Comments on: I’d love to spend a penny…

By: Magpie 11

Magpie 11 — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:10:18 +0000

The Mr (and Mrs) Os of this world seem to be long gone in the Urban Jungle….or is it just the (so called) Feral Youth that causes the problems?

One ‘O’ from my child hood was Effie Bell of the Village shop which seemed to be miles from anywhere but wasn’t really.

Effie, my parents insisted we called her Mrs Bell, used to wrinkle her nose like a rabbit. She had a bun and wore an all round pinafore. Hanging from the ceiling were broom heads and sides of bacon. ‘Out the back’ was where she kept the paraffin and candles along with the kindling wood. Not that any one would have bought kindling as far as I know. We all had hand axes to chop it. I still have ours over 50 years later.

Effie made bags out of blue (sugar?) paper for sugar or salt or flour. I don’t kow if she used butter pats to serve the butter but wouldn’t be surprised if she did.

BTW what’s all tis about having 1p, 2p, 3p etc to spend? I had 6d a week pocket money and remember offering to pay back the 5s that I accidently threw int o the local pond once on my way to Mrs Bell’s shop. It was wrapped in a shopping list in my pocket amongst the stones I picked up to throw into the pond.

I’ll shut up now…..’cept to say I still love Aniseed balls in a conical bag.

By: Grannymar

Grannymar — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:10:08 +0000

Nick, I rescued you from my spam bin. Were you a naughty boy to land in there? Apologies., I will try not to let it happen again.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:52:27 +0000

The local sweetshop didn’t have a such a big place in my life, though I do remember how hard it was to choose from such an incredible selection of sweets, and how excited I got spending my 1p or 2p or 3p. And goodness, I ‘d forgotten about the ice cream wrapped in old newspaper. How ingenious we had to be before we got all those modern appliances like domestic fridges and freezers!

By: Grannymar

Grannymar — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:45:21 +0000

Steph before or after the puddin?

By: steph

steph — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:40:04 +0000

Yes, you’re right GM

There was a block with three colours in it and I think it was called ‘Neapolitan’?

http://www.foodreference.com/html/f-neapolitan-ice-cream.html

Now, there’s an idea for St. Patrick’s Day next year…

green, white, and ‘yella’ ice-cream wafers!

By: Grannymar

Grannymar — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:14:16 +0000

Steph,
I remember the ice-cream blocks, Palm Grove of HB and the flavours were plain or ripple! Am I right in thinking there was a block with three colours in it. Mr O made an art of marking and cutting the ice-cream.

If you bought a full block he wrapped it in an old newspaper to keep it cold! Can you imagine that happening nowadays?

By: Grannymar

Grannymar — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:07:16 +0000

Chris ~ did you not tire of eating sweets? I bet you are good at long tots in your head.

Paddy ~ Mr O was part of our childhood.

By: steph

steph — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:07:02 +0000

Paddy has said what I wanted to say really, and said it very well.

Rest in Peace Mr O.

GM - do you remember buying ice cream wafers as a child?

The shopkeeper would ask whether you wanted a 1p, 2p or 3p wafer. He would then get out a block of vanilla ice-cream and mark it with a special metal divider, before cutting the ice-cream to size.

Those were the good ‘ol days before cones came into vogue and before health and hygiene inspectors were invented

By: Paddy Bloggit

Paddy Bloggit — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:08:15 +0000

A leaf may have fallen but you’ve planted a nice memory of him here on your blog.

You wrote a wonderful obituary.

By: chrisb

chrisb — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:54:34 +0000

Grannymar he sounds a wonderful gentleman who will be sadly missed. Reading your linked post, Mr O’s shop sounds a lot like the one my parents owned when I was a child. Can you imagine living behind a sweet shop~ but I also had to work pretty hard from a young age, serving in the shop and delivering papers!