How different shopping and shops were a few decades ago; no super markets then, no self-service or check outs. Everyone shopped each day so everything was fresh. There were far less cars (few could afford them anyway) and those who lived out of town came in on a 'bus.
We had a choice of shops to choose from: bakers, butchers, grocers, green grocers and, of course, the Co-op and Woolworths. There were banks: Lloyds, National Provincial (later to join with the Westminster Bank), Barclays and Midland. We banked with Lloyds where I went to work after I left school - but that is a tale for another day. There were newsagents, shoe and clothes shops, a chandlers and a market. There was a wonderful, old fashioned haberdashery run by a Welsh brother and sister where all kinds of things came out of wooden drawers in the counter like hankerchiefs, stockings, corsets and underwear; hairdressers and barbers and a watchmaker. Dad made a large working model of a watch fly wheel which was centre piece in the watchmaker's window. There was the fishmongers where every day on the way home from school I bought 6 pen'orth (6d)of cat fish which was wrapped in newspaper. There was the ironmongers - many times I struggled down the steps and around the quay to take the wireless accumulator there to be 'geed up' or carried a can to be filled with paraffin for our awful room heater. I used to dry my freshly washed hair over it. No wonder I had split ends!
I don't recall a dairy, but our milk was delivered in churns in the back of the farmer's van. We used to go out with our saucepan to have it filled. It was then left to stand and very slowly heated to make a layer of thick scalded cream.
Reading my list of shops you must think they are no different from today's, but, oh yes, they were! The first bakery I can remember was at the bottom of Temperance Steps on the opposite side to Coffin House (that one has a good story!). It was very small and dark and I am sure I remember the oven was built into the rock face which was the back wall of the shop! However, the bread was wonderful. Jam puffs (like large vol au vents full of jam) came from a baker half-way up the town. The baker always wore a long starched white apron and he had a fair moustache which was waxed into points either side of his face. We bought family sized blackcurrant pies from a bakery on the quay and at the end of the summer we bought wortleberry pies. Wortleberry is a Devon name for the blueberries which grow wild on the moors.
You might be thinking that Mum did not bake, but she was a good cook and her speciality were custard tarts - with grated nutmeg on top - yum!
The butchers always had sawdust on the floor and outside hung unskinned rabbits and pheasants and chickens with their feathers still on.
I recall the grocer, a rotund gentleman again in a long, starched, white apron. Sugar and fruit was weighed and carefully packaged in blue paper bags and biscuits were in large glass topped tins and weighed ito brown paper bags. While we still had ration books after the war I ate the whole weeks ration - just half a pound of biscuits for a family of four.
The chandlers was a magic shop full of exotic foods and smelling of spices. The proprietor's wife had been a beauty queen on the Continent and was so glamourous - and they had a gorgeous son!
Mum and Dad had a tobacco and confectionery shop. My brother and I sometimes helped serve, weighing 'half an ounce of baccy' on a brass scale which was then emptied into the customer's pouch, or weighing sweets from large glass jars into white paper bags with our advert. printed on them. In the summer we also sold ice cream (wafers or cones), postcards and fishing tackle. Dad used to serve wearing a beige linen jacket. Shopkeepers were always smart.
I saw on our local news yesterday that Rossiters of Paignton (Paignton being about five miles away from Brixham) were celebrating their 150th birthday! Rossiters is a wonderful, old fashioned department store and there are not many of those left!
Woolworths was another magic shop; the goods were displayed on flat counters, mostly unpackaged with plenty of small cheap toys such as marbles and scrap book pictures. We used to wander around on our way home from school hoping to find something on which to spend our 6d pocket money.
We might have more choice of food now though not the time to shop every day like we used to do but sometimes I wish we could go back. Shopkeepers were much respected members of society and put themselves out to give the best service to their customers and with so much less packaging and shopping daily in our local shops we were certainly, if unconsciously, more environmentally friendly.
