AnniD, Stockton has changed in 38 years I say for the better having seen it from the War years to now. The Market still runs twice a week though a mere shadow of what it once was. The Town Council are forward looking and have spent money on changing the High Street into a lovely Family area and attract street shows music raves and some of the top entertainers, they all attract life into the town and the Cafe's Coffee shops and other outlets survive. We can now view the River from the High Street as a panorama instead of a narrow view down Silver Street or Bishop Street, the river attracts water sports after the big clean up, it is now a fresh water lake where once it was a tidal sewer, the fish are back.
You would not recognise the place now AnniD though the flower plant stall is still there, look it up on Google or even Picture Stockton the History Forum i write on. Progress is always two steps forward one step back, the Town I knew as a mad youth has gone and people rue that but I do not, my Grandchildren think it a great place to live as I did and still do. Give it 50 years and town centres will be back to Houses, quiet residential places they once were, change goes around in circles, each generation will put their stamp on things as they always did.
Thanks Frank, l will do that. We have very fond memories of the place, l moved there as a newly wed and made many friends, some of whom l am still in touch with. Maybe one day we will revisit and see all the changes!
I’m in my late 30s, single mother, two children one very disabled. Full time carer, lots of second hand furnature. I’m old enough to remember how it was and young enough to have been in on the ground floor of the internet revolution and I’m the absolute master of finding exactly what I want at the lowest possible price.
I know a lot of older people and it has become the default in our circle for people to give me the money in cash, tell me what they want, and have me buy stuff for them. There is nothing I can do about it but it’s down to fear and the “I can’t“ mentality. People who “don’t trust the internet” are perfectly happy to trust me and I’m using PayPal to make those purchases so it defies all logic. It’s even weirder when I tell them things could take a month to turn up because I’m ordering in from the chinese version of amazon and they are perfectly fine with it because of the money saved.
I have no car and believe me Tescos home delivery is a god send. Before home delivery started it was an absolute mission doing the weekly shop, now it takes 5 mins online and I can get a 8am-9am delivery slot instead of sacrificing a entire day.
That day can be spent “bimbling“ around the market at my own pace.
Mike, Think about it, you had the time to mooch around checking prices and then to go back and buy at the best value to you, Modern married do not have this time, they barely keep their noses above water if they need a home, transport and all the other things their parents had. The bank of Mum and Dad now usually includes bank of Granddad too. Last year was a wedding one Granddaughter two births the other Granddaughters and this year another birth. They cost money and I was glad to help knowing the struggle we had and the help we got. Also this year two moved into a new house near where they work more expense and they had to share it, both are University graduates and both get less money than I get in pensions, something tells me that cannot be right.
My argument is they do not have the time to shop as we had too, it is not their choice but the lifestyle, they work to live, they can only look at their parents and grandparents with the hope they will one day reach those standards and possibly inherit the wealth we worked hard for but in an easier time.
Times change people change with it, in just over 170 years Stockton High Street went from posh Town Houses to a Street of shops and Emporiums with Cinema's dance Halls and Music Halls it is now retreating back to those times and I am sure will be back to a street of houses in the next few decades. My Busy Daughters use online shopping even I use it through my Daughter more so in this weather. Years ago Mike we had no Fridges yet preserved food quite easily but then there were no sell by dates either as the VE and VJ street parties showed we were eating pre-war tinned and dried food with no ill effect, somethings change for the worse i will give you that.
I think it’s very sad that some old people have to live in the past, usually because of loneliness now and no sign of that changing in their future, So they cling on to what they thought was good way back.
The only thing that’s the same now is the ‘payday loan’, take your wedding ring down to uncles and get it back on payday.
We are so lucky to live in this internet age, and for people who are carers it’s a Godsend. Even if you’re not a carer, who wants to spend time in a SM, picking up other people’s flu germs, and dare I mention it...driving your car everyday to get shopping.
Ive never had to pay for a return to Amazon or EBay, but I do make sure the item is what I want in the first place. If it arrives damaged, they send you a pre paid label or refund the postage.
Such a shame some people are frightened by it all, there should be more computer classes for beginners so they may be reassured about this new technology..
One of my sisters in law has a computer but scared of connecting to the net she uses it to store her photos on.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Buying online may be relatively new, but back in the 50s and 60s its predecessor was alive and fully functioning in rural Suffolk ... we lived on a farm in a tiny hamlet with no shops ... there were only two buses a week and they went to the big town 12 miles away, not the villages around where there were butchers and bakers shops ... Ma didn't drive and anyway had work to do on the farm so didn't have time to go shopping ... we would have been really isolated had it not been for telephone ordering.
