Memories are made of this

By Esther

Thu, 19 Apr 2012
  • 920 reads
4 comments
 

Woolworths

Pick-n-mix, long wooden floors that reminded her somehow, in some silly way, of the lines at Wellingborough Railway Station where she first men that man who was tragically to become her new stepfather.

Sugary sweet and bitter. Anything you desired could be drawn from shelves/rails/boxes.... which the assistant stood on tip-toe to reach for.

It seemed that life as it was at that Woolworth Store would go on forever.The smock coated assistants; wearing white peaked caps, smiled and chatted between themselves. One wiping her nose on her sleeve as the sweets fell one by one into the white paper bags.

Meanwhile boy-friends hovered like bumble-bees near the vynyl sleeves,screwdrivers,torches,
pencils and sharpeners. They ran their fingers through bryl-creamed hair. Then they counted their pennies into their pockets,counted their thoughts and plans for the night. Whilst their girlfirends adjusted their first real bra's and waited for the shift to end.

Certificate U
Story
Memories are made of this
Autobiography

Comments

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on
Hi Esther, Oh! how you brought memories back for me with this piece of writing. I came from a small village just outside of Bristol, called Shirehampton. All my childhood in the late 1950s and early 1960s was spent playing cowboys and indians at the back of Woolworths. They used to let us use the large crates as wagons, I have such vivid memories of this, you wouldn't believe. Thankyou so much for jogging those memories. Jenny.

 

Submitted by hilary west on
OH, Woolworths. I loved Woolies and remember its toy section to this day, in the days when they had those old mahogany counters and you could always get something for sixpence (old money of course). I wrote a poem about Woolies, I think it's on here somewhere. It was a great store, serving the working class when people admitted to being working class!

 

Submitted by Esther on
Thank you Hilary and Jenny.

Submitted by jolono on
Me too. Mum buying a bag of broken biscuits! Pure joy!