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After leaving school she attended Pitman’s College, but didn’t learn much spending most of her time talking for which she was often told off She was even put among the boys as punishment for this talking this only resulted in the boys being told off too for the same reason.

She was put with a boy called Richard Biffa. He asked her if she knew what BSA meant? Her answer was “It’s a motor bike but he denied this and said it stood for ‘Bloody Sore Arse’. The teacher saw us laughing and said “You’re talking again, now tell me what you have been talking about!” Well she couldn’t tell her, could she? So I was taken up to the Headmistress who told me to write it down,

Well being a dunce she wrote, ‘Bluddy saw ars’. She looked at it and said, “I don’t think you know much about it”. She knew what it meant all right. She also knew Richard Biffa has made a lot of money with his dustcarts. Since he left school.

This was a successful family business. The Biffas were a big family. Each member brought their earnings to their mother every night. When she had counted it she paid them their pocket money and saved the rest. It did not take long before she had enough saved to buy another lorry. As Wembley grew so the company grew. That family became one of the richest in the country. Dorothy always thinks of Richard when she sees one of his Fleet of lorries with the BIFFA name on its side.

Charles Pass Dorothy’s grandfather did not celebrate or enjoy life much, Once when he was ill he went to Bognor Regis and stayed with his wife’s family. When he had gone everybody shot off to the fair in Wembley. Dorothy’s father was too afraid to go; knowing my grandfather would not like the shop left unattended. Her two uncles spent most of their time at the pub, too much time according to her mother. Uncle Ted used to tour the villages finishing up at a pub in Watford. He had a little white dog who would sit on the horses’ back and when he saw her uncle coming, would sit in the seat and the horse took her uncle home. It was a long way from Watford to Wembley, but the horse took him home. So you see those two drank a lot and left the work to Dorothy’s Dad.

The two uncles did not live on the premises so were not under grandfather’s thumb like her father. Her father was a very sensitive, quiet man and that was why he got on all right with his wife, for she could flared up like all Welsh people do. She protected her husband and tried to get him to stand up for himself. But he was very much afraid of his father.

Dorothy did not know just how kind dad had been until he died. It was only then that so many people said things like, “I owed Mr. Pass three pence”, or, “I owed Mr. Pass a shilling, what shall we do without him?” Her father had to collect the rents for his father. He built some shops, with flats over them, on a piece of waste ground where he used to keep his horses. My father always seemed to be worried I don’t know why this should be.

Horses were kept to pull the cart. Her father used to deliver the oil once a week and her uncles used the delivery cart as well. Two horses were kept for this and she remembers hearing them kicking in the night, their stables were below her bedroom. She was never aloud to ride in the cart, how she would have loved too.

In those days One walked everywhere, although we used the train if we went out on a Sunday. They would walk to Sudbury Town station get the train for Eastcote Halt.

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