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An Oral History 1985-2015
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<blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 119050" data-attributes="member: 22"><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline, speaking in 2004: It's been nearly twenty years since [Arthur and I bought] our bed.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dr Legg on Arthur: Until he was made redundant, I think it would be fair to say that I saw more of Mr Fowler socially than in a professional capacity. He was the sort of chap who wouldn't let a cold or flu stop him from going into work. He was very cheerful and would do anything for anyone. The salt of the earth, you might say.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Arthur Fowler: I used to enjoy Sundays when I was working, even [living] with [Lou].</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mr Miller, Arthur's lawyer: Mr Fowler was a skilled man, proud of his place in the community and as head of his family. He worked for fifteen years, until in 1984, his world was turned upside down. Through no fault of his own, he was made redundant in a cutback in the work force.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Arthur: I did the same job in the same factory for twenty years. That's all I know. I gave them my best shot and they made Arthur Fowler useless, redundant at forty.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jean Slater speaking in 2009: I haven’t worked for years, back when I was in the packing factory — all those little bottles of shampoo. I loved it — going in, seeing people.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Arthur: That's when it all started to go wrong, didn't it? When I lost my job. I knew it was going to be bad even then.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline Fowler: It wasn't Arthur's fault they closed the factory down and no-one wanted his Dinkys.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Lou Beale: It weren’t my fault either no-one wanted his Dinkys. It’s no-one’s fault, is it? Except that cow at Number 10.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Arthur to Pete: You voted for this lot [the Tories].</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Arthur: Me and thousands like me were sold down the river.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Suzy Branning, speaking in 2008: What’s in it for me?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Archie Mitchell: There speaks a child of Thatcher's Britain.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Ian on Margaret Thatcher: That woman saved this country.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Arthur: When I was made redundant, I went round to every job centre, bought the T-shirt - nothing.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Alfie: I once went down and I signed up to be a pearl diver because I just knew a hundred percent that they would not find me a job as a pearl diver. As I was walking out the dole office, I thought, "I actually quite fancy doing that." I could have been anything, but I didn't fancy being stuck indoors all day.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Alfie on his career as a bus conductor: Clippy of the Year, ’83 to ’84.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Alfie: I have frequented some of the finest restaurants in the country. I've done silver service, a la carte, the local Balti house. I was a waiter at the Clarendon Hotel in Scarborough.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Kat: How long for?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Alfie: Two weeks.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dr Legg on Arthur: At first he thought it would be just a matter of time before he found another job, but things were changing in Walford.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mr Miller on Arthur: His employers gave him an excellent reference, but due to his age and the general employment situation in the area, he was unable to get another job.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mark: When I was a kid and I first got into bikes, I must have bored the pants off everyone. I was only happy when I was with other bikers. They understood what you were talking about.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Michelle to Mark: When I think about all the times somebody tried to show you a bit of affection, you just turned around and chucked a bucket of cold water over them.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mark: Like who?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Michelle: Like Mum. All the years you were her blue-eyed boy, you were getting your shirts ironed for you, and me - I was being snapped at and packed off down the launderette.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mark: Did that really get up your nose?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Michelle: Yes, it did.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mark: I remember you stomping off down the launderette with a handful of 10p's.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Michelle: I used to nick them off your dressing table.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Michelle: I was a girl. I was born knowing I had to do that sort of thing [housework], and you — you were just a poor, pathetic silly little boy, had to have it done for you. You never had to work to get your shirts ironed, did you? I mean, you had to practically fight her [Pauline] off doing things. They never offered me anything. I could have done with some of that attention.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mark: That's what I always felt about you and Dad. He'd be right in the middle of giving me a hard time about wasting money or whatever, and then he'd stick his hand in his pocket and give you a fiver at the drop of a hat.