A Family Car
The apparent aimlessness of waiting for work was alleviated by the momentous Hirsch family decision to buy a motorcar.
Morris Hirsch's aimless waiting for work was alleviated by the momentous decision by the family to buy a motorcar. That may sound hyperbolous today but, in 1939, for the sort of people who lived in Yeoville, it was quite something!
Morris only got a bicycle when he went to university. Perhaps his father thought it would not be proper for a doctor to travel around, job searching or in practice, sporting a bike? Also, his qualifying had elevated the family status and it was now appropriate. Father disapproved of Jewish ostentation.
Morris had taught himself to drive when he got very temporary access to an old Morris Mini-Minor. He vividly recalled snaking down from the Medical School to the University. Compelled to take his eyes off the road to change gear, steering was a matter of over-correction and still greater counter-correction. Was a learner's license required? He didn't get one. There wasn't much traffic and not many traffic police. He got his license on his first attempt.
Now, the family would be able to enjoy Sunday country drives. Warmbaths was a 100 miles away where both parents could enjoy the medicinal springs. His older sister, Josie, could also learn to drive.
But father was to foot the bill: Morris was still the pauper! So the whole family came along to make the purchase, not that anyone had any idea of the relative merits of cars. But all had set ideas on the color! They were still arguing about color when they got downtown.
Father eventually settled on navy blue. It had to be a four door. There were two choices - the Standard Chevy at £260 or the chromed Delux for £320. Father saw no purpose in embellishments.
Morris drove the family home in unusual silence but everyone spoke up when they were safely at home and even after dark furtively visited the garage. But Morris would still have to ask father for the petrol (gas) money!
The historical novel Whitewashed Jacarandas and its sequel Full of Possibilities are both available on Amazon as paperbacks and eBooks.
These books are inspired by Diana's family's experiences in small town Southern Rhodesia after WWII.
Dr. Sunny Rubenstein and his Gentile wife, Mavourneen, along with various town characters lay bare the racial arrogance of the times, paternalistic idealism, Zionist fervor and anti-Semitism, the proper place of a wife, modernization versus hard-won ways of doing things, and treatment of endemic disease versus investment in public health. It's a roller coaster read.
Excerpt from Dr. Morris Isaac Hirsch's Unpublished Memoirs, Hirsch Archives.
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