John Burke's Hastings, August 1999
Buckley's Yesterdays World |
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| Monday 2 August 1999
The other reason for coming to Battle (well, for us anyway) was this museum - Buckley's
Yesterday's World - a collection of shop interiors and products of a generation or two ago.
First though after all that clambering about, a stop in the garden for an ice-cream or drink.
I checked my battle wound - I would live to mooch around another battle site, I decided! |
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Grandad used to run a grocery shop so Mum immediately went into overdrive when
we came to this first exhibit. Now for those readers who know her and think she is in some sort
of hyperdrive most of the time: believe me - her normal state is magnified by a factor of around
ten by the sight of an old grocery shop or the sound of Vera Lynn...
As in: 'We used to sit there listening to the bombers over Manchester saying "That's one
of ours... that's one of theirs..."' |
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Grocery shops have a similar reaction: 'We used to weigh everything out and there was none of
this hygiene laws then - and people never bothered, they didn't get ill like today...'
The phonograph, right, can be seen in the window of Cash & Co. |
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The sweet shop - 'We used to get a big bag of Kay-li (spelling anyone?)
and lick our fingers and dip them in! And we'd get licorice and make spo to drink, swishing
it about in a big bottle and if we were lucky we'd get some dandelion and burdock or saspirilla
in stone bottles, they always came in stone bottles then. And there were ha'penny bars of
chocolate...'
Mum, see those gobstoppers there? |
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'Ooh yes, we used to...' <SCHLOPP!!!> 'mmmf mmmf mmmf!' Ahhhhhhhhhh!
Now where was I...?
The figure of Queen Victoria was trying to say something but it
was drowned out of course!
In the background even the wax figure of the Yeoman Guard can be seen to be shaking his
head... |
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| The toy shop had a Hornby train set in the window. Dad had a clockwork set
that my brother, Frank and I used to play with as young boys before we got one of the "new"
OO guage Hornby Dublo sets with three rails - the centre one carried the current as the wheels
on all the carriages were metal - when we got a two-rail system we had to replce all the metal
wheels with plastic, as they shorted out the current!
'There was no television then and no computers, we had to make our own fun! We used to play hop
scotch and skipping and...'
Mum!!! We're at the end of the page!!! |
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