Rag and bone man

[Viktoria]

Hi, as well as being pulped for paper making some old rags were shredded and used for SHODDY and MUNGO, these were inferior types of cloth and the "flock" that pillows and mattresses were stuffed with.Not much went to waste in those days.Our Rag and Bone man gave donkey stones for stepstoning the front steps and back entry steps and the back yard.                                                 
We had toast cut into cubes with an OXO crumbled over, a lump of dripping and salt & pepper then boiling water poured on. It was tasty and went down easily when you had a sore throat-of which I had many!. We also liked cubes of bread with a bit of butter if possible,sugar and grated nutmeg in a basin with hot milk poured over. That seemed real "cosy" food when you had a bad cold.                   
I never seem to get much dripping from beef these days. There used to be a layer of lovely tasty essence at the bottom of the dripping basin which was lovely on toast- but the toast ought to be made in front of a coal fire whilst kneeling on a pegged hearth rug made from all the old coats etc we had not traded with the Rag Bone man. Happy days!Viktoria.

[Zelley]

It has been very interesting reading the comments and looking at the pictures.

Little bit of alright!

[Jellis]

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.

On winter days mum used to give me the water the cabbage had been boiled in (for about half an hour, knowing my mum) sprinkled with white pepper.  I suspect that I got more vitamins drinking the water than eating the soggy cabbage.

We had the knife grinder man knocking on the door even into the '70's.  My dad said not to let him sharpen anything as he ruined Dad's scissors once!

I remember the Rag and Bone man leading his horse down the road and shouting something I couldn't understand.  We never gave him anything (shame, I didn't know he paid for rags!) and I was always a bit scared of him.

I was also scared stiff of the coal man, he used to grin at me; his teeth looking very white against his coal-dusty face.

I was scared of a lot of things when I was little.  What a funny kid I must have been!

Janet

[Zelley]

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.

On winter days mum used to give me the water the cabbage had been boiled in (for about half an hour, knowing my mum) sprinkled with white pepper.  I suspect that I got more vitamins drinking the water than eating the soggy cabbage.

We had the knife grinder man knocking on the door even into the '70's.  My dad said not to let him sharpen anything as he ruined Dad's scissors once!


I remember the Rag and Bone man leading his horse down the road and shouting something I couldn't understand.  We never gave him anything (shame, I didn't know he paid for rags!) and I was always a bit scared of him.

I was also scared stiff of the coal man, he used to grin at me; his teeth looking very white against his coal-dusty face.

I was scared of a lot of things when I was little.  What a funny kid I must have been!

Janet

And what about the gypsy flower lady!

Funny thing, is when I was pre-seven, visiting the wax museum in London
I asked a wax policeman if he had the time??? I didn't get an answer!!!

[Jellis]

We still get Gypsy flower ladies in town now.  They try to sell bits of 'lucky' white heather.  I once refused the offer, a few years ago, and the gypsy looked into my face and said gravely 'You're going to a wedding!'.  I laughed and said that was a safe bet.  I did go to a wedding though, about 5 years later.  She didn't need her crystal ball to tell me that!

Homes seemed to be much busier places in those days.  So many people used to call; insurance men, milk man, window cleaner etc., all for their few sixpences or shillings.  Mum used to leave the insurance books on the hall table with the money on it.  Sometimes we didn't know he'd been and gone until we noticed he'd taken the money.

Grandmother said her milk was delivered in churns and he poured the family's share into her large jug. Once the cat was helping himself and got his head stuck.  That was one of her favourite stories.  Imagine drinking your milk and finding cat hairs in it!  They also used to send one of the kids to the baker's with the Sunday dinner to have it cooked in the big ovens at the bakery.  My uncle once dropped the cooked dinner on the 'passage' floor and mum remembered her sister saying 'we'll have to eat it, we've got nothing else' as she scraped it off the floor!

None of these unhygenic practices seemed to do them any harm. 

Janet

[Zelley]

THE ICE MAN & THE FLOWER LADY

In compiling a story on my days as a child in London, and then a small city in Western Canada, I titled it "The Iceman & the Flower Lady".

The iceman delivered ice to houses in Canada, and when I was about nine, I got a ride around the neighborhood with ice delivery man, and got to watch him carry the blocks of ice into the houses. and put them in the ice boxes.

[Zelley]

THE FLOWER LADY - It has been some time since I touched base on the flower lady or the rag and bone man stories.

[Jellis]

I've just remembered my mother telling me that nuns used to knock on their door when she was young.

Grandmother always gave them sixpence or a shilling as giving coppers would have made them look poor! 

Mum used to get cross because she knew her parents needed every penny for the large family.

[millymcb]

Back in the 60s/early70s when was a child and lived oop north we used to have a rag n bone man come round on his horse and cart. And a fish man in a van. And the coal man used to deliver huge sacks of coal - I think he had some kind of truck but it could have been a horse and cart.

I did't think was that old but it seems like another world now

Milly