Every week on a Thursday Ma would telephone the International Stores in Framlingham (yes that place where Ed Sheerhan lives) and give her grocery order and it would be delivered the following day ... I still have one of her order books with her weekly orders and the prices, including a birthday cake with pink icing for me
The butcher from the next village delivered twice a week ... Ma planned meals ahead and each time one order was delivered Ma would give the order for the following delivery ... we didn't have a fridge or freezer until the 1970s ... meat kept perfectly well on a marble slab in a cold pantry with a gauze window on the north wall of the house. The baker and greengrocer also delivered twice a week.
Ma hardly ever "went shopping".
Last edited: 21 January 2018 11:13:47
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I am probably a bit younger than some who have posted but I remember when large supermarkets were few and far between.
i was a young child in the late 60’s and remember my mum putting my brother and I in a double buggy and pushing it several miles to Fine Fare at Tolworth Broadway.
We would then get out and the food piled in and we walked home. Sometimes we would sit on top of the tins and mum would push the shopping and us home. We were poor and the money saved on not getting the bus meant we might have a cheap pack of buisuits that week. My mum was divorced (long before it was an easy thing) and my dad often failed to pay any maintaince. No car not that she could afford one and no such thing as internet shopping.
I don’t know what was so good about these so called good old days. No fitted carpets, double glazing or central heating. No real help for single parents, no child tax credits, no free hours childcare so she could get a day job. The money would run out so no coal for the fireplace that week. my mum would be up till the early hours sewing shopping bags for pennies or we were left outside someone's house whilst she went in to clean. I can only thank god that times have changed and if those changes include internet shopping it is all the better.
To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.
Because the past is the past for a reason. It's been, and now it is gone, So stop trying to think of ways to fix it. It's done, it's unchangeable, move on.
Love your story Sussex Sun, my son was born In 1968 and I would walk to the Fine Fare for the shopping. I did dress making, selling Tupperware, repairing kettles and toaster for people, and anything else i could do to make money.
Frank I love that poem, so true, it seems that we all near enough agree that it’s far better now than it was, and it will be even better in the future.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Posts
AnniD, Stockton has changed in 38 years I say for the better having seen it from the War years to now. The Market still runs twice a week though a mere shadow of what it once was. The Town Council are forward looking and have spent money on changing the High Street into a lovely Family area and attract street shows music raves and some of the top entertainers, they all attract life into the town and the Cafe's Coffee shops and other outlets survive. We can now view the River from the High Street as a panorama instead of a narrow view down Silver Street or Bishop Street, the river attracts water sports after the big clean up, it is now a fresh water lake where once it was a tidal sewer, the fish are back.
You would not recognise the place now AnniD though the flower plant stall is still there, look it up on Google or even Picture Stockton the History Forum i write on. Progress is always two steps forward one step back, the Town I knew as a mad youth has gone and people rue that but I do not, my Grandchildren think it a great place to live as I did and still do. Give it 50 years and town centres will be back to Houses, quiet residential places they once were, change goes around in circles, each generation will put their stamp on things as they always did.
Frank.
Thanks Frank, l will do that. We have very fond memories of the place, l moved there as a newly wed and made many friends, some of whom l am still in touch with. Maybe one day we will revisit and see all the changes!
I’m in my late 30s, single mother, two children one very disabled. Full time carer, lots of second hand furnature. I’m old enough to remember how it was and young enough to have been in on the ground floor of the internet revolution and I’m the absolute master of finding exactly what I want at the lowest possible price.
I know a lot of older people and it has become the default in our circle for people to give me the money in cash, tell me what they want, and have me buy stuff for them. There is nothing I can do about it but it’s down to fear and the “I can’t“ mentality. People who “don’t trust the internet” are perfectly happy to trust me and I’m using PayPal to make those purchases so it defies all logic. It’s even weirder when I tell them things could take a month to turn up because I’m ordering in from the chinese version of amazon and they are perfectly fine with it because of the money saved.
I have no car and believe me Tescos home delivery is a god send. Before home delivery started it was an absolute mission doing the weekly shop, now it takes 5 mins online and I can get a 8am-9am delivery slot instead of sacrificing a entire day.
That day can be spent “bimbling“ around the market at my own pace.