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Michelle: That's different. I had to work for that. Once I realised he was a soft touch, I developed a technique.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mark: Cynical little cow.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Michelle on Pauline: All my life, she's told me how I should do things.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mark: Parents do.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Michelle: Yeah, but not like Mum, not with this great Fowler "thing" hanging over your head like some huge moral code that we all had to go by, whether we liked it or not, because that somehow made us better than everyone else. Didn't matter what else was going on — "if you do this, you do that, you'd be all right."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mark on Pauline: She can't say what she feels. Hurt, disappointment — all them things Gran taught her were bad things to let people see.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Ethel on Lou: She said to me years ago, "Michelle's got what it takes, far more than Pauline ever had."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Arthur: Our Michelle once showed an unhealthy interest in feminism. She watched a programme on telly. She was impossible for over a week.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mark: Always known her own mind, has Chelle.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline: I never wanted any secrets in my family.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mark on his rebellious nature: Maybe it had something to do with the fact that we [the Fowlers] were all so close.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline: I always thought that was what being part of a family was all about.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mark: Sometimes I felt like I couldn't breathe. I couldn't be myself. At school it was the teachers telling you how to act and how to behave, and when I got home it was you or Dad or Gran on me back.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline: And you're trying to say that's what made you go off and do all those dreadful things?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mark: Maybe. All I know is when I was on me own, I felt good about meself.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline: Even when you were stealing?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mark: Oh no, I never felt good about that.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Carol to Bianca: Didn't I bring you up knowing it was wrong to steal?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Carol to Bianca: I didn’t bring you up to tart yourself out for drinks.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Heather Trott: I’ve never stolen anything in my life. Well, not on purpose anyway.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Garry Hobbs: I used to go nicking lead with me mates.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Reverend Lewis: You stole lead from church roofs?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Garry: Yeah.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Detective Sergeant Dougie Slade on himself and Alfie: We go way back. He was a holy terror.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Alfie: That's right. We used to go to church every Sunday together. We even sung in the choir!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dougie: Only because he was casing the joint. Lots of silverware in them places!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Nick to Lofty: I'm not talking about the demolition caper, am I? You forgetting that plumbing job we was on? Smuggling out all those designer jeans in the pipes?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline: Me and your dad, we always prided ourselves that we'd brought you up to know the difference between right and wrong. If we did stifle you, it was only because we cared.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mark: It made me feel terrible, knowing what I was doing was hurting you and Dad so much.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline: Why did you do it?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Mark: I suppose I felt like I was some kind of disappointment to you. So in the end, I gave up trying. Everybody expected me to behave like a no hoper so I did.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline to Arthur: If you'd have stood up to [Mark] and got it sorted when he was a boy, none of this would have happened, but you couldn't face up to it, could you? You knew better. "Leave him alone. He'll be all right. All teenagers are mixed up. He'll be OK."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Arthur: I did all I could. I did.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline: You couldn't face it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Arthur: And you did such a wonderful job, didn't you?! Wonderful, marvellous Pauline Fowler - Mother of the Year!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline: Mark's life would have been totally different if it hadn't have been for Nick.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dot: Lou used to go on about her lot, Pete and Pauline and the rest, moaning about how they were wasting their lives, and I’d sit and I’d nod and I’d feel like screaming out, “You’re lucky. You ain’t got my Nick.” </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dot, speaking in 2014: I’ve been expecting [the news of Nick’s death] for over thirty years and grieving just as long. I’ve been facing it for over half me life. My Nick’s been good as dead for years.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Lauren Branning: Were you always such a cow, Janine?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Janine Butcher: Yes.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Janine: I’m despicable. I always have been.