Banbury
The last postcard has an amusing message from an American cyclist:
On this street with $18000 in my pocket I tried to buy a post card & couldn’t. American dollar worthless.
Riding out of Banbury I caught up with a 14 yr old lad riding out to put up signs. Wanted to have company so spoke to him,. We rode along for 12 miles together. Walked up two hills.
I told him I wheeled up Sunrise Hill. He looked aghast and asked me to make sure. “And you didn’t get off once?” I told him “Of course not.” He was silent. Then I said, why surely many do that don’t they? You’re the first, he replied. Then I laughed & told him the truth how I sweated up that hill pulling my bike.
We had a great time – I told him I was a student – he said there was “no fear” of his wanting to go to school. Told me his name was Allan Kirkland – I asked him many questions. We stopped for water – took pictures with children. Children we snapped: Joe, Kenneth, & Hilda.
Furtherest [sic] he had ever been from home. Never had been Oxford or Stratford – Had lived here 9 years. Allan told me about “sullying” hay. He forgot his “glass” light. We struck a new “rubber” road – Allan said “They say there’s a lot of life in it.”
Allan appears to have put his name and address on the postcard for the American tourist, as another hand has written: “Allan Kirkland, Grange House, Banbury, England.”