are you as old as me,?

Started by alfred, December 22, 2021, 02:19:45 PM

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alfred

If so do you remember going into a Woolworths store, where at that time in the past all the counters were piled high and virtually everything sold then was in the old fashioned money 6 pence per item ,
my fondest memory was my mother buying me a cap firing gun,

do you remember them , a roll of caps which when inserted one at a time into the gun which sounded like the real thing .

of course money was put into a vacuum pipe where i assume it was piped  to the  cashiers office where the change was sent back by the same route.
no chance of a till being robbed then

Q; What other memories do you recall when you too were very young, and did you ever go into a Woolworth's store then, did your parents buy you a toy ,

klondike

I had a clockwork bear from Woolworths. It walked and the head went from side to side. The clockwork running sounded like it was growling. I loved it and played with it so long that the furry cloth that was the skin over the tin plate body got really moth eaten. I saw one like it on Antiques Roadshow. Can't recall what it was worth and certainly not thousands or even hundreds but I think it was enough for me to wish I still had it. Not that I would have sold it anyway. Those sort of things are priceless. I'll see if I can find a picture of one like it.

It was a lot like this one on eBay that they want £195 for but looking at that one I think the fur has been replaced so I'm guessing that like mine it had the mange...



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304255900161?hash=item46d7109a01:g:7zUAAOSww7Vhr08G

Michael Rolls

lovely memories. I remember going with mum into one of those stores with the vacuum tube device, but couldn't tell you the name of the shop
Mike
Thank you for the days, the days you gave me
[email protected]

klondike

Don't remember them in Woolworths but the Co-Op in Rugby still had them in the 80s.

Flying Bomb

Some shops that didn't have the vacuum device had an overhead
wire system. The shop assistant pulled back a tension
lever and let it go and the container shot along the wires
to the cashier.

I still have a 6d tiny Xmas tree bought from Woolworth's.

Remember tins of broken biscuits too in some shops.

klondike

We used to buy those on the way to Saturday morning pictures. Liptons I think.

Michael Rolls

Quote from: Flying Bomb on December 22, 2021, 08:25:12 PM
Some shops that didn't have the vacuum device had an overhead
wire system. The shop assistant pulled back a tension
lever and let it go and the container shot along the wires
to the cashier.

I still have a 6d tiny Xmas tree bought from Woolworth's.

Remember tins of broken biscuits too in some shops.
I remember the overhead wire system as well - again, no idea what shop/s
Mike
Thank you for the days, the days you gave me
[email protected]

zoony

Quote from: Michael Rolls on December 22, 2021, 07:24:01 PM
lovely memories. I remember going with mum into one of those stores with the vacuum tube device, but couldn't tell you the name of the shop
Mike

A couple or three years ago Mike, I was in A&E for a few hours and ended up on a trolley in the triage centre. Fascinating place. Lots of computer screens controlled by hand gestures and hi-tech stuff, a very modern, clinical environment with, in the corner, an old-fashioned vacuum tube linking that room with the bloods lab upstairs. Specimens were put in the vacuum tube, sent to the lab and very rapidly the results came back the same way. Superb direct delivery system but straight from the 19th century.

Michael Rolls

Thank you for the days, the days you gave me
[email protected]

klondike

Now you mention it I think I've seen one in a hospital. It makes a lot of sense when the alternative is somebody hand carrying it.