Traders In Rodbourne
And then there was old Mother Moore, as we used to call her. She had a shop just round underneath the little bridge. She would come round, horse and cart and sell everything like candles, parrafin, odd and ends, stuff like that you know. Her and her husband used to come round, just a horse and cart, every Saturday mornings and Wednesdays they used to call round, twice a week I think she used to call round. Anyhow they used to have a damn great tank full of paraffin on the back of the wagon, like. Somebody left the tap on and wasted gallons of paraffin, guess who got the blame? Ah it weren't Fatty this time it were me. I forget what I got for that.
Then Freddy Jones, the Butcher. He used to come round Saturday night selling the meat. He used to get round our place around six and seven at night, and he hadn't fnished his round then. Had a light on up in the cart during the winter. Yep, still on his round ten o clock at night, might have been later for all I know. Jim would remember that.
Then Old Man Bailey delivered the milk, that was the milkman. He did come round - in those days it was a hand truck, with a damn great churn full of milk. And all the little gadgets along the side, half-pints, pints and quarts - whatever you wanted you take the jug out and he would dish it out, just like that. Then there was the baker. Course there ain't none of this now.
The baker, he used to come round in horse and cart. He knew just where to....if you didn't deal with that baker....he didn't....he used to go straight past your house, he knew just which house to stop at, he knew every house. We always had the Co-Op baker. And he used to come to the door,
"How many today, Mother"
"Oh, about half a dozen."
"And a dozen (littles?), we needed a dozen too. Come Easter time, the day before Good Friday"
"How many (???), Mother?"
"Oh, two dozen"
And next morning, before you was up, there was two dozen Easter buns in the porch all ready. Yep, those days are all gone now. You don't get none of that now, what with this Supermarket business, and I don't know that it's for the good.
Then there was the fish-monger, and the green-grocer. And the feller used to come round with the little contraption on a bike, yer know and grinding yer knives and scissors and things like that.
Ah, yer don't get none of that now.
