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since when has she been going out with him?” That sort of scandal was their pleasure in those days. As soon as they saw my grandfather coming round the corner in his top hat they would scraper for they were not supposed to be in his bedroom but it was the best room to see the street.

She could remember the Muffin Man but she did not recall the lamplighters. There must have been a lamplighter because she could remember swinging around |lamp posts with a piece of rope.

While her Mum and Dad were working a girl called Winnie looked after my brother and myself. However when Dorothy was six months old Winnie left to get married. It broke her mother’s heart for she was so good, so kind and so lovely. Winnie would push Dorothy in my pram outside the shop, but she was told that she screamed all the time. On one occasion Winnie saw a young family in the sweet shop opposite, she called to them and asked them to take the baby out, she must have been desperate. They agreed and went off to get their parents’ consent.

They rushed down the street and asked, “Can we take Mrs. Pass’s baby out?” Their mother consented and told them to bring the little darling here. Dorothy went there every Saturday after that and was very spoilt.

There were three girls and one boy in the family. One girl has recently died but the others are still alive and I am still friendly with them. Dorothy still visits them and exchange cards until she died. They took Dorothy out on Saturdays until I went to school. She remembers going into Mrs. Tooms next door to get half an ounce of Shag for her father. Mrs Tooms would take a stool out and I would weigh it and wrap up. Then Dorothy would go to Mrs. Briggs the butcher; she had a huge old ledger, which she would let her scribble in.

Occasionally she went across the road the Mrs. Apple the greengrocers so you see she did the rounds. They all used to look after Dorothy. When she went to school she had to walk over a mile. They all came home for lunch of course walking back again for the afternoon session before returning home in the evening.

Dorothy didn’t like school, She thought herself a dunce. The Headmistress tried to teach her to hem. She had to hem a dirty old piece of cloth. It got dirty under her dirty hands anyway! She said, “This girl is no good. I have taught all her cousins, brothers and sisters, but I have never met one like this one. Dorothy couldn’t learn then and can’t learn now. She couldn’t remember things like adding up or subtract! This was quite a handicap for a shopkeeper!

Nowadays the till does it all for you! She was able to add up and give the right change but that was about all. She was able to read, and spend her whole life reading, She learnt to read when she was four. She used to read books under the desk when she was supposed to be learning geography, history, or maths. Discipline at school came in the form of smacks. The girls rolled up their sleeve and had their arm smacked. The boys had to lean over and have their bottom smacked. She didn’t remember being smacked I think she managed to avoid it each time!

After her mother bought the house Dorothy left Miss. Rolands school and went to Park Lane School for a short while before changing for the New school at Wembley Hill, The school was first called Wembley Hill school but later this became Copeland School.

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