We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Graham." saying
something like:


I think there was a lot of this about in Edinburgh where my Dad
grew up. It wasn't a particulaly well-to-do area, they didn't have
domestic staff, but there were 3 bells on springs in the kitchen.
One rang when a big brass door-bell was pulled downstairs,
the second rang by turning a bakerlite handle in the lounge,
and the third... I don't remember, the bedroom I suppose.
Also, outside the flat on each landing, was a brass knob you
slid up in a slot and a wire and pully system lifted the latch in the
outside door.

I remember that kit still being in place when my folks moved into a
Victorian building in S.Glasgow. Most of those houses *did* have
domestic staff - the 'staff' was a housemaid who lived in the kitchen
which had a bed recess.
I marvelled at the Victorian bath - a fairly normal claw-foot tub, but
around the top third was a perforated sheet zinc hood affair, topped off
with an overhead pancake shower head. Whole body showers long before
they became common. The water storage tank was up in the roof, about 60'
overhead - I suppose the shower pressure was 'adequate'. Pity it all got
ripped out, would have been worth a fortune later.