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An Oral History 1985-2015
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<blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 115806" data-attributes="member: 22"><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><u>1960</u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo on the sixties: I hated that decade, all that love and peace. I could have punched all of them.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dot Cotton: Walford in the sixties and seventies, it was rough. It was dirty, rundown.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline Fowler: It just felt safer then.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dot: You had Arthur, you had Pete, you had Kenny. And Lou. They was looking out for you.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Johnny Allen: Let a lady walk home on her own? My old man would spin in his grave. It's the way I was brought up.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Cora Cross: There was a time when the East End was full of men like that, proper East End gents like Derek [Branning], men in their prime, men getting involved — principles, loyalty, guidance — like it or lump it. You can call that arrogance if you like, sexist. I call it manners — arm across the road and a nice drop of malt whiskey, just like our dads, protecting his nearest and dearest.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline: I was a real baby. [Lou] was ever so strict. All them rules, like "Don't come in late".</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Lou to Pauline: You and Pete were home by 8 o'clock or you got a good hiding.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline: I didn't even have a steady boyfriend. Just used to listen to Radio Luxembourg and dream about Paul Anka. I didn't have anyone that mattered, not until [Arthur] and even he didn't matter at first</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pete Beale: Do you remember skiffle, the old washboards? I had one of those, Mum's from under the stairs.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Rose Chapman: Were you gonna be a —</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pete: Pop star? Well, you know what kids are. I imagined myself driving around in an open top Chevy. Most people have dreams when they're young. First, I wanted to be singer or something in show business. Then I got it into me head I'd run off and be a Redcoat. Silly things, really.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pete: I once spent a week at Butlin's, you know, with Billy Fury. Well, I had a drink with him at the bar. Signed [my shirt cuff], as it happens.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Terry Raymond: I was quite a mover. Twist, Jive — did it all, me. I was runner up at Butlin's when I was only thirteen. Second best though, see. Not good enough. "Nothing to shout about, son. Second best."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Terry on his father: Just ignored you, let you know that he was not impressed. I kept trying, kept thinking that if I could make him proud then he'd like me. That's stupid. Stupid little kid I was.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Lou on Pete: He used to be very good [at football]. I remember him in long shorts.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Colin Russell: Dr Legg used to be a ref, Walford and District League. He used to be nicknamed the Sergeant Major. He sent four players off in a game once.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dr Legg: There was never any nonsense when I was about.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Kenny Beale to Den: Remember that time you broke your arm playing football? Took five of us to hold you down just to get you into casualty.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Frank Butcher: When I played [football], it was in working men's boots. Probably why I was no good at it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Frank: When I was a young man, I was always well turned out.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Frank: I used to think all my life that I was different, I was a bit special - I was Frank Butcher, no-one quite like me.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Frank: I'm eighteen years old walking down the high street in my Italian suit - "Have some of that!"</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Patrick Trueman: Yeah man, a whole half hour to shine my shoes and then new socks, new shirt, tie to match, and a suit specially made. And the trousers? Man, the seam - sharp like a knife! And I’m walking on Ladbroke Grove, man, feeling like the King of England. Back then, didn’t have a care on the world.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Frank: When I was [eighteen], there weren't one single day went by when I didn't find something to be happy about.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: I used to be good at arm wrestling. Remember that time I beat you when we went to Margate?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: You never.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: August Bank Holiday, 1960.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: In your dreams.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: I blooming well slaughtered her!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat, looking at a white two piece swimsuit: I used to have a bikini just like that one.