Lyn, yes I remember Home and Colonial, Metropole and many other stores that crowded the High Streets, we had a self owned shop in our village that had Paraffin at one end of the counter and hard cheese on the counter at the other end, The butter was cut from a churn and patted up with two paddles, the bacon was on a large bacon slicer, "thick or thin" they would ask. Broken biscuits help yourself, how many hands went in that box I wonder. Tea came in packets and coffee was for toffs, I still only have around one cup of coffee a fortnight although I drink tea all day. The Co-op was the best shop in the village and town with the paraffin out back everything scrubbed down and real clean sawdust on the floor, "do not forget our number" 14958 Mother would say as she sent me off for something. Shopping then was an adventure, today it is a chore, people would stop and talk now they swear and belt you with a trolley as they rush around without a spare second in their diaries. When we are all forced to shop on line because of closures will all those extra vans flying around be the end of the world I ask?
I always collected the ty phoo cards, I still have the albums now,
those were the days when mum sent you up the co op from 4 years old to get something, I dont think now she ever wanted it, just gave me as job to get me streetwise. and the number was 978725, how strange we never forget these things, but what did I have for dinner yesterday, not a clue!
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Goodness me! What a busy lot you have been and I've only just had my first coffee.
Welcome Blackest.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. The powers that be, who granted permission for all these out-of-town stores, could never have realised just what would happen to our local shops and High Streets. I'm as bad as the rest, wanting everything under one roof, so I am being a hypocrite if I moan about the charity/restaurants/fast food outlets/empty shops that now exist in my town. It is a dead town which the Council keep chucking money at in the hope that it will attract people, but fancy pavements, planters etc. ain't going to make an ounce of difference. But that's another rant that I could go on about all day - council spending!
No Lyn, I don't think you are old at all! Surely everyone remembers the cards!
Lyn, in those days a village was a village, ours had the pond and the green, the Blacksmiths, three Church's and local shops including five Butchers who slaughtered their own meat. We had a small holding so also killed our own the garden fed us for the year we also had a car few and far between so travelled. The village was a safe place because everyone knew each other kids could play out around the fields and woods with no fear. Now our village Norton, quite largely unchanged is joined to Stockton in one long gaggle of housing and roads. I do local history with the Town Library often putting right incorrect information entered by people who have some knowledge then guess the rest. History to me is what you lived at the time and not guess work if I cannot give a complete answer I leave it alone. My Daughters have had me writing it all down since around 2000 so I have reams of files which come in handy for the local Remember When papers who ask for information, it all keeps me active and on the move. History is OK in its place although I watch the Grandchildren move ahead with new technology, different aspirations, and envy them the challenges ahead at the same time feeling sorry at what we had and they have missed, it is progress Lyn.
That kind of village living was a privilege, really, compared with the way many people had to live in cities. Today, it is often the preserve of the well-to-do and the kind of stable, financially mixed communities there have largely disappeared. It is a shame, because it was healthier in many ways to live near family and friends and feel secure in your own environment. Today the population is much more mobile and increasing wealth has meant increasing demand for quick shopping and lots of entertainment and gadgets. It all isolates people from long-term relationships with a community.
I remember the Home and Colonial and going there with my mother and being served from behind a counter. Fewer women had jobs and had time and energy for domestic pursuits and social relationships. There was a down side, of course, and since I worked all my life I would be a hypocrite to get too sentimental about another lifestyle. I do wonder, though, whether I invested my energy in the right things. I earned well and used my brain, but family life was not strengthened by the number of hours I had to work and I had little time for friends, except work colleagues. There was a lot to be said for older values, despite the lack of money that people often endured.
I've always lived out of town, but my secondary school and whole working life was spent in and around the City of London. I was on the tube train bombed at Aldgate and my office was blown to smithereens by the IRA in the early 90's, so I feel like I lived two parallel lives. The one at home was very different to the London one, but I'm not complaining - I have seen so much of interest over the years!
Like GG I remember going to the Home & Colonial with Mum, in Plymouth, when I was a titch - also remember going to Sainsbury's which in those days was very similar - marble counters and a cashier in his little cubicle.
Those were the days - but we live in interesting, and sometimes a little strange, times - but that's what life is about. Move forward, but always look back at what the past and the wonderful people have given us.
Really enjoying reading your trips down memory lane, tis making me feel young, but made me wonder what will our kids be talking about in 30 or 40 years time, something like i can mind when self-scanners first came out and we used to laugh at mum trying to use them...
I look back with happiness when I think of the lovely times I had with my children pre-school. Visiting friends and having to shout to make ourselves heard over the noise, days at the coast when weather good, visits to parks and loads of time in the garden as long as it was dry. I think young people these days miss out on so much of their children's baby/toddler days. I wouldn't change mine at all.
