The Big Day

I awoke very early on Tuesday morning, after a restless night. No news. Well, no news is good news! We had a quick breakfast, when suddenly - shock - a telegram arrived from New York. “MR Z JAFFE... FLIGHT IS CANCELED. WILL BE IN LONDON.”

My mind was in a whirl. In my imagination I was already shepherding the 118 tearful and weeping passengers back from the airport. The £4,300 paid to the airlines was already lost, and I was being sued by everyone for false pretenses and for the return of their money. Then I realized that the sender of the telegram was a Rabbi Halpern, who had been expected to arrive from New York with greetings and good wishes from the Rebbe. He was letting me know that his flight was canceled, not ours!

By the time I revived, it was nearly 9:00 a.m. It was now the arranged time for Bus No. 1 to call at our home for our family and friends of Cavendish Road who had congregated outside. When - shock number two - the bus ordered from the Premier Cabs not only arrived, but came exactly on time!

Up with the luggage and call for Rabbi and Mrs. Unsdorfer on our way to Parksway. We hustled them in, and were a quarter of a mile away, when we had to return. In the excitement, the Unsdorfers had left the front door of their unoccupied house wide open!

From then onward things went almost according to plan. The three buses picked up all the passengers, and, after the usual delays and waiting for latecomers, we were really on our way.

For the occasion of this trip, we printed special bentcher booklets to be distributed to all the passengers. On the front cover of the bentchers was a place to write in the name of the passenger, it was thus also used as a passenger “ticket.”

At the airport, all was chaos and excitement. Crowds came to see us off;  perhaps they could not believe we were actually on our way. I introduced myself to the representatives of the Flying Tiger and the BEA [British European Airways] and, with their help and cooperation, it did not take too long to weigh the baggage and check in the travelers. By 11:45 a.m. it was confirmed that everyone had gone through, and we congratulated each other on a job done well and quickly.