Louise Crisp

Interviewed by Eve Klein on 14 August 2000
Subject: Shops & Shopping

Louise Crisp. The other thing I remember was a lovely old Chinese man who used to bring ginger and he had a dray, which he pulled himself, filled with pots of ginger. Grandma said to him: ‘That is too heavy for you to bring, I’ve got a shed in the garden if you want to put it there’. So he used to park it there and his ginger, and come on Saturdays and sell it. When he was very old, I remember he visited us one day and he said: ‘I’m going home to China to die’, and he gave my grandmother a beautiful ceramic pot filled with this luscious ginger, and I’ve still got the pot.

Eve Klein. That was in gratitude for her assistance.

Louise Crisp. Yes, because she just thought it was too much – too heavy for him to pull. And she was a self appointed RSPCA person in the name to check the horses, and she would make men stop and she’d see if there was any chaff caught in their teeth because she said that would hurt them. She made sure that all the leather straps were on properly, and not too tight. They were quite nervous. I think she actually said she was from the RSPCA or something, but she loved the animals.