Things that time forgot.

[vinteuil]

Does anybody remember the line-system that Woolworths had on the ceiling to send money and cashier rolls about the place?

... I recall that from Sloper's department store in Devizes in the 1960s ; also some stores had a swankier version, with metal tubes / compressed air (or vacuums?) into which cylinders containing money / receipts etc were inserted to whizz to another part of the shop. Horne's Outfitters in Bath had this system...

[Keraulophone]

I used to shop there in those days. Never in a million years now.

Still a reliable purveyor of square crisps, strawberry mivvis and vermouth.

(No musak in our local M&S.)

[vinteuil]

Horne's

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/horne-bros-overtaken-by-trading-losses-1488170.html

[Beef Oven!]

... I recall that from Sloper's department store in Devizes in the 1960s ; also some stores had a swankier version, with metal tubes / compressed air (or vacuums?) into which cylinders containing money / receipts etc were inserted to whizz to another part of the shop. Horne's Outfitters in Bath had this system...

My memory tells me the system in Woolworths was mechanical and not compressed air/vacuum.

[umslopogaas]

Bacon slicers. I'm sure our local grocer had one when I was a kid back in the 1950s. He would put a lump of cured, smoked or unsmoked, bacon in it and slice it as thick or thin as you asked. Havent seen one for decades, but someone somewhere must be slicing the rashers you buy in plastic packs in the supermarket.

Similarly, cheese wires. The same grocer would slice you a piece of cheddar from a large block with a wire with a wooden handle on the end.

I expect these things are still in use, but out of sight in the packing and delivery area at the back of the supermarket, or in the warehouses where they pack the stuff.

[Nick Armstrong]

Bacon slicers.

There seems to be a monthly wave of nostalgia for these!

January:

bacon slicers.

and ensuing jokes etc...


February:

Bacon slicers.

[umslopogaas]

I guess we are all of a certain age and remember the grocers shops of our childhood. I also recall the tubes on wires system for whizzing money and orders round shops, but am not sure where I saw it: possibly in Sainsburys in Cambridge in the late 1960s.

[Beef Oven!]

I guess we are all of a certain age and remember the grocers shops of our childhood. I also recall the tubes on wires system for whizzing money and orders round shops, but am not sure where I saw it: possibly in Sainsburys in Cambridge in the late 1960s.

I thought that bacon slicers were still around. As for cheese wires, they use them in Harrods food hall etc.

[french frank]

I thought that bacon slicers were still around. As for cheese wires, they use them in Harrods food hall etc.

They use a 'bacon slicer' in our local Italian deli - just that they slice sausage as well as various types of ham. But they lay each slice carefully on waxed paper and cover it with greaseproof, before rolling it up in a parcel.

[ahinton]

I thought that bacon slicers were still around. As for cheese wires, they use them in Harrods food hall etc.

...and in the Fine Cheese Company shop in the aforementioned Bath.

[Beef Oven!]

...and in the Fine Cheese Company shop in the aforementioned Bath.

And Borough Market, and so on .......

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

(No musak in our local M&S.)

That's good. It seems that they introduce it when they "modernise" stores. The Bridlington store is still aural pollution free, I'm told.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Trains on the Great Central Line.

I live next door to an ex-driver/ fireman who was based on the GCR line out of London at the end of steam. He tells me all about Gresley A3s, V2s etc and sometimes I drive him out to follow steam-hauled excursions down to Par, Cornwall. Just got him a copy of this http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...+railway+books which he seems chuffed with

[Dermot]

On the day that's in it, visiting seven churches on Holy Thursday.

[Dermot]

Cleaning the carpet with used tea leaves.