[Double Lab]

Originally Posted by edgarspencer

Mike, In the 25 years of going back and forth to the UK, roughly 60 days per year, when in London, I always stayed in the same hotel in South Kensington. The walk to my favorite pub was a pleasant 10 minute, 4 blocks over, and 2 blacks down to Old Brompton Road. My walk back to the hotel was a pleasant 45 minute walk back, 3-5 blocks up, 2-3 blocks over, 4-6 black back the other way. It usually included 4 or 5 garden watering stops. The origin of leather patches on their sweaters (jumpers) was the crawl home from the local. In the outlying villages in was necessary to crawl using your elbows, so that you could hold a drink in one hand and a fag (cigarette) in the other. I know all this because a friend told me.

What made that pleasant walk even more dangerous was the constant bombing by the Luftwaffe.