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Shirley Carter: I bet that was a sight.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: It was very alluring, actually.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo on Pat: Used to ponce about in this fake fur coat.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: It weren’t fake.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: Made her look like a washed up old trollop.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: I had the looks, the pick of the boys, and what did you have? An old lock up full of knock offs.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat to Big Mo: You've always been jealous of my assets.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo to Pat: You were jealous because we were happy and you weren't, because I was a girl from a home where three families shared an outside khazi and then all of a sudden I was doing OK.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Yeah, because of Jimmy.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: Yeah, because of Jimmy. That's what you couldn't handle. He married me and you weren't centre stage no more.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: All right, maybe I was a bit jealous.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: A bit?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: And maybe I'd had a bellyful of having my nose rubbed in it about how wonderful a life youse two had.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Barry Evans: Aged eighteen, Peggy met a man who really knocked her for six. It was Eric Mitchell, also known as...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy: The Bruiser from Bow.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Barry: A local boxer who could have been a contender, he certainly thought Peggy was a knock out.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Stacey Slater, looking at an old photograph of Peggy: You were really beautiful.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy: I had my moments. You remind me of myself when I was your age [eighteen] — cocky, think you know it all. I had spirit.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Archie Mitchell speaking in 2009: We’ve known each other for forty odd years, Peggy, and we’ve always understood each other.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy on Archie: He takes my breath away. He always did, even before [Eric]. One look from him and I’d go weak at the knees. I tell you something, if he’d have made his move, [Phil], Grant and Sam, [they]’d never have existed.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Archie to Peggy: I love you. I always have.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy on Archie: All he ever did was charm me.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Ronnie Mitchell, Archie’s daughter: He was probably working on you then, wasn’t he? Getting ready to pounce.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy on Archie: For all his charm, he was never the most reliable of blokes.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Archie on himself as a young man: Bit mixed up, full of potential.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy: Same old Archie, always hoping for the best.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy to Archie: I can always remember you wheeling and dealing, knowing what to say and when to say it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Glenda Mitchell, Archie’s future wife: Peggy Martin — the woman that every man wanted, including Archie, but Eric snapped you up first.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Johnny Allen to Peggy: You were wasted on Eric Mitchell. How he ever got a woman like you ...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Archie to Peggy: For a while I tried hating you. I couldn’t forgive you for choosing Eric.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy on Carnaby Street: I remember when I came down here just before my first date with Eric. I had my eye on this little tiny Mary Quant dress. It was November. It didn’t go past my thigh. I was freezing but I didn’t care. I just wanted to impress him.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Well let’s be honest, when we used to dress up in them days it wasn’t so we’d feel good about ourselves, it was so we’d look good for the blokes.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy to Phil: I remember when I was courting your father. He was all moody the minute I stopped him fiddling with me suspender belt, but it all turned out for the best in the end because that's when he started to take me seriously, and the fact that he learned to respect me was what made me fall in love with him.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Barry: It was 1960 and London would soon be swinging. Eric proposed. Do you remember exactly where you were when he popped the question?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy: Oh yeah, on the terraces at Upton Park.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Harry Slater: 1960? Me and Charlie could have been there then.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy on a charm bracelet: My Aunt Flo, who I loved very much, gave it to me when I got engaged.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy: I was not afraid of anything. If I'd have known what was ahead, I'd have thought twice.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy: If I’d known what my first husband Eric was like, I don’t think I’d have gone through with it. Oh, but then again, I wouldn’t have had my kids, would I?