my Mother kept house and cooked in return for two rooms. Eventually my Mother bought a house on Lincoln Road in the Stoughton area of Guildford and took in boarders. I attended Woking Grammar School for Boys and eventually matriculated. My Mother wanted me to be a scientist and I went for one year to Guildford Technical College studying Chemistry and Physics and hating it. I was a terrible student and eventually my Mother took me to a career councilor who suggested that law or real estate would be a more suitable field for me. I enrolled in the College of Estate Management of the London School of Economics taking a mix of day and night classes. My first job was as an apprentice with Charles Osenton, Estate Agents in Guildford. It was here that Mr. Smith, one of the owners would come downstairs from his office and say, “Samuel, get your hat and coat on and come with me”. And we would go inspect and measure a house that Mr. Smith had been instructed to sell. I soon decided that I needed more opportunities and moved to London, where I became a property bookkeeper for Goddard & Smith a very large (real) estate management company. While continuing with my studies I became assistant property manager at Swears & Wells, a chain store company with retail shops in London and many other English towns.
Around 1956 my Mother came to America to visit her sister and attend my cousin’s wedding in New Jersey. This is the first time the two sisters had seen each other in 17 years! While there my Aunt asked my Mother if, “Ralph would like to come to America” because my Aunt was willing to provide my affidavit. My Mother answered, “Of course not, who wants to live in a land of savages”.
When Mother came home and told me the story I said, “Wait a minute”. Somehow I knew that if I did not go I would regret it for the rest of my life. So at age 27 I came to New Jersey and hated it! I got a job as a bookkeeper in Manhattan and did some post-graduate work at City College of New York in the field of Land Economics.
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