There was just one newsagent in Soho who offered home deliveries. The shop was managed by the father of Simon who jumped through the skylight featured in https://derrickjknight.com/2021/11/17/a-knights-tale-66-horse-and-dolphin-yard/
Simon’s Dad later admitted that he had only agreed to deliver our papers because he had thought Jessica was my daughter. I wasn’t sure whether to be pleased about that or not. When the previous deliverer, who was an adult man, gave up the job Michael was given it. This was a real bonus for my son because he was paid as much as the man – namely £10 per week, which was rather a lot in 1975.
One morning Michael had returned from his paper round with a mongrel dog of uncertain age. Naturally he wished to keep him. It seemed to me that it was unreasonable to keep a dog in a tiny first floor flat in the middle of Chinatown. I was, however, outnumbered by two to one. Here was I, doing my best to have a quiet uninterrupted bath, and I had both Jessica and Michael in tears pleading with me for my agreement. Feeling a heel (not one of those in the bath), I stuck to my guns for a while, but eventually reached the following compromise: Michael was instructed to take the dog back where he found him and to attach a note to his collar, and if an owner couldn’t be traced we would keep him. Silly me, I didn’t tell the boy what the note should say. The note, which Jessica kept for the rest of her life, read: ‘If you know this dog, please return him to his owner.’ This was followed by our telephone number. Michael much later confessed that he had not left Piper at all, but simply brought him back home saying he wouldn’t stop following him. The dog was well cared for and had clearly been loved. I often wondered whether something had happened to his original owner, and, if not, what the loss meant to him or her.
Where did he get his name from? Well, he had been found on a paper round, so what better than the Cockney version of paper? Piper he was. Piper was a wanderer, well used to negotiating West End traffic. He always used zebra crossings. Off he would go walkabout, on his solitary expeditions, safely trotting across the striped paths at which all the cars had to stop. One day we had a telephone call (yes, a telephone on a landline, as was usual in those days) from the police. He had turned up in Hyde Park. Would we come and collect him? We explained that he knew his own way home and could safely negotiate the traffic.
After we moved to Gracedale Road in Furzedown Piper continued his wanderings, although at this time only when he could escape. He was by now very old, deaf and blind. One night we received a call from someone who told us that he had been run over on a zebra crossing. Michael and I collected the body and buried him in the garden. A sad end, indeed, but Piper had enjoyed a long and healthy life and perhaps would have chosen this way to go.
He is, of course, Michael’s companion featured in https://derrickjknight.com/2021/11/29/a-knights-tale-72-upstaged/