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy on Eric: I thought I was getting a big noise and all I got was a drunk who beat up his kids.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy: The only time I’ve ever fainted was when I was pregnant.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy: I married young. I didn't really have a choice, not with Phil on the way. It's always been having to do things, rather than wanting to do them.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy: I remember having a right old barney with my Eric the week before we got married. His best man went and got himself barred from the pub where we were having the reception. I told Eric he'd have to get himself a new best man and he said we'd have to find a different boozer.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Barry on Peggy and Eric: They were married on the third of September, a gloriously hot summer's day.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy: I remember my wedding day. Piddling down with rain it was. Dad took me in his Mini and Eric came on the back of his mate's motorbike. I hardly recognised him when he got there. He stood there dripping wet, all helpless. It was then I realised what every woman comes to realise sooner or later. You get married hoping the bloke will look after you, but it usually turns out to be the other way around. I think it's God's way of getting you used to having children.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy on Reverend Stevens of St Cuthbert’s Church: The vicar who married us.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy to Grant: When I married your dad, I promised it would be for better or worse.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Barry to Peggy: Your maid of honour on that day [was] your older sister Sal.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Aunt Sal: I was a looker back then.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy on Aunt Sal: She looked a fright. She turned up in this terrible white PVC mini-skirt.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Barry: I understand Eric's best man had to do his speech outside the pub you chose for the reception.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy: Yeah well, he was barred, you see, so we had to pass his drinks through the window when the landlord wasn't looking.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy on pregnancy: In my day, you had to grin and bear it. [I blew] up like a barrage balloon.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy: I never touched a drop [of alcohol] when I was carrying Phil.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: When I was pregnant with my Jean, I used to chuck my guts up most mornings. I don't know where it come from. I felt sick most of the time, I was on the porcelain telephone to God the rest.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Aunt Sal: In my day, you got a baby, you get on with it and don’t moan. Like it or lump it then.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jim Branning: It's ages since I had anything to do with a baby. Didn't have much to do with them then.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Aunt Sal: In my day, a man wouldn’t be seen dead with a baby.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jim: You don't have five kids without getting your hands dirty.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Derek Branning, Jim’s eldest son: I’m a born communicator, me.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat on Derek: Some men are born rotten. Derek’s one of the worst.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Derek: My whole life has been one big disappointment.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: Pat Harris, as once was, has walked more streets than PC Plod in her time.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Was I wild? I had some times, I can tell you. When I got it into my thick skull I was barking up the wrong tree [with Frank], I did put it about a bit - and why not?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: Pat Harris, as she was then, was a prostitute. She'll deny it now, but she was.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Charlie Slater: How long are we talking, Mo?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: How long — who knows? There's women like her down Dock Street in their carpet slippers even now.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Lynne Slater: You're having a laugh, Nan.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: All I'm saying is sex was the only thing that Pat Harris was any good at. She couldn't get enough of it. Once a tart, always a tart.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo to Pat: I always thought it would be the clap that would finish you off.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Lorraine Salter: Big Pat knew what it was like on the streets, horrible punters and that.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: I've been in the gutter.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: I was never in the gutter.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Frank: Do me a favour, darling. You were so far down the road to Purgatory, you nearly grew a pair of horns. I think the polite word is Lady of the Night, old brass, trollop.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: I never went with any man for money and you know it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Frank: Do I?