Binder2

If only I had known then what I know today, poor Len would have had no need to constantly tell
me that nowadays in our politically correct twenty first century world that I would be in prison for
child abuse, citing the occasions when I got mad after he caused some fracas in the house and he
ran out of the house and I followed chasing him around the streets of Salford 7 in the pouring rain,
brandishing a big stick like a swashbuckling musketeer and shouting “wait till I get you home and
y’dad hears about this- he’ll have something to say to you !! Or when I banished him to the cellar
(basement) for fighting with his siblings, or snatching and breaking their toys or literally breaking
up the happy home during one of his tantrums. No, at this stage he was not two – more like
twelve. I did feel I was on the wrong side of religion and would never go to heaven, when my very
sweet unmarried, church going, humanistic, cat loving neighbour –Miss(ed) Wedlock knocked on
the door one day and suggested I let him back in the house. So embarrassing!
Yet for all that, nobody could persuade me that my parenting skills would produce a socially
misguided deranged, maniacal destroyer and loud-mouthed misfit. I was right. Instead he
transformed into caring loving son, brother, uncle, husband and father as well as a successful
highly commended international medical sales representative that has been his profession for the
past thirty years. Yet, he still displays stubbornness, loudness and quick-tempered characteristics
as his childhood personality suggested.
From Left to right:
Leonard, about 8 months in his
pram being grumpy, Len, the sailor,
Lenny the businessman.
Martin - Mart
There is only a 14 months age difference between Leonard and Martin. From the above
description you might be right to think that, as the time grew closer to the birth of number two
son, I was somewhat anxious about how I was going to cope with a double dose of the nurturing
nightmare I had been experiencing the previous year. However, apart from humour to soften one’s
journey through life, you also need a bit of luck and I was blessed with both. Martin was a quiet
sweet baby with fat rosy cheeks and narrow slit eyes who adored his older brother with whom he
played nicely until Len began to torment him. Martin ate all his food and was able to entertain
himself with toys when left alone. This continued through his youth, unlike Leonard Martin knew
how to be occupied alone in his own world keeping himself busy. He loved reading and making
models from ‘Airfix’ kits he made war ships, airplanes, trains and historical figurines. Basically he
was an “easy” baby but also he was quite shy with people other than the family and this is an
attribute associated with “slow to warm up” temperament babies. They are usually comfortable
left with other people to care for them once they have adjusted to them and also the same when
they are introduced to a new environment. On the whole they are ‘people person’. Unfortunately
Leonard had a bad reputation at school, this meant that Martin was starting school at a
disadvantage. When he was asked his name, a horrified infant teacher screamed” Oh! No! Not
another Deitch!” I suppose that could have psychologically injured Martin if he heard this or felt it
coming off the teacher’s attitude. Perhaps that is what transformed him later into a shrewd,
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