The waywe heard: " Puppet on a String" 1967

Giuseppe 'Joe' Bertolini's ice cream parlour was at its busiest in April 1967 as a popular hangout for teenagers buying milkshakes, sodas and his excellent homemade gelato.

 

Yet those products were not the main attraction, nor was the recently installed Wurlitzer jukebox, but a pair of strapping young men serving excited females wearing miniskirts and knee-length boots, admiringly eyeing their muscular bodies.

 

The objects of this attention were Tommy and Alfie, Bertolini's nephews who had romantic notions.

 

It was Spring and, as Lord Tennyson said, a season in which “a young man's fancy lightly  turns to thoughts of love.”

 

The concept of love meant something different to the two boys, and this was problematic for Uncle Joe.

 

He and his wife Annunziata had raised his sister Teresa's sons, Tommaso and Alfredo, since they were infants and had been sent to him when the Mafia had killed her policeman husband in the Sicilian village of Montelepre and she had decided it was too risky for them to remain with her.

 

The youngsters soon adapted to their new surroundings and even anglicised their names to Tommy and Alfie.

 

The former was an obedient and gentle boy who wouldn't say boo to a goose, and who was also a compassionate person always ready to offer help to anyone in distress. 

 

Giuseppe 'Joe' Bertolini had reservations about whether a young adult,l like Tommy, who had grown up tied to his wife's apron strings would be able to cope in a tough environmentsuch as London, heavily  menaced by the underworld dominated by the Kray twins.

 

He thought that Tommy was naïve and a soft touch, liable to be manipulated by unscrupulous persns taking advantage of his good nature.

 

Alfie , on the other hand , was more resilient, streetwise and knew how to survive in a big city.

 

It was a sunny Spring and, as Lord Tennyson said, “In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.“

 

At the time the pair were  enjoying their newly-found freedom, but while Tommy was looking for a stable relationship, Alfie was  like a lothario, being promiscuous and more indiscriminate in his choices.

 

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“Haven't you found a girlfriend yet?” he would tease Tommy, “I already have three telephone numbers in my little  black book.”

 

He told his inexperienced brother of his method of establishing female companionship.

 

“The best places to go are the beauty and cosmetics sections of a department store which are always full of attractive assistants and gorgeous female clients. Pretend you are an interested customer and take it from there.”

 

He added that he had met a Scottish divorcee at the perfume counter of the Bourne and Hollingsworth store at the corner of Oxford Street and Berners Street. 

 

Tommy was perturbed by Alfie's insensitive behaviour but his  sibling insisted that there was never anycoercionn on his part and all relationships  were always consensual.

 

Thus assertion went some way towaeds asuaging his;in's conscience.

 

Though a lapsed Catholic, and not a church goer, the moral s tethics that Annunziata had taught him iduring his upbringing, still held firm.

 

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It was April 1967 and the sporting world was excited by the forthcoming Grand National steeple chase that offered betting people the choice of making a pile or losing one's shirt.

 

Alfie persuaded Tommy to 'imvest' a shilling on a nag.

 

Not knowing anything about the 'sport of kings', he just chose one at random.

 

At the end of the day he found himself richer by £5 as hi selection, Foinavon, had won at the odds of one100 to 1.

 

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The following Monday after Tommy's windfall, Alfie went off to meet his latest lady friend but before leaving, cautioned Tommy jokingly:

 

“Now, don't spend your money on slow horses and fast women.”

 

“As if,“ was the reply, “credit ne with some sense.”

 

The winnings weren't going to alter his lifesryle.

 

As usual, he bought the Daily Sketch and went to the Woolworth's upstairs cafeteria in Oxford Street for a pot of tea and a cake.

 

The room was overcrowded and the only table with spare seats was one where a young pretty girl was siiting.

 

Holding his tray, he shyly approached and politely asked her:

 

“Excuse me, miss, is that empty seat taken?”

 

She shook her head and he enquired if she minded him sitting there.