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dot: You slept with most of the men round here, whether they was married or not. You took money for it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Whatever I did, I did because I had to.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dot: What — being a prostitute?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: If that's what it took to keep a roof over my head, to keep me from going under, whatever was necessary.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dot: There was plenty of other things you could have done. I mean, there's plenty of other women been in the same boat as you. They didn't sell their selves.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Nobody was looking out for me. I didn't have much in the way of family or a husband.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dot: No, not one of your own, you didn't.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Maybe if me and Frank had been able to ... if he hadn't married June. I wonder about that sometimes, how things might have been. But he did, and I wasn't going to sit around and wait, so I did what I had to.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: I wasn’t on the streets or anything like that. I was just paraded round some club so that one of the punters would take me home. I thought it was glamorous at first, exciting even, and then I caught these women staring at me on the bus on the way home. They knew exactly what I’d been up to.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: If I could go back, I’d do it all so different. I wouldn’t worry about the silly little things like how I looked or whether I was popular. I wouldn’t have sold myself cheap for a couple of quid to some bloke I didn’t even know.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Peggy on brothels: At least in the old days they had the decency not to boast about it. Soho, you expected it. You knew where it was and if you were that way inclined that’s where you went, but not on your own doorstep.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: I stopped selling meself a long time ago.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Johnny Allen: You were going down that path long before I met you.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: That's a matter of opinion.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo to Pat: [Jimmy] was sick of you long before that Tony Cattani business — drinking, shaming him by turning tricks.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Stan Porter: Tony had a white Bentley for a while. We used to drive up and down Park Lane just to see the way people looked at us.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo on Tony Cattani: The only reason me and Jimmy ever set foot inside that club of his was because of you, Pat. It was you, hanging about that dive of Tony's — that's what set everything off. That's where the misunderstanding arose.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Misunderstanding?!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: You cheated on Jimmy with Tony.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: On my mother's life, nothing happened. Tony was a gent, you know that.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Are we talking about the same Tony Cattani here? Oh no, silly me, I forgot — I made it all up, didn't I? Well maybe you can tell me, Mo, why I'd have done a thing like that?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: You were jealous.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Maybe I was, but it don't change what I saw.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: I'm telling you, I saw them [Mo and Tony] with me own eyes.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: It weren't so black and white as that. Tony meant nothing to me. It was just nice to go down [the club] and not be a mum or a housewife for a bit. It wasn't real. My real life was with Jimmy. I just didn't know how to get out of it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Tony would never have [forced] you. He was mad about you. He'd have killed anybody who laid a finger on you. He was just offering you your excuse.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Tony wasn't the sort of bloke who would take no for an answer, was he?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: No, he wasn't.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: All I know is that when I got home, I cried me eyes out that night. Jimmy was on nights at Dagenham's so he never knew.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: You should have told him.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: Told him what? Yeah, I had fancied Tony, like we all did, but you get them feelings, you ignore them and they go away.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Stan: It was only a little fling. No great harm done. Tony was the real victim, after what [Mo] did to him. He couldn't believe it when she dumped him — which was brave, by the way. He was so happy when he thought she was going to leave Jimmy and be with him.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: I would have said anything to get out of there.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo to Pat: All I wanted after that night was to get my life back to normal, but oh no — you had to stick your oar in.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat on Big Mo: She always accused me of causing trouble between her and Jimmy.