Cracked Eggs and Chicken Soup - A Memoir of Growing Up Between The Wars

A Memoir of Growing Up Between The Wars

Norman Jacobs

• Publisher: John Blake
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781789460049
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

In this revealing memoir of childhood, the author shows not only what affected his family, but also reveals a large slice of social history concerning the lives of all ordinary working-class people struggling to live in the slums of the East End of London in those pre-Welfare State days. He writes with sympathy, and sometimes anger, of the overcrowded houses with families of anything up to eight children, as his own had, living in just two or three rooms with outside W.C. and water tap; of the reliance on charity and the soup kitchen for food; of trying to eke out what little income they had by buying stale bread and cracked eggs or other cheap food from the many itinerant street sellers.
Yet this is also a chronicle of what was a turbulent time in British history, and especially in the East End, with its then still large Jewish and Irish populations. So here too is an eyewitness account of the Depression, and of the provocative marches by Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists through the area, culminating in the Battle of Cable Street that saw the marchers turned back by the efforts of Jewish, Irish, communist and socialist protestors. Above all, however, Norman Jacobs writes with affection of the area and its extraordinary mix of peoples, as well as the now-vanished aspects of everyday life, such as the music hall, the two-valve radio, and the first Cup Final to be played at Wembley.

Table of contents

• Cover
• TITLE PAGE
• DEDICATION
• CONTENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• FOREWORD
• PREFACE
• CHAPTER ONE: JACK THE RIPPER AND JACK JACOBS, 1888–1915
• CHAPTER TWO: THE TENTERGROUND AND PULLOCKS, 1915–26
• CHAPTER THREE: HUMPTY LOGIE, DOLL-DOLL AND JULIE BOTTLES, 1919–26
• CHAPTER FOUR: LOKSHEN SOUP, JAM JARS AND KEATING’S POWDER, 1919–26
• CHAPTER FIVE: STALE BREAD, CRACKED EGGS AND THE BUN HOUSE, 1919–26
• CHAPTER SIX: CIGARETTE CARDS, HORSE DUNG AND A TEN-BOB NOTE, 1919–26
• CHAPTER SEVEN: CATS’ MEAT, CATCH ’EM ALIVE AND PERCY THE HOOK, 1919–26
• CHAPTER EIGHT: MALT, HENNY PENNY AND SWEET STUFF SHOPS, 1920–6
• CHAPTER NINE: FIRST WEMBLEY FINAL, ITCHY PARK AND PLATZELS, 1923–6
• CHAPTER TEN: FUMIGATION, BUSSING UP AND EX-LAX, 1926–9
• CHAPTER ELEVEN: FIZZY DRINKS, POETRY AND EMPIRE DAY, 1926–9
• CHAPTER TWELVE: MILK CANS, BAGWASH AND MECHANICAL CLOWNS, 1926–9
• CHAPTER THIRTEEN: COWS, FRIED FISH AND PIERROTS, 1926–9
• CHAPTER FOURTEEN: CLICKY-BA, NOAH’S ARK AND THE MUSIC HALL, 1926–9
• CHAPTER FIFTEEN: SHEEP’S HEADS AND PIG’S TROTTERS, 1926–9
• CHAPTER SIXTEEN: TWO-VALVE RADIO, THE CHAVRA MAN AND APPLE CAKE, 1926–9
• CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE TALLYMAN, PROVIDENT CHEQUES AND GEFILTE FISH, 1928–30
• CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: WORK, APPRENTICESHIP AND THE BOY, 1929–30
• CHAPTER NINETEEN: OPERA, BODYLINE AND BEANOS, 1929–36
• CHAPTER TWENTY: HAMPSTEAD HEATH, LORD BOND STREET AND THE CHESTERFIELD, 1931–6
• CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: THE WOODEN TOE AND LAW BREAKING, 1935–6
• CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: DEPRESSION, BATTLE OF CABLE STREET AND ABDICATION, 1935–6
• CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: LOVE AND MARRIAGE, 1937–9
• CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: FEAR, WAR AND BIRTH OF FIRST CHILD, 1938–40
• AFTERWORD
• GLOSSARY OF YIDDISH TERMS
• PLATES
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• COPYRIGHT