'Tubby' Lard likes to come out with things which take all of us aback. For example the other night he pulled up on his bike and said: "Do none of you realise that the life you lead on this prefab estate is risibly claustrophobic!"
Gary Bollard of prefab number four was clearly needled by this. "Just what do you expect! There are caravan sites which are bigger and have more facilities than this place!"
"And caravan sites have lots of different people who are constantly coming and going" said Len Sullivan (prefab number thirty-three.) "There is not much coming and going around here. Almost everyone who moved into these prefabs back in the late 1940s is still here today. And what makes things worse is the fact that other people - especially those who live up in the Admiralty council houses in Camelot Green - steer well clear of us."
"That could be because they kow about the prefabs' asbestos-lined walls" suggested Adrian Denton. (The resident of prefab number thirty-six had been coughing away for a couple of weeks.) "They might not be steering clear of the estate because of us."
"Well they can steer clear of us for good" said Jane Lewis of prefab number thirteen. "That is their problem. In Gloucestershire they say 'You only miss the water when the well is dry'. Well, the well we are drinking from is not dry at all. It is full to the brim with our families and friends. 'People like 'Tubby' Lard are going to miss this 'risible claustrophobic' place like mad one day."
(Jane ignored the sniggers which followed her "Well the well").
"It is alright for you, Jane" someone passing by said. "You don't have to live next door to the Swileys!"
"But Jane is right!" said Adrian Denton. (Adrian was in a buoyant mood despite nursing the latest black eye that his old man, the grumpy bus conductor known as Hawkeye, had given him). "Just think of all the games we play and the laughs we have here."
"And just think of all the people who are laughing at us!" said 'Tubby' Lard. "What you forget is that those who do not live in prefabs like to cheer themselves up by making fun of people who do!"
"One of the hard truths about our small prefab world is that it is too inward looking" said 'Ossie' Oster from prefab number seventeen. We hardly ever come across anyone who lives in a real house and goes to a real school - the ones with tennis courts and libraries filled with books on Greek and Latin. Do we travel to Athens and Rome? Do we meet lots of smart people? No - we
fritter our summer holidays away by sitting on top of coalhouse roofs and let our brains rust away."
"It's all summed up by Mark 4: 25" said Len Sullivan. (The resident of prefab number thirty-three enjoyed showing off the fruits of learning from his Saint Michael Is No Angel Sunday School days.)

'For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.'

What the author of these words sid was to completely suss out the way social structures like ours works."
"For heaven's sake, give it a rest and wake up!" (Ann Brown-Sloane had a knack of having the final say.) "Jane Lewis sems to be the only one around here who really understands just how stupendously rich we all are. We have homes to go to, we have loads of friends!" ("Well, you do!" whispered Len). "We really belong. We live in lovely places with mod. cons. and gardens. We enjoy the kind of freedom which people laid down their lives for. What we should be doing is thanking our lucky stars and grabbing hold of the feast of life!"
Len Sulivan muttered something about grabbing hold of the feast who was sat just a few feet away from him. But the debate was over. There was even a round of applause for Ann Brown-Sloane. Her magic had worked once again.