Rag and bone man

[goggy]

Wellie!!
Really 100??Congratulations,many of 'em,get your telegram from H.RH?
                 Goggy.

[Emjaybee]

Can I add th cry "Rags, bones, rabbit skins".

Any suggestions for uses?

Rags for paper maybe, bone for the china industry, rabbit skins for the felt for hattters.

Off topic: Hatters were mad 'cos the fumes from the mercury they used affected their brains.

[mickgall]

Hi all

I can remember when I was a child I would sometimes go out with my uncle Terry who had a round in Peckham S.London. He never called himself a rag and bone man though, he said he was a 'Totter' and he used to go 'Totting'.

Mick

[MaryA]

In Liverpool and even when we moved out to the "new town" of Kirkby, we still got the rag and bone man around and he exchanged the rags for either blue and white striped crockery or a balloon if there weren't enough for a cup.

Even though this isn't the Book Club thread I think some of you might find Helen Forrester's "A cuppa tea and an aspirin" will give a lot of background about the Courts which were in Liverpool which thank god we don't have now.  The main character used to collect rags or "fents" as they were called, washed, ironed and hemmed them to sell on again to men with greasy or dirty jobs.  She was even doing the job up until WWII and trying to get big enough pieces to use as blackout curtains.

A lot of talk about bread and dripping, but I haven't seen anybody mention a sugar butty, which used to tide us over until dinner was ready.

Mary

[jinks]

There was still a rag-and-bone man
in Blackburn Lancashire about twenty years ago.

He used to call at my place of work at that time
for scrap metal. I worked in a car parts place.

Dont know if he is still around because I have
changed jobs many times since then.

Jinks

[JillJ]

Oh what memories!   The rag and bone man and his horse (which also provided a useful service), bread (or toast) and dripping - my father had it for breakfast every day of his life, the milk cart and even the water cart!   What about the Onion Seller on his bike and the policeman on his beat;  anyone remember those blue police boxes?

Jill

[Emmeline]

Yes Mickgall - You are quite right about the rag and bone man sometimes being called a Totter.
Casting my mind back ( also to Peckham)  I  remember that still in the late 1940's for a funeral procession one would see a hearse with it's team of horses - all with plumes on their heads - driver with top-hat on his. Much posher than the rag and bone man ! Was it the same elsewhere ?

[MaryA]

Right up until a few years ago, some funerals which took place at Our Lady and all the Angels and All the Saints in Fox Street, Liverpool, still had those horse drawn carriages.  The church, which served a part of the Great Homer Street area, was famous for large affairs and wakes.  It was proposed to close the church a while ago, but such was its popularity to people even outside Liverpool, that it remained open, don't know how long for though

Mary

[Emjaybee]

I can't say I remember blue police boxes, but as a Pc in the 60's I did use blue pillar phones. These were like a small lighthouse on a pillar and the blue light on top would flash as a metalic bell clanged to summon the beat Bobby. In those days 8-10 men would walk the City streets, with one man doing a continual circuit of the main centre streets, so if you needed a policeman in the town centre, one would walk by in less than five minutes! Oh by the way, "Bobbies on bicycles two by two" as the song went was almost true, one by one the outer beats were patrolled on a bike.

I can remember my Gran buying milk straight from the churn on the milkmans float.