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Barry Evans: And did you?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Not intentionally, no.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo to Pat: You planted [a hatchet] in my back.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo on Pat: She told my old man I was having an affair. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Barry: You actually told your brother that his wife was having an affair?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: All his mates called her Yo-Yo Drawers. He was the only one who didn't know. Somebody had to put him straight.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Barry: Bet that went down well.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: No really, no.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: I've said sorry.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Lynne, her granddaughter: How many times?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: Once. To your granddad.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Lynne: Why, what had you done?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: Never you mind. Just as well I did though, because you lot would never have known him. He was on his way out the door.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat to Big Mo: Turn[ing] on the waterworks - you always used that one, didn't you?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo on Pat: She nearly broke my marriage up.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: I wish I had.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: I nearly lost the best bloke in the world because of one stupid ...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Sister-in-law.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: You took the best bloke in the world and you just walked all over him.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: You were a tart, a drunk, someone who grassed up on her best friend. I cared about you even when Jimmy didn't. I loved you like a sister, but you had to go steaming in. You didn't have the grace to come and ask me about it first. You really didn't deserve a friend like me.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo to Pat: You wanted so much to hurt me, you didn't care how much damage you'd do to Jimmy.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Jimmy must have hated me for telling him all them things.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat on Big Mo: She made [Jimmy] choose between her and his family.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat to Big Mo: The one decent relationship I've had in my entire life, with my brother, and you destroyed it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat on Big Mo: Poor little Jimmy was never one to stand up to that bullying old cow.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: I never made Jimmy choose. He made that decision.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Because he believed you and not me.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: I'm not even sure he believed me.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: Jimmy said he believed me, but I could tell it was still nagging at him.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jimmy on Pat: She's not perfect, but she's never been a liar.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: If you ask me, that's why he got cancer — because of that doubt eating away at him all those years.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat on Big Mo and Jimmy: They moved down Lewisham way. I never heard from them again.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Big Mo: I missed you.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat: Missed you and all.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pat on Jimmy: The worst pain in my life was when I lost touch with him</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline on Daisy and Cyril: Don't think I've seen them since I was [sixteen].</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Lou: They're still family. They always used to send you a present at Christmas.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline: Yeah, I remember. They sent me <em>The Water Babies</em> the year I started work and Pete got a teddy bear.</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James from London, post: 115806, member: 22"] [SIZE=5][U]1960[/U] Big Mo on the sixties: I hated that decade, all that love and peace. I could have punched all of them. Dot Cotton: Walford in the sixties and seventies, it was rough. It was dirty, rundown. Pauline Fowler: It just felt safer then. Dot: You had Arthur, you had Pete, you had Kenny. And Lou. They was looking out for you. Johnny Allen: Let a lady walk home on her own? My old man would spin in his grave. It's the way I was brought up. Cora Cross: There was a time when the East End was full of men like that, proper East End gents like Derek [Branning], men in their prime, men getting involved — principles, loyalty, guidance — like it or lump it. You can call that arrogance if you like, sexist. I call it manners — arm across the road and a nice drop of malt whiskey, just like our dads, protecting his nearest and dearest. Pauline: I was a real baby. [Lou] was ever so strict. All them rules, like "Don't come in late". Lou to Pauline: You and Pete were home by 8 o'clock or you got a good hiding. Pauline: I didn't even have a steady