The Lottery Man

Today's the day ...................... for one of Will's paintings

This is a bit of one of Will's watercolour paintings that hangs in the hall. It's quite a large picture - 3ft high x 2.5ft wide - and it consists of just the head of the Lottery Man.

He came to our house once a week on a Thursday evening, selling 25p scratch cards. They were a fund-raising venture for a boys football club - in Morecambe and every week we would buy two of them. This wasn't because we had any sort of connection with the football club, but mainly because we liked the Lottery Man.

He was Kendal born and bred and a mine of information on anything to do with the town. He had fingers in every pie and if you wanted something - like well-rotted manure for your garden - he was your man. We just liked listening to his stories. He had a very dry sense of humour and there were several things that he used to say that are now part of our family's vocabulary.

He stopped doing the lottery tickets a few years back and we really quite missed seeing him. Then the day came when we got our allotment and who should we find has a plot not that far away - but our Lottery Man. And, needless to say, it's one of the best plots on the site - probably because he knows a man who can get that well-rotted manure ..........