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Janine: I’ve been hustling since before I could walk.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Lydia Simmonds: You were such a sweet little girl.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Janine: No, I wasn’t. That’s why you loved me.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Lydia to Janine: You’re just like your mother, highly strung. And you clung onto her for dear life.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Janine on June: I used to cling to her like a little monkey. I wouldn’t let her put me down.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jean Slater: I had a craving for ginger nuts when I was [pregnant] with Sean. Maybe that’s why his hair turned out that colour!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Sue Osman to Ali: You always wanted a baby, didn't you? You couldn't wait, could you? I wanted to wait. You couldn't. You were always a baby.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Sue: Do you know what Ali said to me when I was having Hussan? He said, "I don't know what all the fuss is about. In China, they have them in the paddy fields and get straight back to work." Stupid Turk.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Sue: When I was a child, there was no love, never. And then when we had Hussan, who I loved and loved, I knew what it was I'd missed.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Roxy: Ron, you always used to [do my sewing for me]. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Ronnie: I did, but I was about ten and what did I used to say?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Roxy: You used to say, “This is the last time.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Ricky Butcher: Everyone’s afraid when they start a new school. I drew spots all over me face and pretended I had measles.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Ricky, speaking to his son Liam in 2010: When I was your age [eleven], I was little and people laughed at me. You know what I thought? If I’m so small, if I bunked off [school], no one would notice me — because no-one noticed me at all.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Danny Moon on his father: [He’d] beat you up and then leave you aching, wind you up so bad that you’d just want to ... He'd drag you in and then disappear for days, weeks. Two whole weeks he left me and Jake once. I was only eleven.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Alfie: Yeah, I know.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Danny: Two weeks though. No cash — cadging off the chippy, cadging off your mum.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Heather Trott on ‘Take on Me’ by A-Ha: I remember when this was first released, nineteenth of October 1984. I used to have a Morton Harkett necklace.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Heather on Prince: I was a massive fan - front row on the Purple Rain tour, 1984.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Heather on Hazell Dean: She did [singing:] “Searching, looking for love/All the time that I can/Searching, looking for love/I got to find me a man.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Pauline: Mark was going on and on at us to buy this ring for him. I thought we just couldn't afford it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Arthur said, "No, we'll wait and see," and then come Christmas, there it was, all gift wrapped and under the tree for him.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Tina Carter on Christmas: We never had much but Shirl, she always made it special. Do you remember that year I kicked off because there weren’t enough presents and you stayed wrapping everything up in the kitchen?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Shirley: You were just a kid then.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Naima: That first Christmas we spent together, I wanted you to open the shop. You wanted me to cook Christmas dinner.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Saeed: So we compromised.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Naima: You opened the shop and I cooked us dinner.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Saeed: It was the only turkey ever cooked in spices.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Naima: I didn't know there was any other way to cook it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Saeed: And I only had one customer all day long.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Naima: Ethel. She wanted cranberry sauce. We didn't have any.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Saeed: And then we went for a walk along the canal.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Sue: Hussan used to like Christmas. Well, kids do, eh?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Den: Didn't you [celebrate Christmas] with your mum?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Dennis Rickman: Not so you'd notice. I'd get up, open my presents and have some breakfast. Her and her bloke would crawl out of bed about eleven, go down the pub. I'd sit on my own watching everyone have a great time on the telly. They'd come back half cut. She'd cook while he touched her up.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jean on her son Sean: He wasn’t an easy birth. Breeched, he was. Started out difficult and stayed difficult. Sean was never an easy child.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jean on children: You give birth to them and you have all these dreams for them. You want them to have everything that you didn’t. You want them to be loved and to be safe.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px">Jean: I remember when Sean was [new born] - tiny little fingers and toes, sweet little button nose.