The start of new business career

WELCOME BACK TO ALL MY GG FANS! THE STORY CONTINUES...

We started married life in a lovely new apartment in North West London. I was just 20yrs old and totally unprepared for housewife duties.
The first disaster was when I almost set fire to our home by laying a tea towel across the top of the oven and when it caught fire I waved it out of the window while phoning Tony at work, which was almost 2 hours drive away!

Looking back this was a difficult time of adjustment and I saw little of my new husband who worked in the East End of London with his father in the packaging business, but I was still keeping busy with my hairdressing and enjoying my work.  

After just 2 years of marriage, we were called in the middle of the night from Tony's brother to be told that his dear dad had passed away with a massive heart attack at the age of 55yrs old.
We were all devastated and although I hadn't known his dad for long I too felt so much grief at the loss of this jolly big happy man with a wonderful sense of humour. Tony's dad Harold had begged me to stand by Tony through all our broken engagements, he told me that I would be the best thing for Tony and he wanted to see us together.
Fortunately, he lived to see us married, but now Tony was left to take on the responsibility of his mother, brother, and married sister all who depended on the family business.

Tony was always car crazy and very business minded, so before his dad's death he had partnered with a friend in a 2nd hand car business, they had leased garage in Chiswick South London, and I used to work on the petrol pumps in a mini skirt so when people came in to buy petrol I was the feature, bending over on the end pump! That was Tony's idea, of course, to drum up business.

I had also taken on a new role of becoming a sales rep for a false eyelash company owned by my friends husband. I took a break from hairdressing and used to go out to designated areas and sell the eyelashes to chemist shops.
I was told in no uncertain terms to only open ONE account in each area, but I was on commission so I ignored that rule, and 'Cardinelli' eyelashes was in every chemist shop on the high street in my area.
I would go marching off in my fur mini coat with my long false eyelashes fluttering them at all the chemist owners, they all took the product on of course!
I think that was the start of my entrepreneurship!

I even remember visiting my dad in his taxi shelter in Knightsbridge in London's West End dressed in my mini fur coat & false eyelashes with high boots to tell him that he had become a grandfather for the first time, my sister had given birth to her first son Elliot and in those days there were no mobile phones and certainly no 'Face Time' to deliver the news!

The taxi shelters in London were only for the cabbies to sit in and have their food, so when I marched in my poor dad was surprised, to say the least!
Years later after my dad had passed away an old friend of my parents found an article in the Evening Standard newspaper magazine called 'London at Work', in this magazine there was a picture of a London taxi shelter and low & behold there was my dad sitting with all his friends. We were so thrilled to have this momento (see below) to remember our dad.

Tony oversaw the building of a new factory which he and his dad had planned, and this fabulous building opened in the early 70's. Life continued and in 1972 we moved to a small bungalow in the country. This made the journey even longer for Tony to get to the factory, but we both fell in love with it and I had started mobile hairdressing by this time, driving to my clients and leaving them under the hairdryer while I drove to the next one.
During this time I had left my best friends mum under the hairdryer in her home and had driven to the next client to comb out her hair.
On the way back, driving the car that Tony had 'lent' me from the stock of second hand cars he and his partner had acquired, I stopped to buy something from a shop and was arrested by the police for driving a vehicle with false plates on it.
I asked if I could make a phone call to my husband because it was obviously a mistake, and when I spoke to Tony he said there was nothing he could do as he was 2 hours away and I would have to deal with it!  
So I told the policeman I had a client under the hairdryer and I had to get back and comb out her hair and started crying (that always works!)  Anyway, they released me and my friend's mum got her hair finished.
  
Unfortunately that was not a lucky car for me as I almost killed my mother & I when the brakes failed, so finally Tony bought me a fancy Jaguar and at 22 yrs old I was driving around in this huge car which was far to flash for a cab drivers daughter!

We had been married for 4 years when I decided it was time to take yet another decision out of Tony's hands and become pregnant. I had realised by now that there was no point in asking him whether he was ready because he would never be so I made the decision for him!
After gaining 5 stone in my pregnancy, probably because I lived on doughnuts and bags of crisps, I gave birth to a beautiful daughter Katie Hannah Commissar on December 27th, 1974. I was in 7th heaven, I had a little girl...OMG! that's all I ever wanted.
If I ever had any doubts about making this decision for my husband they were soon dissipated after I witnessed the total love he felt for his little girl Katie. From the minute she could say 'dada' he fell hopelessly in love with his daughter and still is to this day.

So here I was a young mum of 24yrs old living in the country and actually not working, which is probably the only time in my life that I didn't work. I loved this time of being a mummy and dressing Katie up like a doll walking her down the country lanes in her large pram, and I shared this time with close friends who also had babies, while Tony continued to work at the factory.
My parents visited from Canada to see their first, and what was to be their only granddaughter.

