Before explaining my bad date, let me finish off the day in court.
Choosing a jury is a painfully slow process but as the details unfolded I found myself drawn into the case. It was a non-disclosure lawsuit involving a house bought by a couple, the plaintiffs, against the previous owner and his realtor over mould in the house. Before calling anyone up for the jury selection process, the attorneys said the case would last 14 days. This resulted in a stampede of people begging the judge to have their jury duty day rescheduled. I did not want to sit in the courthouse for two weeks listening to expert witnesses talk about mould but neither did I want to reschedule my day - I wanted to be excused as an unsuitable juror because that way I wouldn't have another call up for two years. When asked by the judge if I had any experience with mould I was honestly able to say that our home in West Marin is full of it and that I thought it was the norm in our neighbourhood, something to expect and deal with as well as one could. When it came time for the plaintiff's attorney to dismiss potential jurors, I was thanked and respectfully excused. Phew!
We have just watched the BBC series Mr Selfridge about Harry Gordon Selfridge and the department store he founded in London in 1909. Watching Mr Selfridge make an entrance through the front doors of his store or sweep down the stairs from his office to the ground floor, I pictured my great grandfather, John Garlick, in his department store, Garlick's.
For the past eight months I have been deeply immersed in John Garlick's old business records, reading letters over one hundred years old, making notes of important findings, photographing special documents, transcribing, editing, writing, thinking. With the help of the wonderful set in Mr Selfridge and the tantalising stories of the people working in that store, together with a growing collection of my great grandfather's achievements, I wake up each morning having dreamt about living in the early twentieth century. Hence 1913.
John Garlick arrived in Cape Town in 1872 when he was twenty. With an indefatigable energy and a sharp mind he blazed a trail across South Africa opening up a Garlick's in all major cities.
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| John Garlick with his wife, two daughters and a son about 1900 |
