Mobile shops

[morag]

What Ardrossanite in the 50's could forget Mary Howie with her horse and cart selling vegetables - and her famous cry - CARROTS. TURNIPS, LEEK and PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARSLEY?

Maggie T - I passed Mr. Ashton's house in Park Road today.

Morag - Was that nice smelling stuff WINDOLENE (pink in colour)? And was it peculiar how everything was LEMONADE - NO MATTER WHAT FLAVIOUR IT WAS - it seems stuped now ORANGE LEMONADE, LIME LEMONDADE, ETC.

It wasn't windolene, Penny tray, I think it was pure methylated spirits tinted purple so you would know, it was either that or turpentine. (Can, can Caroline, washed her hair in turpentine... ).
You reminded me of the firewood man who came round 'FIREwood, COOOOALL briQUETTES!

Folk used to use windolene to 'white out' their windows if they were moving in or out 'till the curtains went up! I used to let the kids use it to decorate the windows at Christmas to make snow and snowflakes (with stencils).

[scottyd]

Hi Milda,
I remember the Manders ice cream van and Sammy Ballantyne.
Also Neil Gibson - he had a van too.
And Struthers lemonade van.
There was also a fish and chip van sometimes.
I also remember you had to ask for "clear" when you wanted plain lemonade.
I loved cream soda, dandielion and burdoch - and of course real Irn-Bru but it tasted so much better then !

[little plum]

My mate, who's originally from Rowanside Ter. informed me that they used to get a Co-op van round the street and when you purchased goods from it your change was in co-op tokens. Sounds like the old factory store system.

[Penny Tray]

I don't remember a Co-Op van coming round the streets but I do remember the tokens you got in change from their shops in Glasgow Street. I think I have one or two in a collection of coins I have.

[little plum]

Was telling my mate about the post tonight re the co-op van and he re-assures me it was fact. The tokens were of a different colour depending on their value, and his mother telling him to make sure the dirt was off the tatties before they were weighed. He also asked me to post about a van that went about Ardrossan, his memory is not that great, but he could recite " Dan ,Dan, The piggery man"

[Penny Tray]

Little Plum - Dan Dan the Piggery Man - was Mr. Dan Craig who had a piggery just off the Dalry Road in Ardrossan (Hughie recently described one of his boyhood jobs as helping Dan clean the place) - most of us passed it every day on our way to or from school. Many of our mothers placed potoato peelings and all other scraps of food in a tin drum throughout the week, which Dan then collected on a Saturday. This, of course, provided his food for his pigs. We used to sing - "Dan, Dan the piggery man stole a pig and away he ran". He was a nice person as I recall. He didn't sell anything around the doors. He collected.

[little plum]

So what was the trade off, he collected your recyclable waste for his pigs, what did you get in return

[Colmac]

Around that time, Bickett the butcher also had a van - the grandfather of the lad who now carries on the family tradition in Saltcoats.

- who is married to my cousin Moira Blair - small world isn't it

Meg

I'm confused here.

I'm surmising the Moira Blair I remember will be the mother of the lad who runs the Saltcoats shop and the wife of the man who runs a shop in Kilwinning. I remember her as a very imposing woman when I worked in their Glasgow St shop as an apprentice three decades ago.

[Penny Tray]

Little Plum - I'll need to learn now how to use the quote facility but in the meantime the answer to your question is - "NOTHING". I don't remember Dan parting with anything. It was as if he was providing a service to dispose of your perishable waste or families were participating in a scheme to help feed his animals.

[gnyaff]

The Co-op did run a van out of the Vernon Street store. My brother worked on it from when he was 15 till 17, they then fired you on your 17th birthdat as they only paid junior wages. It went on varied runs round Saltcoats and Stevenston, Monday to Friday with a half day Saturday. The boy was to knock on the doors, weigh the tatties and carrots and help some of the ladies to carry their heavy bags to the door. I worked on it for a week during the Summer holidays when my brother was sick.

Wee Boney

[Meg]

I'm confused here. I'm surmising the Moira Blair I remember will be the mother of the lad who runs the Saltcoats shop and the wife of the man who runs a shop in Kilwinning. I remember her as a very imposing woman when I worked in their Glasgow St shop as an apprentice three decades ago.

Of course it would be her son - I am inclined to forget that other folk are ageing about the same pace as me I wondered when you said Saltcoats - as I always remember them being in Kilwinning - so yes that would be their son. Was he one of twins do you know - I seem to remember she had lovely twin boys. It was her two brothers who opened up the Blair Tavern out on the Kilwinning Glasgow road - good few years ago now.

Meg

[Colmac]

Was he one of twins do you know - I seem to remember she had lovely twin boys.

Yes, he's one of the twins - they were of course very young when I worked there in the late 70's/early 80's. I also recall a daughter too - possibly three or four years younger than her brothers.

The father's business was Ardrossan based for years. I was an apprentice not long after he started trading in the town having been 'poached' by his only other employee at that time. From my recollections, Ardrossan was on the wane and Alex decided to move to Saltcoats a good few years later. He later aquired both the Kilwiining and Saltcoats shops.