This memoir of the first 53 years of my life is dedicated to those for whom it was written - my immediate and extended families, my grandchildren, my close and intimate friends, my acquaintances and colleagues
Chapter 4
IN COMPARISON WITH TODAY'S PACE OF LIFE, the prewar days of my youth, though lived in a relatively teeming city, were absolutely tranquil. There was no constant prevailing noise from motor vehicles, for there were very few indeed, apart from the commercial ones. Airplanes were a thing of the future, and became familiar only when then war was on. I remember seeing the enormous R101 - the world's largest airship, moving on so slowly over London in 1931. The wailing of sirens, the blaring radios that seem to punctuate life wherever you are these days, were unknown. Transportation was by horse-drawn carts and the public conveyance, was the tram that rode on iron rails embedded in the cobbled streets. The greatest thrill was to climb to the upper section of the tram and view the scene going by at the daring spped of some 10 miles per hour! There was no telephone to disturb the home at all hours, no radio or TV, no stereo. They were not yet even invented. Pollution was a word that remained hidden in the dictionary.