Ancestors on my father's side were encouraged to quit England for the US, which they did – post-haste. The reason why remains unsaid in our family. In the early 1920s, one of my father's uncles was a flim-flam man. He and his cronies used to drive across the country, cutting down the farmers' wire fences. They made little household gadgets from their newly acquired wire and sold them to the farmers' wives.