Mike, Think about it, you had the time to mooch around checking prices and then to go back and buy at the best value to you, Modern married do not have this time, they barely keep their noses above water if they need a home, transport and all the other things their parents had. The bank of Mum and Dad now usually includes bank of Granddad too. Last year was a wedding one Granddaughter two births the other Granddaughters and this year another birth. They cost money and I was glad to help knowing the struggle we had and the help we got. Also this year two moved into a new house near where they work more expense and they had to share it, both are University graduates and both get less money than I get in pensions, something tells me that cannot be right.
My argument is they do not have the time to shop as we had too, it is not their choice but the lifestyle, they work to live, they can only look at their parents and grandparents with the hope they will one day reach those standards and possibly inherit the wealth we worked hard for but in an easier time.
Times change people change with it, in just over 170 years Stockton High Street went from posh Town Houses to a Street of shops and Emporiums with Cinema's dance Halls and Music Halls it is now retreating back to those times and I am sure will be back to a street of houses in the next few decades. My Busy Daughters use online shopping even I use it through my Daughter more so in this weather. Years ago Mike we had no Fridges yet preserved food quite easily but then there were no sell by dates either as the VE and VJ street parties showed we were eating pre-war tinned and dried food with no ill effect, somethings change for the worse i will give you that.
Frank.
I think it’s very sad that some old people have to live in the past, usually because of loneliness now and no sign of that changing in their future, So they cling on to what they thought was good way back.
The only thing that’s the same now is the ‘payday loan’, take your wedding ring down to uncles and get it back on payday.
We are so lucky to live in this internet age, and for people who are carers it’s a Godsend. Even if you’re not a carer, who wants to spend time in a SM, picking up other people’s flu germs, and dare I mention it...driving your car everyday to get shopping.
Ive never had to pay for a return to Amazon or EBay, but I do make sure the item is what I want in the first place. If it arrives damaged, they send you a pre paid label or refund the postage.
Such a shame some people are frightened by it all, there should be more computer classes for beginners so they may be reassured about this new technology..
One of my sisters in law has a computer but scared of connecting to the net she uses it to store her photos on.
Buying online may be relatively new, but back in the 50s and 60s its predecessor was alive and fully functioning in rural Suffolk ... we lived on a farm in a tiny hamlet with no shops ... there were only two buses a week and they went to the big town 12 miles away, not the villages around where there were butchers and bakers shops ... Ma didn't drive and anyway had work to do on the farm so didn't have time to go shopping ... we would have been really isolated had it not been for telephone ordering.
Every week on a Thursday Ma would telephone the International Stores in Framlingham (yes that place where Ed Sheerhan lives) and give her grocery order and it would be delivered the following day ... I still have one of her order books with her weekly orders and the prices, including a birthday cake with pink icing for me
The butcher from the next village delivered twice a week ... Ma planned meals ahead and each time one order was delivered Ma would give the order for the following delivery ... we didn't have a fridge or freezer until the 1970s ... meat kept perfectly well on a marble slab in a cold pantry with a gauze window on the north wall of the house. The baker and greengrocer also delivered twice a week.
Ma hardly ever "went shopping".
Last edited: 21 January 2018 11:13:47
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Reflecting on this thread brought to mind a line from a poem by Edward Thomas 'Early one morning in May ...: in which he says ...
"The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet, The only sweet thing that is not also fleet ..."
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I am probably a bit younger than some who have posted but I remember when large supermarkets were few and far between.
i was a young child in the late 60’s and remember my mum putting my brother and I in a double buggy and pushing it several miles to Fine Fare at Tolworth Broadway.
We would then get out and the food piled in and we walked home. Sometimes we would sit on top of the tins and mum would push the shopping and us home. We were poor and the money saved on not getting the bus meant we might have a cheap pack of buisuits that week. My mum was divorced (long before it was an easy thing) and my dad often failed to pay any maintaince. No car not that she could afford one and no such thing as internet shopping.
I don’t know what was so good about these so called good old days. No fitted carpets, double glazing or central heating. No real help for single parents, no child tax credits, no free hours childcare so she could get a day job. The money would run out so no coal for the fireplace that week. my mum would be up till the early hours sewing shopping bags for pennies or we were left outside someone's house whilst she went in to clean. I can only thank god that times have changed and if those changes include internet shopping it is all the better.
Because the past is the past for a reason.
It's been, and now it is gone,
So stop trying to think of ways to fix it.
It's done, it's unchangeable, move on.
Not my effort author unknown but so true.
Frank.
Love your story Sussex Sun, my son was born In 1968 and I would walk to the Fine Fare for the shopping. I did dress making, selling Tupperware, repairing kettles and toaster for people, and anything else i could do to make money.
Frank I love that poem, so true, it seems that we all near enough agree that it’s far better now than it was, and it will be even better in the future.