Impressed by hair apparent

WAITING for a train at Bow Road station, mid-morning. Only three or four people on the platform, in the light and shade of the pillars; and this young man walked up and down eyeing me. The way things are now . . . I was thinking what to do if he attacked... » MORE

Picture told a story

AFFABLE young man, eighteen or thereabout. Don t know where he was from – English pretty fluent but with room for improvement. After Good Morning on two or three occasions he told me he was taking a commercial course; named the college. It used to be a sc... » MORE

We had a lotta bottle

ABOUT the end of the war my sister, having had a year s commercial course at Clark s College, worked in the office of the Milk Vessels Recovery Co. The place was at Tottenham Hale and their business, as indicated, was rounding-up milk bottles. How did the... » MORE

Whacks got a caning

THERE S a daily newspaper feature in which readers send in questions, answers to be supplied by other readers. Somebody wrote asking what became of Eric Wildman and his society for the Retention of Corporal Punishment in Schools. Good heavens! I went to s... » MORE

A vicious circle to square

ONE afternoon about seventeen years ago, my car and I were brought home by the breakdown service on one of its trucks. The driver was a young fellow of twenty or so, and he talked about the district – outskirts of London – where he lived. He said his soci... » MORE

A juicy tale on menu

IN transit, as part of the machinery of the system, I was in this hospital for one night only. In the morning a lady came to the door of the little room and asked me: What would you like for breakfast? I said: Since you put it like that – scrambled egg... » MORE

Finger points at you

A MAN named Ron told me this, thirty-three years ago. He was a musician in a circus. He had a passion for the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and when I stayed with the show he d call out verses to me each time we passed: The moving finger writes and, having w... » MORE

Sacking on the cards...

ON deciding to leave a job forthwith, the phrase was Gimme my cards , sometimes elaborated to cards and coppers . What cards? They were the Unemployment Insurance and Health Insurance cards which, before the NHS, every person working for a wage or salar... » MORE

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