Remember these.? All our yesterdays

[CitroJim]

I’m sure we used to call them a cow gown.

I can think of some old cows that used to wear them

The enamel collection is coming along nicely Neil

[Armidillo]

Can't imagine why you lot would think these things are rare or obsolete - I would imagine that every camping store in Australia still carries them - not to mention, as Jim found, souvenir shops (and K-Mart).

[CitroJim]

Ahh K-Mart That brings back some happy memories of my time living down-under!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Can't imagine why you lot would think these things are rare or obsolete - I would imagine that every camping store in Australia still carries them - not to mention, as Jim found, souvenir shops (and K-Mart).

Added it to the gallery. Certainly if you look at the price list of the "Falcon" brand, you will find that some enamelware has moved out of the ordinary and everyday into the "House Beautiful Magazine" nostalgia market with a price to match. Not an avalanche so far of FCF enamelware original photos, so maybe indeed a rarity.

https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/lifes ... namelware/
"Why every home should have a set of Falcon enamelware"
Design Icon: Our style and interiors editor makes the case for this covetable classic.
BY JAMES CUNNINGHAM PUBLISHED: 24 DECEMBER 2023

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Anyone still got an enamel bread bin

We had a literal Bread bin like that in my youth, not a one with a flip up roll up lid but a proper oblong high sided bin with an enamel lid with obviously "Bread" in blue lettering instructing you what to put inside it.

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Miraculously the table gets another row, courtesy of what I might call the "brown work coat", "fork handles" traditional ironmongers and housewares shop window. Please note the "brown work coat" is poetic license. Plainly it has disappeared from the modern shopkeeper's attire, borne out by the present failure of the world-wide FCF membership to produce an original photo of the item in action.

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Remember the Brown Dustcoat/Workcost/Storekeepers coat challenge....

You can see one at Beamish after all!

The Cash Ball System you may have missed at Beamish this time around Mick and Jim

Neil

[mickthemaverick]

I do believe we saw him in the coat but it must have been on our other visit from the one I posted:

viewtopic.php?p=798515#p798515

I have an image in my mind which is why I mentioned it in the first place.

[myglaren]

I neglected to look yesterday, focused on getting my soap.

[Gibbo2286]

I remember the system they had in Foster Brothers when we were kids, similar but more of a catapult effect and a container that travelled along two wires.

[momag46]

My local Co-op had the same system, just imagine the time it would take on a busy Saturday. Life was much slower then, including cars.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Even without the cash ball system, the local small grocer's who was very popular in my youth, Tom Brown's, was fine example of nostalgic slow-paced inefficiency. One customer at a time and always a queue behind as the daily shop was recited by the customer, and Tom and his assistant would ferret around behind the counter up and down steps getting the various items. If those were to include bacon then the bacon slicer would have to be sprung into action and the specified thickness of cut required specifying with a number. Cheese would have to be cut and weighed.

Most customers would be regulars, with accounts, rather than casual walk-ins, and many would also have orders for a more substantial shop made up and delivered via Tom's car which as I recall was a Morris/Austin 1100 Estate. Looks like the Morris version was aka the Traveller, and the Austin aka the Countryman

https://www.hagerty.co.uk/valuation/too ... te&cc=1098
March 1966 saw the debut of the Austin 1100 Countryman (as subsequently thrashed by Basil Fawlty) and its Morris 1100 Traveller counterpart. The price was £711 11s 3d and despite their enhanced load capacity they were the same width and length as the saloon. All models were available with reclining front seats by late 1966 and on the estate versions, the rear backrest could be similarly adjusted, to make a double bed.

e-bay sale item

Neil

[Gibbo2286]

That was me Neil from 1965 until 1980, bought sides of bacon boned them and cut into joints, 40lb cheeses cut into sellable portions wrapped and weighed, sliced the bacon as the customer wished, then in 1980 as the supermarkets started to take the custom doubled the shop size and turned it into a mini supermarket with self service baskets.
On later reflection I should have closed the shop down the day we bought it and concentrated on the garage side, it never made a decent wage just scraped by.

[myglaren]

We had a CO-Op on our street, cheese and bacon cut to customer's requirements.
We were rather spoiled for shops, had four at the top of the street, a cobbler, greengrocer, bakery, general store and a dairy.
A few minutes walk into town and a veritable plethora of assorted shops, serving every need and many alternatives.
My mother bought a lot from Walter Wilson's and I presumed that it was Walter behind the counter, wasn't aware that it was a chain until I found one here in Washington in 1980.
I was often dispatched there on my bike for stuff unavailable at the CO-Op and once a week to hand in an order, which would be delivered by bike a couple of hours later. Just like Arkwright's

I have a very vague recollection of the ball and track payment system but can't think where it may have been, but the one that did impress me was the vacuum system in Lewis' in Leeds. It was like science fiction back then, as were the escalators. 1950 or thereabouts.

In other news, I have just been in the shiny new M&S near me and it was crap.

[mickthemaverick]

Who can remember getting ten tipped for a tanner?

MTMO