Interviews of Cyril Wise aged 84 and Dorothy Wise aged 77

Biographical interview (DG44/2/1/1, track 1 of 2) with Cyril (84) and Dorothy (77) Wise of Dumfries, who have been married for 57 years. The couple have spent their working lives running the family business, Newall's toy shop on the Friar's vennel in Dumfries. The business was started by Dorothy's father in 1946 and closed in 1997 when the couple retired. This interview is a follow-up to DG14/8/1/1.

The couple talk about the history of the shop and of how shopping patterns in Dumfries have changed over time. Dorothy talks about her father's creativity and flair: describing for example how he created a kit for making your own Christmas crackers, which was widely distributed. They also talk about other aspects of shop life including: staffing, the Youth Training Scheme, promotional work, publicity, coping with competition from big retailers such as Argos and pre-computer stock control. Other subjects covered here include: the games boys and girls played when Cyril and Dorothy were children, Cyril's love of sports and the outdoors and the pedestrianisation of the vennel. Towards the end of the interview, Cyril talks about the Dumfries Civic Pride week.

In the second part of this interview (DG44/2/1/3) Cyril and Dorothy talk more about running the shop. Additional subjects covered here include: winning a Playmobile competition; contributing toys for the families who had been effected by the Lockerbie air crash; coping with Christmas and the benefits of the Retail Price Maintenance for small businesses.

Towards the end of the interview, Cyril and Dorothy talk about how much house prices have escalated over time. Talking about Christmas, they remark that customers would join the Christmas Club to reserve and save for Christmas presents. At its peak, this club would have had over 1,000 members and Cyril and Dorothy were pleased that they had never lost a gift in all their years running this service.