Rosie & Nathan

This is probably the oldest wedding photo that I have, it was taken 8 April 1900, I have older photos but this is the oldest wedding one. It was taken at the wedding of Rosie Ehrenberg to Nathan Mayover, Rosie was my grandmother Leah's oldest sister, Leah is in the background far left standing with the fancy hat, next to her is my grandfather Alexander Levene they were married a year later. Seated next to the bride are my great grandparents and Rosie's parents, Sarah Hannah & Woolf Ehrenberg, the rest of the people are unidentified. I have assumed that the people seated next to the bridegroom are his parents. Not a very good photo I know but it is better then nothing. Unfortunately Nathan died in 1907 with TB leaving Rosie with 4 young children, Lily, Hyman, Woolf & Dora, Woolf and Dora were twins.

Charlie

This is my favourite photo of Charlie it was taken probably 2-3 years before we met, while he was stationed overseas in Seoul, Korea. The original is in black & white and very good quality I have a scanned copy hanging in my den. He probably developed himself as that is what he was doing while he was in the army, he worked with the photography department so we have lots of photos that were taken unofficially in Korea. Most of them are slides but there are a few like this one that were actually made into prints.

My Sister

This is a photo of my sister, Valerie (with the bows in her hair) and my Aunt Sheila (dads youngest sister) it was taken a 3 Vernon Road, Leytonstone, London, England in our living room. It was probably taken around the time that I was born (1947)as there is eleven and half years between Valerie and I and Valerie looks to be about eleven. It appears to be a professional photo as it has the postcard cardboard backing in those days there used to be door to door photographys. Interestingly enough the same wallpaper was there when Valerie married in 1955! and later when we moved around 1958.

My Paternal Grandparents

This is a photo of my father's parents taken at the time of thier engagement in 1899, they were married in 1901. Leah Ehrenberg the daughter of Woolf Ehrenberg & Sarah Hannah Zwick. Alexander Levene (Alec) the son of Nathan Levene & Rivkah Mignon.

Alexander came to England at the age of about 15, he first appears in the 1901 census living across the street from grandma Leah at Booth Street Buildings in London.

Leah came to England as an infant with her parents and Siblings.

Brian is named after Alexander (middle name) and I think there is a resembalance. Our daughter Leah is named after Grandma Leah, but I think her and Sarah have a lot in common, I have a later photo of Leah taken when she was expecting my Dad and her and Sarah look alot alike. I have lost count of how many of our extended family members are named after them but we have quite a few Alexanders and Alexandras. We have two Leah's in the family.

My Maternal Grandparents

My maternal grandparents, Charles Edward Rampling & Florence Gertrude Ashbee, were married 25 Dec 1906 at St. Barnabas Church, Homerton, London, England. This photo was taken in a pub at Robertsbridge in Sussex England, the name of the Pub is the Ostrich it was taken around 1952. I remember the Ostrich really well, we would ride the train down from London to Robertsbridge and Grandad would meet us at the train station, or outside the Ostrich, he would always say, "Fancy a drink" and invariable we would go in the Pub for a drink, they always had to hide me because I was too young to be in the Pub. The Pub is still there to this day.
Charles and Florence raised their children in London until the Blitz on London during WW2, Charles had been a fish monger and owned a fish shop, during the Blitz they lost everything and were evacuated to Robertsbridge, I cannot begin to imagine how difficult that must have been, to lose everything. They lived in a very small house, now known as the "Dolls House" thats how small it was. In that house were my grandparents, my mother and my sister Valerie, and on and off various siblings of my mother and their children, all were made homeless by the war. There was a small living area, a kitchen an outside Loo, no regular bathroom no shower or tub. I think upstairs there were two maybe three tiny bedrooms. My grandmother was wonderful at "making do" she could whip up the most fantastic meals on a wood stove. I loved visiting them, granddad was rather quite but very strict with us kids. I can remmeber my grandmother washing my neck and face at the kitchen sink she really scrubbed hard, and she always used the strong Lifebuoy soap, (I can still smell it to this day) but I didnt mind, it was done with love. I loved to go blackberry picking when I was down there, and no matter how few I came home with she always made a big deal over them and would make jam or pie for me. One of my most favourite things to do at Robertsbridge was to pick flowers, especially the wild bluebells and primroses, we would go for long walks down the railroad tracks to Bodium Castle. Which now when I think of it was probably really quite dangerous but there were always adults along I loved it the best when all my Aunts and Uncles were there. Us couisins would all sleep together in one bed.

Charles Edward was born 6 Dec 1885 in Hackney, London and died 28 June 1957 in Hastings, Sussex
Florence was born 23 Aug 1885 in Hackney and died 20 Feb 1966 in London

Larkswood Cafe

Larkswood Cafe

For a while my parents owned and ran a restaurant in Chingford, Essex, England here's a picture of my Mum taking in the money, it was quite a good restaurant we catered mostly to the working class, truck drivers and the like, I enjoyed living there we had a small place over the restaurant, two bedrooms a nice big living room with a dinning area and we shared the kitchen with the restaurant. On the weekends Dad would let me wash dishes and he paid me a penny a dish! We had a cook named Tilly she was wonderful and could whip up a miracle when it came to food, there was also a couple of waitresses the only one I really remember was named Margaret probably because she spoiled me rotten!
I cant remember exactly how long we lived there for, I think from 1957-1959, although looking back on it, it seemed like forever!
I know I took my 11 plus exam while we lived there.

And Valerie came to visit with Mark who was around 11 mths old at the time.
Across the street from us was a Pub named the Royston Arms and Mum and Dad became very friendly with the man that owned it, Cyril but I cant recall his last name. He had a big American car and we used to drive down to the coast on a Sunday for the day. I always got carsick and still have the aversion to riding in the back seat of a Cadillac. We also had a cat named Micky who was a wonderful mouser. He was very smart the only cat I could ever teach to do tricks! He would climb a ladder and sit and wait for his treat.