Drinking with the Travellers could be murder - not because of their heavy drinking, which occurred, but because of their generosity
If a stranger drank in their company everybody bought you a drink
We had a strange experience in a pub on Whitechapel Road when night
Usually Travellers could only get served in pubs where the beer was fairly standard 0 Watneys, which you could safely serve to children being standard
The Travellers were knew became regulars at a real ale pub which served an assortment of the best and strongest
When one of the company order a pint of bitter, the barman pulled whatever was nearest - Everards Tiger, Youngs Special Brew, Hoxton Heavy..... by 9-30 the bar was like The Somme - littered with the dead and wounded
When we rose to leave Pat looked under the bench we were sitting on to find 5 untouched pints people had bought for her- that was her first order - that's what she got all night
At no time had we been allowed to buy a round - hard work but somebody had to do it !!
Jim