boyfriend. Just used to listen to Radio Luxembourg and dream about Paul Anka. I didn't have anyone that mattered, not until [Arthur] and even he didn't matter at first Pete Beale: Do you remember skiffle, the old washboards? I had one of those, Mum's from under the stairs. Rose Chapman: Were you gonna be a — Pete: Pop star? Well, you know what kids are. I imagined myself driving around in an open top Chevy. Most people have dreams when they're young. First, I wanted to be singer or something in show business. Then I got it into me head I'd run off and be a Redcoat. Silly things, really. Pete: I once spent a week at Butlin's, you know, with Billy Fury. Well, I had a drink with him at the bar. Signed [my shirt cuff], as it happens. Terry Raymond: I was quite a mover. Twist, Jive — did it all, me. I was runner up at Butlin's when I was only thirteen. Second best though, see. Not good enough. "Nothing to shout about, son. Second best." Terry on his father: Just ignored you, let you know that he was not impressed. I kept trying, kept thinking that if I could make him proud then he'd like me. That's stupid. Stupid little kid I was. Lou on Pete: He used to be very good [at football]. I remember him in long shorts. Colin Russell: Dr Legg used to be a ref, Walford and District League. He used to be nicknamed the Sergeant Major. He sent four players off in a game once. Dr Legg: There was never any nonsense when I was about. Kenny Beale to Den: Remember that time you broke your arm playing football? Took five of us to hold you down just to get you into casualty. Frank Butcher: When I played [football], it was in working men's boots. Probably why I was no good at it. Frank: When I was a young man, I was always well turned out. Frank: I used to think all my life that I was different, I was a bit special - I was Frank Butcher, no-one quite like me. Frank: I'm eighteen years old walking down the high street in my Italian suit - "Have some of that!" Patrick Trueman: Yeah man, a whole half hour to shine my shoes and then new socks, new shirt, tie to match, and a suit specially made. And the trousers? Man, the seam - sharp like a knife! And I’m walking on Ladbroke Grove, man, feeling like the King of England. Back then, didn’t have a care on the world. Frank: When I was [eighteen], there weren't one single day went by when I didn't find something to be happy about. Big Mo: I used to be good at arm wrestling. Remember that time I beat you when we went to Margate? Pat: You never. Big Mo: August Bank Holiday, 1960. Pat: In your dreams. Big Mo: I blooming well slaughtered her! Pat, looking at a white two piece swimsuit: I used to have a bikini just like that one. Shirley Carter: I bet that was a sight. Pat: It was very alluring, actually. Big Mo on Pat: Used to ponce about in this fake fur coat. Pat: It weren’t fake. Big Mo: Made her look like a washed up old trollop. Pat: I had the looks, the pick of the boys, and what did you have? An old lock up full of knock offs. Pat to Big Mo: You've always been jealous of my assets. Big Mo to Pat: You were jealous because we were happy and you weren't, because I was a girl from a home where three families shared an outside khazi and then all of a sudden I was doing OK. Pat: Yeah, because of Jimmy. Big Mo: Yeah, because of Jimmy. That's what you couldn't handle. He married me and you weren't centre stage no more. Pat: All right, maybe I was a bit jealous. Big Mo: A bit? Pat: And maybe I'd had a bellyful of having my nose rubbed in it about how wonderful a life youse two had. Barry Evans: Aged eighteen, Peggy met a man who really knocked her for six. It was Eric Mitchell, also known as... Peggy: The Bruiser from Bow. Barry: A local boxer who could have been a contender, he certainly thought Peggy was a knock out. Stacey Slater, looking at an old photograph of Peggy: You were really beautiful. Peggy: I had my moments. You remind me of myself when I was your age [eighteen] — cocky, think you know it all. I had spirit. Archie Mitchell speaking in 2009: We’ve known each other for forty odd years, Peggy, and we’ve always understood each other. Peggy on Archie: He takes my breath away. He always did, even before [Eric]. One look from him and I’d go weak at the knees. I tell you something, if he’d have made his move, [Phil], Grant and Sam, [they]’d never have existed. Archie to Peggy: I love you. I always have. Peggy on Archie: All he ever did was charm me. Ronnie Mitchell, Archie’s daughter: He was probably working on you then, wasn’t he? Getting ready to pounce. Peggy on Archie: For all his charm, he was never the most reliable of blokes. Archie on himself as a young man: Bit mixed up, full of potential. Peggy: Same old Archie, always hoping for the best. Peggy to Archie: I can always remember you wheeling and dealing, knowing what to say and when to say it. Glenda Mitchell, Archie’s future wife: Peggy Martin — the woman that every man wanted, including Archie, but Eric snapped you up first. Johnny Allen to Peggy: You were wasted on Eric Mitchell. How he ever got a woman like you ... Archie to Peggy: For a while I tried hating you. I couldn’t forgive you for choosing Eric. Peggy on Carnaby Street: I remember when I came down here just before my first date with Eric. I had my eye on this little tiny Mary Quant dress. It was November. It didn’t go past my thigh. I was freezing but I didn’t care. I just wanted to impress him. Pat: Well let’s be honest, when we used to dress up in them days it wasn’t so we’d feel good about ourselves, it was so we’d look good for the blokes. Peggy to Phil: I remember when I was courting your