Louis' uncle Abraham owned a grocer on White Horse Lane, opposite Stepney Green Station. Louis and a friend used to help out after school with weighing sugar. Sugar would usually be put into blue bags and they would get a half-penny every 100 bags they filled.

Over Pesach, the chamutz would be put in one corner and it would be covered before the Rabbi came to bless the shop (you had to pay him a crown to do so.) For Pesach, the sugar bags became pink and they would receive a full penny for every 100 bags.

During the war, the family were evacuated to Reading and Louis would commute back to London to continue attending school at the Central Foundation School