Paperboy
In my teens I was a paperboy and did a morning round that returned some good Christmas tips. One street on it had Michael Parkinson, Rolf Harris, Gerald Ratner (of the crap jewellery fame, no tips from him), a couple of Arab princes, and no doubt many others. On this street, £20 tips were not uncommon - and 15 years ago this was big money to a spotty oik like me, especially when I had 30 houses on a round.

Another street had Gerry Anderson who did the Thunderbirds series and one of the singers from Three Degrees.

The celebrity chefs Michel Roux and Heston Blumenthal were also customers, although this was before Heston hit the big time.

The best (or worst) tip always came from an old non-famous woman in a house who delighted in running outside in her dressing gown and having it 'not quite done up enough', wearing nothing underneath. She was about 65, and I'm sure it was intentional. The tip wasn't a gawp at her wrinkly flange, it was that she'd give me a £25 M&S voucher every Christmas in return. That was more than a week's wages, and made up for all the droopy tit I had to endure for the other 364 days.
(harrypitta friends with the chilli saucerer, Fri 21 Sep 2012, 10:37, Reply)