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[Page 90]
potentials were there so I got Harold to come and have a look at it, by the way it was in Gowing's Building, 9th floor, of course that building was full of fashion houses, it was reasonable. The turnover was not worth worrying about and the shop needed cleaning and a bit of paint here and there. There was no stock only a few little teapots, griller etc. The price was very reasonable between eight to ten thousand pounds, can't remember. Harold said to me and Ruby "its o.k but a lot of work and we can't afford to loose on a pig and a poke and do you two think you will get on alright". I said "yes". Ruby said "yes" and he said "no". I have just made up my mind, so Ruby went home and so did we. Harold went to work and I rang Ruby and said "come up and see me and we will work out what we will have to pay and do etc. and I will talk to Harold again tonight". So that we did and good Harold agreed and so we went on with it and on his week off he came down with us and helped us get it all clean. The next week we bought a little second hand freezer. I took my frypan and deepfryer in and Ruby brought dishes from her place, the urn was very good the sandwich bar was sparkling. We ordered stock to come in and we both brought lots of things from our homes, put food orders in for the following week and a sign 'open - under new management'. I put notices under all the fashion house doors that we were open for business plus the phone number for orders. Well I had no doubt in the world that we were going to go to better things. we even sold breakfast to those who wanted it and yes we were out of debt in no time at all, it was great. Harold used to keep the books and see to banking and Friday nights we always had our tea at the buffet and Harold would help us clean up. I had the keys as I was always first there. we got on fine until we had a few little complaints (like Ruby had long hair and she would persist in combing it near the sink), but still some people got a hair and all knew whose they were as hers was black and I was grey and I am still grey. Then some of them did not want Ruby to take the orders down to them. Well I told Harold about this and asked him what I should do. he said "tell her". I said "well you know how quick tempered she is, leave it with you", well what a shock I got. she said 'o.k. I won't wash up you can do that too". I said "there is no need for that Ruby, you only have to go down to the ladies room and comb your hair", reply, "I will please myself'.
So I put up with things for a while and one Friday night when Harold we had been so busy and the sink was overflowing with dishes and she decided to sit and have a smoke. Harold did not say anything and he could see how things were going so Ruby finally started to clean the sandwich bar and we got finished I made a cuppa and we did the money and we paid each other as that was what we both decided to do. We then went to our respective homes and boy Harold blew off steam, "what a fool she has turned out to be". So we talked about it all over the weekend and we decided I would go in extra early on Monday and get as much done as I can before she came in. Well this I did and I was peeling potatoes when she arrived, "oh you have done everything", "no" I said "the chips have to be done. I want to talk to you before we open". "What is it"?. "Well Ruby" I said "we cannot carry on like this so either you sell out to me or I will sell out to you or it will go on the market", reply "you know very well I could not do it and I will not sell to you", "right" I said "on the market it goes". In the meantime Essies place is sold and we did tee up a unit for her but it was not finished so we had her with us at 'Mont Clare' for 2 weeks.