Tinny’s Knock On The Door

Tinny’s Knock On The Door

By Paul McCann

Tinny was always a lucky kind of guy with things . At ten years of age he asked the local milkman if he needed any help with his delivery . The milk run was done by the Belfast Co-Op who put their milk into pint glass bottles and sealed them with a silver top that were put into crates and stacked on an electric powered truck and then hand delivered to the front door of their customers every morning  Back then that how life  was which today is a rare sight .

The milkman was happy to give Tinny a job and each morning they went around the streets of the little village in the milk truck until the job was done .

It was an early start everyday and usually they were finished before Tinny had to go to school  . Rain. hail or shine there had to be milk brought for the people to have their breakfast . Tinny had memorised all the orders each house had in his head and off he went walking up the paths with bottles in his hand and under his arm pit and leaving then there on the ground before taking away the empties that were left at the front door . He would picking them up and put them down and in the process changing the colour of their tea and coffee from black to white , he would also turn their porridge from lumpy to smooth that tasted just right .

Every now and then there would be a little note left here in an empty bottle for him such as , no milk today or an extra pint please and bobs your uncle everything was  ok as far as life went but time was tight to get the run dome before school and there were other challenges like the dogs that barked or the ones that bit .

It was all part of his morning before school and in those days in was hard work but everyone was happy back then to provide a service form their community like the  milkmen, or the other door to door people who came around . The r4egular door to

door collectors who would come with a knock on the door collecting money for the church or the school building fund

Tinny’s father had an unpaid job as part of the men’s confraternity in the village and Tinny heled his father collecting the envelopes the church provided and every Sunday , Tinny and his father would go around knocking the doors around the village for the people’s weekly contribution . Most of the people already knew Tinny from doing the morning milk delivery so Tinny was already getting some tips from the local people around the village .  Sundays was when a time when Tinny and his Father had some time together as during the week his Father was working and had no time to spare so each Sunday after ten O’clock mass they would both go around the village knocking on doors to collect the envelopes from those people who were unable to get to mass .There were always smiles at the doors from those people who greeted you and even treated you with something g for your trouble . Many things were shared then such as a friendly word or a smile upon a face that these days , is not seen much anymore . There were homes filled with kindness not fancy furniture or things . Some of the richest things in life often come free .

Tinny discovered that in so many ways and it taught him a lot about people .

He saw it on the faces of others as well like Mr O’Hara who came knocking on the doors every Saturday to collect life insurance premium’s and Gypsy Jimmy who went from door to door selling shoe laces and boxes of matches . There was a special way of life them in the village , the connection of those who did regular collections . like the paper boys who came knocking on the doors to sell the morning or evening newspapers , the rag and bone  men and the coalmen .

Tinny and the milkman cam knocking the doors every Friday night to collect the money for the weekly milk delivery , Then Tinny started to realized there was money to be made with this door to door business .

He started to do a football pools delivery and pick up for the people to save them walking to the newspaper shops  and he even offered them his lucky pre-picked numbers that many followed with success and for each winner Tinny was always given a small tip as a reward . Tinny’s pockets were always jingling with coins from the lovely people who lived in the village houses back then.

It was a different world to the one we all live in today . No more milkman’s deliveries , no more door to door pools coupons and so Tinny had to adapt to the change .

He quickly realised that the roles had been reversed , instead of products being brought to people’s front doors , now  the people had to go to the supermarkets and other stores . The problem was not many people could afford to buy a car so Tinny took on a job as a taxi driver to bring the people to the places they had to go and buy their provisions . Tinny was well liked and reliable . There were time he would give credit if the passengers who he knew had no money for a taxi . This was all part of his friendly service that always came back to him in other way .

A little bit of kindness always went a long way . Tinny was part of the real community service . Where ever there was a need , it had to be done at any cost .

He adapted and changed with the times .

It was hard for him when he got old and he couldn’t do the things he used to and he sat at home waiting for that knock upon his door to tell him it was time to go .

Life was good and he wondered if maybe there was a job on the other side of life ,  knocking doors to help people make their way to the other side .

The End