Res.2.22 Male resident, c.50 yrs, married, corporation tenant, male interviewer, 8 March 1961

INTVEE is described as rather aggressive but not unfriendly. He lives on the ground floor of a two storey block with his wife and two children aged 15 and 12. He has older children who no longer live at home. He'd like to move if he could. His house is a four-apartment, he likes it but thinks the rent is too high at 26/3d. INTVER describes the house as dingy, it is decorated with contemporary style paper on the wall but the paintwork is battered and the floor coverings scruffy - dirty lino with a few worn out mats. INTVER thinks it doesn't look like a house in which a woman lives and wonders if INTVEE's wife doesn't have time to bother. There is a fairly new television in the living room and a radiogramme. INTVER also notes that "above the mantelpiece was an absolutely hideous combination of mirror and picture which I think must have come from Woolworth's, and on the opposite wall were two huge base-relief plates with pictures of mules on". INTVER likes the fireplace which is an old iron one. INTVEE has the fire on most of the time so he can get enough hot water, when asked about the smokeless zone, he says he'd almost think of moving out of the Edinburgh before giving up his coal fire, coke and anthracite are no good. He would like to have a front door of his own and is fed up of the light on the stair breaking. He thinks the corporation should do more to make the estate look nice, they had been on at him for not digging his garden but due to a disability he is unable to do it himself. The corporation are letting garages nearby for £2 10s but there is a big waiting list. He wants to make a garage out of asbestos and put wheels on it so they can't charge him for it. He doesn't think it is a good neighbourhood, there's a lot of scrounging people, it's worse than it was when he moved in. He's the only person on the stair who has been there since the beginning. During the war he grew vegetables in the front garden but local children would come and steal them so he connected the fence to the mains electricity. There is nowhere for the children to go and the builders left stones and bricks so of course the children are going to throw them about. He likes his neighbours but doesn't socialise with them. He watches television every night, INTVER comments that he is not ashamed to admit this unlike some other interviewees. He listens to Housewifes Choice every morning on the wireless. He does not like the NAB [National Assistance Board] as they have been on at him and told him he shouldn't go to the pictures. INTVER notes that he is the first person to criticise the NAB. He thinks the corporation waste money and produce the worst services in the country, the roads are awful and the fences shoddy, they put in shoddy things that don't last. Edinburgh is a question of pride and poverty. He doesn't like the church - thinks it's too much like a dance hall and the roller blinds inside are an eyesore. He doesn't like the police, they asked friends of his to turn out their pockets and kicked one of them in the backside. If he had the money he'd like to buy his own small detached house in the country. He thinks Thomas Gaffe who runs one of the mobile vans is doing really well, he has a shop in Longstone and runs three vans.