Posts
You are very well come ,as you can see from my Avatar i'm in Clogher 13k to the nth of Drogheda
Derek
Lyn, yes I remember Home and Colonial, Metropole and many other stores that crowded the High Streets, we had a self owned shop in our village that had Paraffin at one end of the counter and hard cheese on the counter at the other end, The butter was cut from a churn and patted up with two paddles, the bacon was on a large bacon slicer, "thick or thin" they would ask. Broken biscuits help yourself, how many hands went in that box I wonder. Tea came in packets and coffee was for toffs, I still only have around one cup of coffee a fortnight although I drink tea all day.
The Co-op was the best shop in the village and town with the paraffin out back everything scrubbed down and real clean sawdust on the floor, "do not forget our number" 14958 Mother would say as she sent me off for something.
Shopping then was an adventure, today it is a chore, people would stop and talk now they swear and belt you with a trolley as they rush around without a spare second in their diaries.
When we are all forced to shop on line because of closures will all those extra vans flying around be the end of the world I ask?
Frank.
I lov e that post Frank!
I always collected the ty phoo cards, I still have the albums now,
those were the days when mum sent you up the co op from 4 years old to get something, I dont think now she ever wanted it, just gave me as job to get me streetwise. and the number was 978725, how strange we never forget these things, but what did I have for dinner yesterday, not a clue!
Goodmorning all.
Goodness me! What a busy lot you have been and I've only just had my first coffee.
Welcome Blackest.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. The powers that be, who granted permission for all these out-of-town stores, could never have realised just what would happen to our local shops and High Streets. I'm as bad as the rest, wanting everything under one roof, so I am being a hypocrite if I moan about the charity/restaurants/fast food outlets/empty shops that now exist in my town. It is a dead town which the Council keep chucking money at in the hope that it will attract people, but fancy pavements, planters etc. ain't going to make an ounce of difference. But that's another rant that I could go on about all day - council spending!
No Lyn, I don't think you are old at all! Surely everyone remembers the cards!
Lyn, in those days a village was a village, ours had the pond and the green, the Blacksmiths, three Church's and local shops including five Butchers who slaughtered their own meat. We had a small holding so also killed our own the garden fed us for the year we also had a car few and far between so travelled. The village was a safe place because everyone knew each other kids could play out around the fields and woods with no fear.
Now our village Norton, quite largely unchanged is joined to Stockton in one long gaggle of housing and roads. I do local history with the Town Library often putting right incorrect information entered by people who have some knowledge then guess the rest. History to me is what you lived at the time and not guess work if I cannot give a complete answer I leave it alone.
My Daughters have had me writing it all down since around 2000 so I have reams of files which come in handy for the local Remember When papers who ask for information, it all keeps me active and on the move.
History is OK in its place although I watch the Grandchildren move ahead with new technology, different aspirations, and envy them the challenges ahead at the same time feeling sorry at what we had and they have missed, it is progress Lyn.
Frank.
That kind of village living was a privilege, really, compared with the way many people had to live in cities. Today, it is often the preserve of the well-to-do and the kind of stable, financially mixed communities there have largely disappeared. It is a shame, because it was healthier in many ways to live near family and friends and feel secure in your own environment. Today the population is much more mobile and increasing wealth has meant increasing demand for quick shopping and lots of entertainment and gadgets. It all isolates people from long-term relationships with a community.
I remember the Home and Colonial and going there with my mother and being served from behind a counter. Fewer women had jobs and had time and energy for domestic pursuits and social relationships. There was a down side, of course, and since I worked all my life I would be a hypocrite to get too sentimental about another lifestyle. I do wonder, though, whether I invested my energy in the right things. I earned well and used my brain, but family life was not strengthened by the number of hours I had to work and I had little time for friends, except work colleagues. There was a lot to be said for older values, despite the lack of money that people often endured.
Like GG I remember going to the Home & Colonial with Mum, in Plymouth, when I was a titch - also remember going to Sainsbury's which in those days was very similar - marble counters and a cashier in his little cubicle.
Those were the days - but we live in interesting, and sometimes a little strange, times - but that's what life is about. Move forward, but always look back at what the past and the wonderful people have given us.
Really enjoying reading your trips down memory lane, tis making me feel young, but made me wonder what will our kids be talking about in 30 or 40 years time, something like i can mind when self-scanners first came out and we used to laugh at mum trying to use them...
Davie-S
Percy-Grower
I look back with happiness when I think of the lovely times I had with my children pre-school. Visiting friends and having to shout to make ourselves heard over the noise, days at the coast when weather good, visits to parks and loads of time in the garden as long as it was dry. I think young people these days miss out on so much of their children's baby/toddler days. I wouldn't change mine at all.