father. He was all moody the minute I stopped him fiddling with me suspender belt, but it all turned out for the best in the end because that's when he started to take me seriously, and the fact that he learned to respect me was what made me fall in love with him. Barry: It was 1960 and London would soon be swinging. Eric proposed. Do you remember exactly where you were when he popped the question? Peggy: Oh yeah, on the terraces at Upton Park. Harry Slater: 1960? Me and Charlie could have been there then. Peggy on a charm bracelet: My Aunt Flo, who I loved very much, gave it to me when I got engaged. Peggy: I was not afraid of anything. If I'd have known what was ahead, I'd have thought twice. Peggy: If I’d known what my first husband Eric was like, I don’t think I’d have gone through with it. Oh, but then again, I wouldn’t have had my kids, would I? Peggy on Eric: I thought I was getting a big noise and all I got was a drunk who beat up his kids. Peggy: The only time I’ve ever fainted was when I was pregnant. Peggy: I married young. I didn't really have a choice, not with Phil on the way. It's always been having to do things, rather than wanting to do them. Peggy: I remember having a right old barney with my Eric the week before we got married. His best man went and got himself barred from the pub where we were having the reception. I told Eric he'd have to get himself a new best man and he said we'd have to find a different boozer. Barry on Peggy and Eric: They were married on the third of September, a gloriously hot summer's day. Peggy: I remember my wedding day. Piddling down with rain it was. Dad took me in his Mini and Eric came on the back of his mate's motorbike. I hardly recognised him when he got there. He stood there dripping wet, all helpless. It was then I realised what every woman comes to realise sooner or later. You get married hoping the bloke will look after you, but it usually turns out to be the other way around. I think it's God's way of getting you used to having children. Peggy on Reverend Stevens of St Cuthbert’s Church: The vicar who married us. Peggy to Grant: When I married your dad, I promised it would be for better or worse. Barry to Peggy: Your maid of honour on that day [was] your older sister Sal. Aunt Sal: I was a looker back then. Peggy on Aunt Sal: She looked a fright. She turned up in this terrible white PVC mini-skirt. Barry: I understand Eric's best man had to do his speech outside the pub you chose for the reception. Peggy: Yeah well, he was barred, you see, so we had to pass his drinks through the window when the landlord wasn't looking. Peggy on pregnancy: In my day, you had to grin and bear it. [I blew] up like a barrage balloon. Peggy: I never touched a drop [of alcohol] when I was carrying Phil. Big Mo: When I was pregnant with my Jean, I used to chuck my guts up most mornings. I don't know where it come from. I felt sick most of the time, I was on the porcelain telephone to God the rest. Aunt Sal: In my day, you got a baby, you get on with it and don’t moan. Like it or lump it then. Jim Branning: It's ages since I had anything to do with a baby. Didn't have much to do with them then. Aunt Sal: In my day, a man wouldn’t be seen dead with a baby. Jim: You don't have five kids without getting your hands dirty. Derek Branning, Jim’s eldest son: I’m a born communicator, me. Pat on Derek: Some men are born rotten. Derek’s one of the worst. Derek: My whole life has been one big disappointment. Big Mo: Pat Harris, as once was, has walked more streets than PC Plod in her time. Pat: Was I wild? I had some times, I can tell you. When I got it into my thick skull I was barking up the wrong tree [with Frank], I did put it about a bit - and why not? Big Mo: Pat Harris, as she was then, was a prostitute. She'll deny it now, but she was. Charlie Slater: How long are we talking, Mo? Big Mo: How long — who knows? There's women like her down Dock Street in their carpet slippers even now. Lynne Slater: You're having a laugh, Nan. Big Mo: All I'm saying is sex was the only thing that Pat Harris was any good at. She couldn't get enough of it. Once a tart, always a tart. Big Mo to Pat: I always thought it would be the clap that would finish you off. Lorraine Salter: Big Pat knew what it was like on the streets, horrible punters and that. Pat: I've been in the gutter. Pat: I was never in the gutter. Frank: Do me a favour, darling. You were so far down the road to Purgatory, you nearly grew a pair of horns. I think the polite word is Lady of the Night, old brass, trollop. Pat: I never went with any man for money and you know it. Frank: Do I? Dot: You slept with most of the men round here, whether they was married or not. You took money for it. Pat: Whatever I did, I did because I had to. Dot: What — being a prostitute? Pat: If that's what it took to keep a roof over my head, to keep me from going under, whatever was necessary. Dot: There was plenty of other things you could have done. I mean, there's plenty of other women been in the same boat as you. They didn't sell their selves. Pat: Nobody was looking out for me. I didn't have much in the way of family or a husband. Dot: No, not one of your own, you didn't. Pat: Maybe if me and Frank had been able to ... if he hadn't married June. I wonder about that sometimes, how things might have been. But he did, and I wasn't going to sit around and wait, so I did what I had to. Pat: I wasn’t on the streets or anything like that. I was just paraded round some club so that one of the punters would take me home. I thought it was glamorous at first, exciting even, and