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32 — Joy Collins, born in 1920, recalls working in her father’s milk business during the War, and some of the town characters:

“Well I used to just go out on my bike, in, oh, I don’t know what — I was interested in, boys probably, biking around. They were nice boys; a lot of them have died in the War — I lost a lot of my friends in the War, a shame it was. I was nineteen when the War started, and all the boys of that age had to go in the army whether they wanted to or not, and if I hadn’t have been in the milk shop I would have been sent somewhere I suppose, and I went and tried to get out of it ‘cos we had had this argument about all this milk an
that , and I was fed up and they wouldn’t have me, so when the War ended I married Cuth Collins and went to live up Evesham Road, and I have lived there till I came here.
There were quite a few characters about: there was Billy Lock, he used to go round shouting what was on at night, and Tonight’s the Night, seven fifteen at such and such a place; and there was another one that used to go round getting stuff for his rabbits — that was Harry Hopcroft. Just a bit simple weren’t they, but they got about the streets, I don’t think they were dangerous or anything. We did have one nasty man who lived in Albany Road, I’ve forgotten his name and he came into the playground once chasing us all round, forget his name, but there were a lot of characters in Stratford.�

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