‘I see Old Mother Taylor’s eldest today. Didn’t recognize him at first. Turned into a Teddy boy, but it don’t bleedin’ well suit him, Viv. His suit looked ten sizes too big. Probably trying to get a girlfriend. No chance with his spotty face and that frowsy mare of a mother. One look at her is enough to make any girl run a mile.’

Vivian chuckled. ‘I saw him the other day, down The Waste. Got such a big nose an’ all and he’s as skinny as a rake. Poor bastard looks like he’s fallen out the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.’

‘You’re so cruel,’ Queenie laughed.

‘You bleedin’ started it,’ Viv retorted.

So much had changed in the East End since the war. There were still a lot of bombsites and reminders of the Blitz, but overall things seemed to be on the up. Rationing was a thing of the past finally and most men were now working. Apart from Albie, that was. He’d lasted all of a week when Queenie had forced him to take a job as a builder.

Music and fashion had changed too. The Teddy boy culture had begun to creep into society in the early fifties and had since caught on with many of the youngsters. The lads wore draped jackets and drainpipe trousers that looked too short, as you could see their socks. Their hair was greased back in an enormous quiff and on their feet they’d wear crepe-soled shoes. Clumsy-looking things they were. Vinny and Roy called them ‘Beetle Crushers’.

Teddy girls dressed slightly better. Especially the ones that wore tight pencil skirts and their hair in pretty plaits. Some wore rolled-up jeans, mind. Queenie hated seeing girls in jeans. Denim was so unfeminine; workmen’s trousers, so her mum reckoned.

Music had changed a lot too. There was a weekly chart now and record shops seemed to be popping up everywhere. Rock and Roll was all the rage, a sound adopted by the Teddy boys and girls. Lenny loved music, especially Rock and Roll, so Queenie and Viv had taken a shine to it too.

‘What you thinking about, Queen?’

‘How times flies. I can’t believe Vinny is fourteen tomorrow. I remember giving birth to my Baby Blue like it were yesterday. I hope he don’t become one of these bleedin’ Teddy boys when he leaves school.’

‘Nah, course he won’t. Your boys have too much class to follow silly fashions. I was thinking earlier, about Aunt Edna. I still miss her you know.’

As flashbacks of the Bethnal Green tube disaster entered Queenie’s thoughts, she quickly blanked them out. Viv had no idea of the real horror Queenie and their mum had endured that evening, and she never would.

Queenie stood up. ‘Right, I’m gonna wake Brenda and Lenny now and put me corned beef hash in the oven. The boys’ll be home from work soon and Christ knows where Michael is. Probably out with that new friend of his, Kevin.’