Bill,
My last story was so good, that as in New York, New York, So Good They Named It Twice, I had to put it in twice.
Your story of Tommy Butler, is he the little guy, on the right. It must be 60 years now since I saw him. I seem to remember him having an office, before Betting Shops were made legal in Dudley Street or Queen Street.
The bit I like is the Express and Star ad, win a £5000 house. From the cars on show, Singer Gazelle, Hillman Imp, the Mini, a Ford Zodiac what looks like an Austin Sprite the year would have been about 1962. That must have been some house. I bought my first, brand new, in Kidderminster in 64, a two bed dormer bungalow for £3650. £365 deposit, the mortgage was about £60 a month and we thought we would never be able to afford it. We did, then the interest rates went up to about 15%. And we thought we’d never afford that, but we did. People think times are hard now, times were hard then, you just buckled down and worked at it.