The Diaries of Russell James Sparrow 1908 to 1991
Meeting Miss Offord I didn’t ride solo for long because one night after choir practice I asked a certain Miss Dorothy Offord if I could take her for a walk and that’s how it all started. We had some good times and some narrow squeaks, on bikes of varying sizes finishing up with a 3.5 h.p. model which Mum tried to ride but it was so heavy that when she stopped the thing simply fell over. We attended dances all over the county, mostly on cold winter nights without turning a hair. Our first long journey together was to Bethnal Green, London to see Rufus, Ethel and family for the day and the rain bucketed down all the way, we arrived like 2 drowned rats. The rain persisted and rather than face the homeward journey under those conditions we stayed the night with them and saw our first ‘talkie’ at a cinema in Hackney. At that time Witham was notorious as a speed trap and the really only safe way was to push your bike through the town. I fancied myself as a motorcyclist and remember that at the time we were building some bungalows at Finborough and for a dare I rode to Needham with a pillion passenger without touching the handlebars. Must say there wasn’t as much on the roads as there is today. I also made nearly a clean sweep of the prizes at a motorcycle gymkhana held in connection with the flower show. I became a keen member of the B.B. and attended the annual battalion camps etc., had a short spell as a Junior Beadle in the Foresters and with Mum joined Stow Operatic and Dramatic society and performed in Highwayman Love. Subsequently, after we married, we progressed to concerts and pantomimes with Mrs Russell Quinton & Co. and I did a few solo items for various functions – what talent! Sometimes I played football for the B.B. and if it was away I would go on my motor bike and take another player with me. 24