In 1976 we moved to North West London to a beautiful family home. My parents had immigrated to Canada by now and after a few years my mother was desperately homesick and wanted to see more of her younger daughter so they came back to the UK and my dad continued to drive a London taxi. That didn't last long and before long they moved to Miami Florida.
My sister had moved to Miami from Canada and had settled into a new life with her 2 beautiful boys, we could only keep in touch by sending each other cassette tapes through the post. There was no way we could phone each other in those days, and there certainly wasn't 'Face Time'.
I missed my only sibling, but we both had such busy lives bringing up our families that we settled for the one trip a year that we, as a family, took to Miami each Xmas for years to come.

Life continued in our beautiful new home in Mill Hill N.W London and before long I discovered that I could sew, so Tony bought me a fancy computerised sewing machine, and I would sew until the early hours of the morning making accessories for Katie's new bedroom. I created lovely tissues box covers and waste bin covers and I used to take them to the school gates and sell them to the other mums.
My friend Sharon used to help me with this and between us, we created a little business. We also created another business called 'Sweet Treats' another USA idea. I had bought chocolate moulds in the US in the shape of a penis and a pair of boobs! We would melt milk chocolate into these moulds and freeze them then make up a basket of goodies with penises for the girls and boobs for the boys often blowing up and filling a Durex with smarties, and filling a urinal with sweets, then we wrapped them in cellophane and tied them with bows. We would sell them for hospital gifts and stag parties and for all sorts of occasions.
We had the best time carrying out this business in the garden shed but never made any money from it, but we didn't care! Everyone got used to opening my fridge and seeing giant chocolate penises, and some time mini penises, along with white chocolate boobs with red nipples sitting on the shelf!

WE'RE OFF...... JACKIE'S FIRST BUSINESS VENTURE

THE BIRTH OF 'THE LITTLE HOUSE ON THE BROADWAY'

My dad being very creative used to send me ideas from the USA to copy in the UK, and one of these ideas was a child's bedroom that looked like a little house. The wardrobes had a roof and windows with little curtains on them. I copied this idea and created a gorgeous bedroom for Katie and it wasn't long before friends asked if I could create a bedroom like this for them.
The first bedroom I did for a friend was a massive hit, I had found a young carpenter who was very talented and a lady who could sew and make curtains. Between us, we started a business along with my Sweet Treat friend Sharon, and we were getting fantastic recommendations. We even made some accessories for a shop supplying Lady Diana.

It was now 1979 and I was ready to make the second decision for my husband and give him another child. Another 5 stone went on and on the 17th September 1979 I gave birth to a beautiful 8lb 9oz gorgeous GINGER baby boy.
We took 3 weeks to name this new little addition to our family, and finally decided on Robert Simon Commissar.
I was totally in love with this new little man in my life and we created a very special bond which is still there to this day,
a bond only a mother & son can have.

I continued to work at my little interior design business after Rob was born, and when he was old enough to go to nursery school I found myself with more time to work at building the business up.
Before we knew it my business had taken off and when, very reluctantly, Tony decided to close the factory because of the recession in the early 80's we both decided to work together and open a small shop which we called 'The Little House on the Broadway' because it was in Mill Hill Broadway NW7.
We supplied fabrics and wallpaper and started to make handmade window treatments and bedspreads etc.
We would close the shop at 3pm so I could be at home for the children and after they went to bed I would continue to sew at home still creating accessories for the shop.
  
The business was growing and within 2 years we had expanded to a larger shop nearby and a second shop premises next door which we used as a curtain workshop.

By this time my dad had opened his own business in Florida selling a unique vertical blind product. These blinds were called 'Chanel Panel' and they were to become a large part of our interior design business. This part of the business was run by Tony. We would find fabric to match a room in a house and back it with a stiff backing, then this would be cut to fit and slide into each vertical panel so that when the blinds closed the design on the fabric would show up. We were able to make these blinds to enhance any room and they were especially effective in children's bedrooms where we could display cartoon characters or football pictures with printed fabrics.
Tony used to make up these blinds and install them. 'Rainbow Verticals' was now born, our new window treatment business to compliment our interior design business.
Before we knew it we became specialists in window treatments, designing and supplying clients with beautiful curtains and blinds. We had a great team and a wonderful curtain fitter. My curtain maker and I taught ourselves how to create the latest fashion in window treatments, and to this day she is one of the top curtain makers for interior designers in London. We still have clients who have our curtains hanging in their homes three decades later.

We then expanded into designing show flats and were retained by some very big clients to design and furnish their homes. One client, in particular, spent over £500,000 with us on their home and they were thrilled with the final result. We were expanding daily and Tony & I were a perfect team. Tony would work with measurements of the premises and the business side dealing with the costings and accounts. I was the flamboyant designer creating fabulous rooms in houses and flats, we complemented each other perfectly.

This was the start of my business career, I loved the excitement and the challenge of creating ideas and offering them to our clients. I loved working with people and integrating with them in their homes. Many of them became friends and are still my friends to this day. They trusted me and that was a huge compliment. Even though I was not a fully trained interior designer, I knew I had a flair for transforming rooms and I was confident that I could beautify and improve every home I was given.

This was just the start!

Loads more to come........See you next blog!