The 'Co Quarter' was a moment of rejoicing locally.
The Co-operative Dividend* was paid out, I think at the end of March, June, September and December. If you were going to get new shoes, clothes, etc., this would be the time funds were available in otherwise stringent times.
Other exciting times were when the pre-payment gas and electric meters were emptied and a similar dividends were paid, resulting in 'single shillings' being set out in columns, usually on the mantel-piece!
Happy, happy days!
[*A sum of money paid regularly, typically quarterly, by a Company to its shareholders out of its profits or reserves.]
I remember the excitement when we got single shillings back! ..and running to a neighbour..and vice versa, when the lights went out and we didn't have a shilling! In hindsight it could have been a Brian Fix farce.
saw when the eclectic
"You don't have a Soul. You are a Soul. You have a body."
C.S.Lewis
I can remember one side being a shoe shop and my mother used to go in the other grocer side and give her co-op number and buy fresh fish. Further down Glasgow Street nearly at the bottom on the left was Guthrie the butcher, there was sawdust on the floor and carcasses hanging up. Mum used to take the pie dish in there and get them to make it up into a pie. If you crossed straight over at the bottom across Princes Street there was Murchies, she got cheese in there. Funny the things were remember but it was nice cheese. There was a sweety shop on the corner of Barr Street and a bakers shop on the opposite corner but all those buildings have gone now.
The Grocery shop/Sweetie shop was Miss Gracie's. The bakers' shop on the opposite corner was Mary Morrison's. Both premises were on Glasgow Street at the corner of Barr Street.
Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.
I can remember one side being a shoe shop and my mother used to go in the other grocer side and give her co-op number and buy fresh fish. Further down Glasgow Street nearly at the bottom on the left was Guthrie the butcher, there was sawdust on the floor and carcasses hanging up. Mum used to take the pie dish in there and get them to make it up into a pie. If you crossed straight over at the bottom across Princes Street there was Murchies, she got cheese in there. Funny the things were remember but it was nice cheese. There was a sweety shop on the corner of Barr Street and a bakers shop on the opposite corner but all those buildings have gone now.
I think you could buy an ashette, assiette (sp), from the butcher and take it back regularly to be refilled?
"You don't have a Soul. You are a Soul. You have a body."
C.S.Lewis
Talking to my mate the other night about this topic. He can recall going into the grocers and buying broken biscuits for a penny or two, (they were stored in a tea chest) and eating them on cannon hill. Buying butter that was cut with a wire and shaped with paddles, and the skill of the grocer judging the exact weight you asked for. The brass tubes that connected the shop floor to the offices were always gleaming, must have been some job for the cleaners. I wonder if they used Brasso or Duraglit.
This memory might appear offensive by the P.C. brigade but it is not intended and only reflects the parochial naivety of the area at that time. He recalls a black sambo mechanical figure in the grocers, and when you put a penny in his hand , he swallowed it.
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The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off - Abe Lemons
The Grocery shop/Sweetie shop was Miss Gracie's. The bakers' shop on the opposite corner was Mary Morrison's. Both premises were on Glasgow Street at the corner of Barr Street.
I don't remember the sweetie shop but I do remember the bakers. From about the age of 5 until 10 I used to do most of the family shopping with the ration books. I hated going home from school because I knew I would be sent down Glasgow Street for some messages. On a Saturday It was Robertson the butcher, Lipton the grocer, the Co-Op bakery in Barr Street for fresh plain loafs (I can still smell the hot fresh loafs), then Morrison's for a real cream sponge and finally Hainning's the green grocer (I hope I have that spelling correct because their neice, Helen, is my brother's wife!).
I worked in the Grocery shop at the co-op then
was transferred to the bakery shop when i
was pretty young .
sarah's brother was working there in the
co-op then long memories
Milda wrote:I worked in the gent's dept. downstairs and enjoyed my time there.
Honest to god Milda, the next time you are over I'll need to have a word with you.
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The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off - Abe Lemons
