I think Germany ran out of bombs, or planes, I’m not sure which. You know you can remember certain things even when you were very, very tiny, and I do remember … you know, and I was only … I think the air raids finished in about 1942. LONGSTAFF: Yes, in 1945, was when we had VE day. But, anyway, so I was raised there.ĪNGLIN: Were you about six or seven when the war was over? We did have a lot of air fields around us, especially as the war progressed. They were after factories and ports and air fields. Cambridge never really got bombed because there wasn’t really a lot of industry there. So, anyway, that was in Cambridge and the grocery store was called “Longstaff’s” and, my parents had that … and, anyway, then of course, I remember the war … We had our own air raid shelter at the time, in our stock room, and I remember being dragged down in the middle of the night, twice. LONGSTAFF: But that’s all we have in common.
We both were raised, you know, above a grocery store … So, just like Margaret Thatcher and I, we both had similar rearing. My parents had a small grocery store, something about the size of a 7-11 type store … about that size … and we lived above it. LONGSTAFF: Well, I was born in Cambridge, England, in 1939 just prior to World War II starting. Obviously you are from the United Kingdom in some locale, so tell us where you came from originally. So they always say the best place to begin is at the beginning. So, Richard, thank you for agreeing to participate in this project with The Dallas Way.ĪNGLIN: Thank you. Richard and I have been acquaintances for many years, and he has agreed to give an interview and answer some of our questions and talk about history for a while. Richard, now retired and living in Florida, takes us through his own personal life story, both in England and the United States, his public life as a retailer in Oak Lawn, his deep involvement with the Dallas GLBT community, the torment of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 1990s, his humiliation before the American courts in a futile struggle to become a citizen of the United States, and his hopeful view toward the future.ĪNGLIN: This is Mike Anglin, and I’m acting as the interviewer here on behalf of The Dallas Way, and this is March 31, 2014, at about 2:15 in the afternoon.
Mike Anglin interviews Richard Longstaff, the legendary godfather of Cedar Springs and the owner of popular clothing store Union Jack.