then I caught these women staring at me on the bus on the way home. They knew exactly what I’d been up to. Pat: If I could go back, I’d do it all so different. I wouldn’t worry about the silly little things like how I looked or whether I was popular. I wouldn’t have sold myself cheap for a couple of quid to some bloke I didn’t even know. Peggy on brothels: At least in the old days they had the decency not to boast about it. Soho, you expected it. You knew where it was and if you were that way inclined that’s where you went, but not on your own doorstep. Pat: I stopped selling meself a long time ago. Johnny Allen: You were going down that path long before I met you. Pat: That's a matter of opinion. Big Mo to Pat: [Jimmy] was sick of you long before that Tony Cattani business — drinking, shaming him by turning tricks. Stan Porter: Tony had a white Bentley for a while. We used to drive up and down Park Lane just to see the way people looked at us. Big Mo on Tony Cattani: The only reason me and Jimmy ever set foot inside that club of his was because of you, Pat. It was you, hanging about that dive of Tony's — that's what set everything off. That's where the misunderstanding arose. Pat: Misunderstanding?! Pat: You cheated on Jimmy with Tony. Big Mo: On my mother's life, nothing happened. Tony was a gent, you know that. Pat: Are we talking about the same Tony Cattani here? Oh no, silly me, I forgot — I made it all up, didn't I? Well maybe you can tell me, Mo, why I'd have done a thing like that? Big Mo: You were jealous. Pat: Maybe I was, but it don't change what I saw. Pat: I'm telling you, I saw them [Mo and Tony] with me own eyes. Big Mo: It weren't so black and white as that. Tony meant nothing to me. It was just nice to go down [the club] and not be a mum or a housewife for a bit. It wasn't real. My real life was with Jimmy. I just didn't know how to get out of it. Pat: Tony would never have [forced] you. He was mad about you. He'd have killed anybody who laid a finger on you. He was just offering you your excuse. Pat: Tony wasn't the sort of bloke who would take no for an answer, was he? Big Mo: No, he wasn't. Big Mo: All I know is that when I got home, I cried me eyes out that night. Jimmy was on nights at Dagenham's so he never knew. Pat: You should have told him. Big Mo: Told him what? Yeah, I had fancied Tony, like we all did, but you get them feelings, you ignore them and they go away. Stan: It was only a little fling. No great harm done. Tony was the real victim, after what [Mo] did to him. He couldn't believe it when she dumped him — which was brave, by the way. He was so happy when he thought she was going to leave Jimmy and be with him. Big Mo: I would have said anything to get out of there. Big Mo to Pat: All I wanted after that night was to get my life back to normal, but oh no — you had to stick your oar in. Pat on Big Mo: She always accused me of causing trouble between her and Jimmy. Barry Evans: And did you? Pat: Not intentionally, no. Big Mo to Pat: You planted [a hatchet] in my back. Big Mo on Pat: She told my old man I was having an affair. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Barry: You actually told your brother that his wife was having an affair? Pat: All his mates called her Yo-Yo Drawers. He was the only one who didn't know. Somebody had to put him straight. Barry: Bet that went down well. Pat: No really, no. Big Mo: I've said sorry. Lynne, her granddaughter: How many times? Big Mo: Once. To your granddad. Lynne: Why, what had you done? Big Mo: Never you mind. Just as well I did though, because you lot would never have known him. He was on his way out the door. Pat to Big Mo: Turn[ing] on the waterworks - you always used that one, didn't you? Big Mo on Pat: She nearly broke my marriage up. Pat: I wish I had. Big Mo: I nearly lost the best bloke in the world because of one stupid ... Pat: Sister-in-law. Pat: You took the best bloke in the world and you just walked all over him. Big Mo: You were a tart, a drunk, someone who grassed up on her best friend. I cared about you even when Jimmy didn't. I loved you like a sister, but you had to go steaming in. You didn't have the grace to come and ask me about it first. You really didn't deserve a friend like me. Big Mo to Pat: You wanted so much to hurt me, you didn't care how much damage you'd do to Jimmy. Pat: Jimmy must have hated me for telling him all them things. Pat on Big Mo: She made [Jimmy] choose between her and his family. Pat to Big Mo: The one decent relationship I've had in my entire life, with my brother, and you destroyed it. Pat on Big Mo: Poor little Jimmy was never one to stand up to that bullying old cow. Big Mo: I never made Jimmy choose. He made that decision. Pat: Because he believed you and not me. Big Mo: I'm not even sure he believed me. Big Mo: Jimmy said he believed me, but I could tell it was still nagging at him. Jimmy on Pat: She's not perfect, but she's never been a liar. Big Mo: If you ask me, that's why he got cancer — because of that doubt eating away at him all those years. Pat on Big Mo and Jimmy: They moved down Lewisham way. I never heard from them again. Big Mo: I missed you. Pat: Missed you and all. Pat on Jimmy: The worst pain in my life was when I lost touch with him Pauline on Daisy and Cyril: Don't think I've seen them since I was [sixteen]. Lou: They're still family. They always used to send you a present at Christmas. Pauline: Yeah, I remember. They sent me [I]The Water Babies[/I] the year I started work and Pete got a teddy bear.[/SIZE] [/QUOTE]
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