 

“No, not at all; please do,” she said smiling.

 

The ice was broken and and the conversation flowed.

 

Her name was Sandra and she was working as a filing clerk in a temp agency nearby but was about to enrol on a Pitman shorthand course.

 

At least she hoped to do that before the registration closed the next day.

 

Her parents had promised to transfer into her bank account the six guineas she needed for the first week's fee but so far she hadn't been notified and became distraught at the prospect

of a missed opportunity.

 

Tommy, instinctively, felt he had to help the poor girl.

 

“I may have the solution.“ he said and explained about the money he had won.

 

“Why don't I advance you the £5 that are b urning a hole in my pocket and you can reimburse me when your funds are restored?”

 

“Would you, really? You are a lifesaver. Look, this is the phone number of the agency where I work. Give me a call tomorrow and we'll arrange where to meet you to repay my debt.”

 

When he called the agency the next day, he was crestfallen to hear that she had been given 

a P45 and dismossed the previous week.

 

“Oh, weell, put it down to experience,” he said philosophically.

 

Perhaps he should have remembered Polomius's advice to his son Laertes:

 

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”

 

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The brothers had been helping at the cream parlour to pay their keep but, but needed regular employment and steady income. `

 

Italian restaurants and trattirias were flourishing in the English capital but there was a shortage of catering staff, so it wan't difficult to obtain permits.

 

 

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The Spaghrtti House in Goodge Street was an Italian, family-run restaurant renowned for its hand-made pasta, classic seafood dishes and traditional pizzas.

 

Its increased popularity necesstated, at times,  the employment of additional staff, permanent or casual. 

 

The restaurant catered for late night crowds, operating from noon till 11.30 PM or midnight.

 

That  suited our dynamic duo perfectly, with flexible mornings that left them plenty of free time with which to explore Soho, their stamping grounds.

 

Alfie made the most of the Swinging  London, frequenting coffee bars , night clubs  and getting to knpw mini-skirted girls shopping in Carnaby Street. 

 

He had hoped that Tommy would be seduced by the vibrant youth-driven atmsphere and come out of his shell, but his sibling was like a Don Quixote vainly looking for his Dulcinea.

 

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To be near their place of work, they needed somewhere to stay.

 

Alfie, conveniently, shacked up with Morag, his divorced lady  friend, in Fitzroy Street and Tommy found lodgings in Charlotte Street.

 

 

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“You can have the little room for £3 pounds a week or the large one for £5,” said Nrs. Kelly, the landlady.

It seemed like Hobson's choice to Tommy as in the little room there wasn't enough space to swing a cat. So he decided to go for comfort.

 

Mrs Kelly – you can call me Róisin, she said – gave him a rent book and stated that no overnight visitors were allowed.

 

She then listed the available facilities and said that currently, three beddrooms were occupied.

 

In two adjoining ones, on the ground floor, there were two air stewardesses, Olivia and Astrid.

 

On the second floor, Tommy's room was  next door to the vacant smaller boxroom, and adjacent to the one rented by Zohra, a young economic analyst working for the Civil Service.

 

Róisin was an inquisitive woman. She had sussed out that the air hostesses were gay  and slept together but rented two separate roons for appearance's sake.

 

The new attractive male tenant, would not be a sexual target to them.

 

Neither would he be, she thought, im any danger of the sort  from Zohra who seemed a shy, demure, and sensible girl who was alsp bespectabled which was a drawback, as Doeothy Parker had pointed out: “Mem seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.”

 

What she hadn't considered was that this was the swinging sixties.

 

Zohra was in fact an emancipated young woman who believed in 'sauce for the goose'

s far as sex was concerned.

 

She had tasted the forbidden fruit and liked it. (A lot).

 

So when she spotted the hunk who was her new neighbour she  envisaged a possible (pleasurable) fling.

 

But, was he sy or gay? He has mumbigly introduced himself to her and hurried away.