</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James from London, post: 119050, member: 22"] [SIZE=5]Pauline, speaking in 2004: It's been nearly twenty years since [Arthur and I bought] our bed. Dr Legg on Arthur: Until he was made redundant, I think it would be fair to say that I saw more of Mr Fowler socially than in a professional capacity. He was the sort of chap who wouldn't let a cold or flu stop him from going into work. He was very cheerful and would do anything for anyone. The salt of the earth, you might say. Arthur Fowler: I used to enjoy Sundays when I was working, even [living] with [Lou]. Mr Miller, Arthur's lawyer: Mr Fowler was a skilled man, proud of his place in the community and as head of his family. He worked for fifteen years, until in 1984, his world was turned upside down. Through no fault of his own, he was made redundant in a cutback in the work force. Arthur: I did the same job in the same factory for twenty years. That's all I know. I gave them my best shot and they made Arthur Fowler useless, redundant at forty. Jean Slater speaking in 2009: I haven’t worked for years, back when I was in the packing factory — all those little bottles of shampoo. I loved it — going in, seeing people. Arthur: That's when it all started to go wrong, didn't it? When I lost my job. I knew it was going to be bad even then. Pauline Fowler: It wasn't Arthur's fault they closed the factory down and no-one wanted his Dinkys. Lou Beale: It weren’t my fault either no-one wanted his Dinkys. It’s no-one’s fault, is it? Except that cow at Number 10. Arthur to Pete: You voted for this lot [the Tories]. Arthur: Me and thousands like me were sold down the river. Suzy Branning, speaking in 2008: What’s in it for me? Archie Mitchell: There speaks a child of Thatcher's Britain. Ian on Margaret Thatcher: That woman saved this country. Arthur: When I was made redundant, I went round to every job centre, bought the T-shirt - nothing. Alfie: I once went down and I signed up to be a pearl diver because I just knew a hundred percent that they would not find me a job as a pearl diver. As I was walking out the dole office, I thought, "I actually quite fancy doing that." I could have been anything, but I didn't fancy being stuck indoors all day. Alfie on his career as a bus conductor: Clippy of the Year, ’83 to ’84. Alfie: I have frequented some of the finest restaurants in the country. I've done silver service, a la carte, the local Balti house. I was a waiter at the Clarendon Hotel in Scarborough. Kat: How long for? Alfie: Two weeks. Dr Legg on Arthur: At first he thought it would be just a matter of time before he found another job, but things were changing in Walford. Mr Miller on Arthur: His employers gave him an excellent reference, but due to his age and the general employment situation in the area, he was unable to get another job. Mark: When I was a kid and I first got into bikes, I must have bored the pants off everyone. I was only happy when I was with other bikers. They understood what you were talking about. Michelle to Mark: When I think about all the times somebody tried to show you a bit of affection, you just turned around and chucked a bucket of cold water over them. Mark: Like who? Michelle: Like Mum. All the years you were her blue-eyed boy, you were getting your shirts ironed for you, and me - I was being snapped at and packed off down the launderette. Mark: Did that really get up your nose? Michelle: Yes, it did. Mark: I remember you stomping off down the launderette with a handful of 10p's. Michelle: I used to nick them off your dressing table. Michelle: I was a girl. I was born knowing I had to do that sort of thing [housework], and you — you were just a poor, pathetic silly little boy, had to have it done for you. You never had to work to get your shirts ironed, did you? I mean, you had to practically fight her [Pauline] off doing things. They never offered me anything. I could have done with some of that attention. Mark: That's what I always felt about you and Dad. He'd be right in the middle of giving me a hard time about wasting money or whatever, and then he'd stick his hand in his pocket and give you a fiver at the drop of a hat. Michelle: That's different. I had to work for that. Once I realised he was a soft touch, I developed a technique. Mark: Cynical little cow. Michelle on Pauline: All my life, she's told me how I should do things. Mark: Parents do. Michelle: Yeah, but not like Mum, not with this great Fowler "thing" hanging over your head like some huge moral code that we all had to go by, whether we liked it or not, because that somehow made us better than everyone else. Didn't matter what else was going on — "if you do this, you do that, you'd be all right." Mark on Pauline: She can't say what she feels. Hurt, disappointment — all them things Gran taught her were bad things to let people see. Ethel on Lou: She said to me years ago, "Michelle's got what it takes, far more than Pauline ever had." Arthur: Our Michelle once showed an unhealthy interest in feminism. She watched a programme on telly. She was impossible for over a week. Mark: Always known her own mind, has Chelle. Pauline: I never wanted any secrets in my family. Mark on his rebellious nature: Maybe it had something to do with the fact that we [the Fowlers] were all so close. Pauline: I always thought that was what being part of a family was all about. Mark: Sometimes I felt like I couldn't breathe. I couldn't be myself. At school it was the teachers telling you how to act and how to behave, and when I got home it was you or Dad or Gran on me back. Pauline: And you're trying to say that's what made you go off and do all those dreadful things? Mark: Maybe. All I know is when I was on me own, I felt good about meself. Pauline: Even when you were stealing? Mark: Oh no, I never felt good about that. Carol to Bianca: Didn't I bring you up knowing it was wrong to steal? Carol to Bianca: I didn’t bring you up to tart yourself out for drinks. Heather Trott: I’ve never stolen anything in my life. Well, not on purpose anyway. Garry Hobbs: I used to go nicking lead with me mates. Reverend Lewis: You stole lead from church roofs? Garry: