Rag and bone man

[Jellis]

It was another world!

My grandmother rarely carried her shopping home.  The butcher, baker and grocer all employed someone to deliver the customers' goods.  All they had to do was to call into the shop, order and pay and the stuff would be delivered to the house.

I remember waiting to give the milkman's horse an apple.  I was so small the horse's head was above mine but he was a gentle giant.

Some years ago I accompanied my daughter's class on a day trip and we stopped to look at some cows in a field.  A small boy tugged at my arm and said 'What are they, miss?  It turned out that he'd only ever seen cows from a car window and had no idea of the size of the animals! 

[Steve G]

My Great Granddad was a Rag and Bone Man 

[millymcb]

My Oh is a modern day rag and bone man - at least you would think he was by the state of the house and the amount of old junk he picks up!

I'm sticking some of it on ebay while he is away... I suppose it is a modern day equivalent

Milly

[Geoff-E]

How our eating habits have changed!  When I was a child we used to have pork pie and picallili for breakfast on Christmas Day.  On Boxing Day breakfast was turkey jelly on toast.

For most of the last 20 years I've made a 3lb pie for Christmas (especially breakfast).  The meat composition varies - last year was sausage and black pudding.

Turkey dripping on toast sounds rather familiar too ... pity I dropped the turkey last year so gravy was in short supply  
Still, unlike on the TV soaps, we had our Christmas dinner at the intended time

[Jellis]

We only have a turkey crown these days but even the whole ones don't seem to produce the lovely stock that turns into the jelly and fat.

I never really liked the Christmas dinner as a child but I loved Boxing Day; we always had bubble and squeak to go with cold turkey and a cold buffet tea.

One of my most enduring memories of Christmas (probably about 1965) was when the trifle froze solid.  It had been left on the larder shelf.  We put this confection on top of the calor gas heater until it thawed enough to be eaten.  It must have been a freezing cold day as we had this heater on as well as a coal fire!

Cold or not, we ate this melting mess of a half thawed out trifle and told each other what a merry Christmas it had been.

Our name should have been CRATCHIT!

[Lydart]

Coal in London in me yoof was delivered by a man with horse and cart ... and it was always an embarrassed me that had to go out after with a coal shovel and bucket to pick up what the horse left for my Grannies roses !

[Jellis]

I wouldn'b be embarrassed to go and collect some horse droppings nowadays.  It makes wonderful compost as your Grannie knew!

Slightly off topic; I was watching one of the 'Jimmy's' programmes about cows the other day and apparently, something is done during the process of preparing milk for our consumption that prevents the cream forming on the top of the milk.

We just thought that the swindling so and so's had pinched it to sell in other products!

[Lydart]

Homogenised ?

[millymcb]

Coal in London in me yoof was delivered by a man with horse and cart ... and it was always an embarrassed me that had to go out after with a coal shovel and bucket to pick up what the horse left for my Grannies roses !

Yes I had forgotten about that!

Milly