 

In fact Tommy was utterly heterosexual but eschewing casual intercourse.

 

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The first night that Tommy spent in Charlotte Street was unconvential.

 

Returning from work just befote midnight he met Astrid, one of the air syewatdesses. in the entrance hall.

 

After mutual introductions, she explained she was the only one in the house at the moment as Zohra was in Shropshire visiting her parents and Olivia was flying to Bali.

 

“We can keep each other company and watch  Top of the Pops on my new TV set. Sadie Shaw is on tonight singing the Eurovision song winner Puppet on a String.”

 

Tommy could hardly refuse this welconing offer by the neautiful, long-legged Swede.

 

They warched the boucing singere on the screen  with an applauding audience.

 

At the end of the programme, she went out of the room and came back with a trolley full of drink bottles.

 

”Duty free”, she said, “let's toast the artiste.”

 

Tommy was sure he could handle strong liquors as hu used to drink the Italian Grappa

but the outcome of the multitude of cocktails Astrid seved, the following morning he woke  up not knowing where he was.

 

“What happened?”, he asked Astrid who had just come out of the bathroom.

 

“Don't woorry. Notjing happened. You were so blotto that I had to pit you in my bed to sleep it off.

 

 

Zohra had gone to Shropshire, not see her parents but to meet her boyfriend ` `Rupert, to spend a night of passion with him.

 

They didn't see each other often. He worked in Shrewsbury and she in London. So intimacy was infriquent. 

 

When she returned to Charlotte Street and saw

the new tenant's muscular phisique she thought her prayers had been answered. 

Here was the chance of an occasional fling.

 

Meeting her was Tommy's epiphany. She was the girl of his dreams. Being next door to her gave him the opportunity to know her better.

 

This developed quicker than he anticipated thanks to a cunning stratagem she'd devised.

 

She waited in the communal kitchenette on the first floor, wearing a silken negligee, and started cooking a chicken curry in a wok roundabout the time of hid return from work.

 

Climbing the stairs, the first thing he saw was the shape of her body inside the nightgown; then his nostrils inhaled the smell of the food.

 

Tommy said he had never tasted curry and Zohra offered to share some of hers.

 

After the meal, the conversation flowes. He related the embarrasment of his drunken night and she laughed hilariously.

 

“You didn't, did you?”, she asked.

 

“No, nothing happened”, he replied.

 

“I wouldn't be so sure. You may have been taken for a ride. Those two want to get pregnant and lare desperate for a sperm domor”

 

“You wouldn't have that problem with me”, sfe said boldly, “I am on the pill. My mother got me one.”

 

She chanced it: “You can spend the night with ne, nostrings attached.”

 

He was surprised by Zohra's bluntnessbut was  so smitten that he could hardly say no, hoping she would commit to a serious relationship.

 

She still saw Rupert, who her family wished her to marry, but she was relucyant to put an end to the aaffair with Tommy that statisfird her sexual urges.

 

The problem was that he had started to hint at  marriage, preferably in the Utalian church in Clerkenweell with the sevice conducted by Don Mario, a friend of Uncle Joe.

 

She had enjoyed a great deal of physical gratification from her liaison with this Italian stallion but having to give up her career to raise a family with the possibility of deveral bambinos was too great a price to pay.

 

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“Her company offered her a promotion and a transfer to the North of England and had to leave right away”, Mrs, Kelly told Tommy who had emquired about her next door neighbour's prlonged absence. The last thing Zohra had told him was that she was going to see her parents for a couple of weeks.

 

He could not believe that she had left him in the lurch but what hurt most was that she hadn't  even had the guts to send him a Dear John letter.

 

Desolate, he went to the Trattoria Alpinain Tottenham Court Road where Alfie and Morag were having lunch, to tell them the sad news.

 

When he entered the place, Alfie was at the bar drinking a double espresso corretto; Morag was by the jukebox which was belting out Puppet on a String,

 

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