Yeah. Detective Sergeant Dougie Slade on himself and Alfie: We go way back. He was a holy terror. Alfie: That's right. We used to go to church every Sunday together. We even sung in the choir! Dougie: Only because he was casing the joint. Lots of silverware in them places! Nick to Lofty: I'm not talking about the demolition caper, am I? You forgetting that plumbing job we was on? Smuggling out all those designer jeans in the pipes? Pauline: Me and your dad, we always prided ourselves that we'd brought you up to know the difference between right and wrong. If we did stifle you, it was only because we cared. Mark: It made me feel terrible, knowing what I was doing was hurting you and Dad so much. Pauline: Why did you do it? Mark: I suppose I felt like I was some kind of disappointment to you. So in the end, I gave up trying. Everybody expected me to behave like a no hoper so I did. Pauline to Arthur: If you'd have stood up to [Mark] and got it sorted when he was a boy, none of this would have happened, but you couldn't face up to it, could you? You knew better. "Leave him alone. He'll be all right. All teenagers are mixed up. He'll be OK." Arthur: I did all I could. I did. Pauline: You couldn't face it. Arthur: And you did such a wonderful job, didn't you?! Wonderful, marvellous Pauline Fowler - Mother of the Year! Pauline: Mark's life would have been totally different if it hadn't have been for Nick. Dot: Lou used to go on about her lot, Pete and Pauline and the rest, moaning about how they were wasting their lives, and I’d sit and I’d nod and I’d feel like screaming out, “You’re lucky. You ain’t got my Nick.” Dot, speaking in 2014: I’ve been expecting [the news of Nick’s death] for over thirty years and grieving just as long. I’ve been facing it for over half me life. My Nick’s been good as dead for years. Lauren Branning: Were you always such a cow, Janine? Janine Butcher: Yes. Janine: I’m despicable. I always have been. Janine: I’ve been hustling since before I could walk. Lydia Simmonds: You were such a sweet little girl. Janine: No, I wasn’t. That’s why you loved me. Lydia to Janine: You’re just like your mother, highly strung. And you clung onto her for dear life. Janine on June: I used to cling to her like a little monkey. I wouldn’t let her put me down. Jean Slater: I had a craving for ginger nuts when I was [pregnant] with Sean. Maybe that’s why his hair turned out that colour! Sue Osman to Ali: You always wanted a baby, didn't you? You couldn't wait, could you? I wanted to wait. You couldn't. You were always a baby. Sue: Do you know what Ali said to me when I was having Hussan? He said, "I don't know what all the fuss is about. In China, they have them in the paddy fields and get straight back to work." Stupid Turk. Sue: When I was a child, there was no love, never. And then when we had Hussan, who I loved and loved, I knew what it was I'd missed. Roxy: Ron, you always used to [do my sewing for me]. Ronnie: I did, but I was about ten and what did I used to say? Roxy: You used to say, “This is the last time.” Ricky Butcher: Everyone’s afraid when they start a new school. I drew spots all over me face and pretended I had measles. Ricky, speaking to his son Liam in 2010: When I was your age [eleven], I was little and people laughed at me. You know what I thought? If I’m so small, if I bunked off [school], no one would notice me — because no-one noticed me at all. Danny Moon on his father: [He’d] beat you up and then leave you aching, wind you up so bad that you’d just want to ... He'd drag you in and then disappear for days, weeks. Two whole weeks he left me and Jake once. I was only eleven. Alfie: Yeah, I know. Danny: Two weeks though. No cash — cadging off the chippy, cadging off your mum. Heather Trott on ‘Take on Me’ by A-Ha: I remember when this was first released, nineteenth of October 1984. I used to have a Morton Harkett necklace. Heather on Prince: I was a massive fan - front row on the Purple Rain tour, 1984. Heather on Hazell Dean: She did [singing:] “Searching, looking for love/All the time that I can/Searching, looking for love/I got to find me a man.” Pauline: Mark was going on and on at us to buy this ring for him. I thought we just couldn't afford it. Arthur said, "No, we'll wait and see," and then come Christmas, there it was, all gift wrapped and under the tree for him. Tina Carter on Christmas: We never had much but Shirl, she always made it special. Do you remember that year I kicked off because there weren’t enough presents and you stayed wrapping everything up in the kitchen? Shirley: You were just a kid then. Naima: That first Christmas we spent together, I wanted you to open the shop. You wanted me to cook Christmas dinner. Saeed: So we compromised. Naima: You opened the shop and I cooked us dinner. Saeed: It was the only turkey ever cooked in spices. Naima: I didn't know there was any other way to cook it. Saeed: And I only had one customer all day long. Naima: Ethel. She wanted cranberry sauce. We didn't have any. Saeed: And then we went for a walk along the canal. Sue: Hussan used to like Christmas. Well, kids do, eh? Den: Didn't you [celebrate Christmas] with your mum? Dennis Rickman: Not so you'd notice. I'd get up, open my presents and have some breakfast. Her and her bloke would crawl out of bed about eleven, go down the pub. I'd sit on my own watching everyone have a great time on the telly. They'd come back half cut. She'd cook while he touched her up. Jean on her son Sean: He wasn’t an easy birth. Breeched, he was. Started out difficult and stayed difficult. Sean was never an easy child. Jean on children: You give birth to them and you have all these dreams for them. You want them to have everything that you didn’t. You want them to be loved and to be safe. Jean: I remember when Sean was [new born] - tiny little fingers and toes, sweet little button nose.[/SIZE] [/QUOTE]
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An Oral History 1985-2015
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