Marjorie Edith Hindley

Memories of Marjorie

Marjorie Hindley (5/10/10 – 10/8/2014) Marjorie was the youngest of three sisters (in later years to be called the three graces) born to Cecilia and George Pearce in the quiet village of St. Leonard on Sea near Hastings on the south coast of England. The family moved to a more animated London shortly thereafter, not realizing Germany would bomb England using Zeppelins (Jan. 1915 first zeppelin over England) and planes. She remembered her dad carrying her to the underground when there was bombing. They lived in a home in the mews (a group of private stables that were often converted into apartments) where her dad kept his horse and carriage. He was a coachman during the end of the horse and carriage days. Cars horns scared horses and he had an accident when he was pulled off his carriage which rolled over him. That was the end of his coachman days. They then moved to #6 Garlinge Rd. in the suburbs of London which was a house split up into several apartments. As a countryman he kept chickens and had a vegetable garden to aid in the war effort. Although in later years she regretted leaving school at 14, Marjorie wanted to help contribute to the family income. Her first job was in a shop where they made and sold hats. She and her sister Kath worked together there. Among other things, her first task was picking up pins; later on she learned other skills and was very proud of her even stitching on a treadle sewing machine. Notably, they once made a hat for the Queen Mother. Dancing was Marjorie’s favorite pastime. She told stories about dancing around the dining room table, learning eurhythmics in school (the art of interpreting in bodily movements the rhythm of musical compositions) and many, many social dances in the 1920s and 30s. She lived to dance. At Meriter Hospital this past summer, she was asked if she knew the Charleston. Sitting in a wheel chair, her feet immediately started the steps with plenty of animation. She often wished she had a dance partner, even after she turned 100. She met her future husband, Oliver, at a dance in 1937 and was married on May 27th, 1939. They honeymooned in France and returned to London just before WWII started in September, 1939. She lived in Hammersmith (London), owned her own florist shop and worked in an air raid shelter. Oliver’s boss at the weekly newspaper, “The Engineer”, moved the entire office to Beccles (on the North Sea) to be safe from the bombing but saw a German submarine periscope off the beachhead. Back to London they went but Oliver’s parents were now living in their apartment so they bought a dairy farm in Icklesham (near Hastings). The farm house was originally two thatched cottages that were converted into one. Oliver commuted 60 miles by train everyday to work in London leaving the farm to the estate manager and Marjorie. With German prisoners of war providing labor, they ran the farm. Marjorie grew mushrooms in the oast house (a place originally designed for drying hops) and took them to market; walking up the road to the bus stop, and taking the bus to Hastings where they were put on the train to London. After the war and Jane’s birth Oliver was sent to the United States by his newspaper to write engineering articles based on postwar America. He liked it so much that he stayed in California and had Marjorie sell the farm, leave her family, sail to New York, and take a train to Berkeley, California. She did this even though she was a woman who was used to being led rather than leading and with a two year old in tow. While living in the East Bay Marjorie helped keep the books for the fledgling Oliver Imported Cars (although she did say the accountant asked how long she was going to be doing this) and took care of her family. There were several moves including an adobe house in Walnut Creek and many personal accomplishments. She was an excellent cook, knitted beautiful sweaters, made more dresses than she could count, enjoyed gardening, painting and even attempted sculpture with a bust of Oliver. She told a funny story about her stamp collecting days. Collectors use a stamp lift consisting of a plastic box with felt in the top and bottom and a tray in the middle to place the envelope and stamp on. When the felt pads were dampened the humidity eased the stamp off the paper. Oliver bought a dining room table while on a trip to England and had it shipped back to the US. Unfortunately the stamp lift left a white water mark on the table. Marjorie was not happy about telling Oliver what happened. When he came home she told him she had accidently left a white mark quite close to where he had left a cigarette burn. What could he say? Life moved on and after Oliver died in Sonoma in 1987 Marjorie moved to Wisconsin to be with her family. Highlights were watching her grandchildren growing up, playing bridge and making friends at the Middleton Senior Center, a trip to Australia at age 84 including a hot air balloon ride, a trip at 97 to England for her sister Kath’s one hundredth birthday, a party at her one hundredth birthday with a card from Queen Elizabeth II, going to college graduations and weddings, and dancing with Greg Fritz at Ben’s wedding at age 100. While Marjorie considered her life to be quite “ordinary”, she lived through extraordinary times from the horse and carriage to seeing a man on the moon. She thought of herself as commonplace but was really exceptional. She was multitalented and touched more lives than she ever would have thought by “always being nice to everyone”. She was a loving daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt, and grandmother.