Yesterday though I came across a few shots from 1980 when Mum and Dad had a sweets and tobacconist's shop on Common Edge Road, Blackpool. I'd taken a few shots inside the shop and looking at them now brings a few memories back!
That's the me of thirty years ago, helping to re-stock the shelves with chocolate and sticky sweets! There's a closer look in a moment for those of you who want to spot any discontinued lines and brands!
You can have similar moments of nostalgia if you are a smoker with this display of long since disappeared cigarettes.I gave up smoking in 1976 when Fran was pregnant with Gill. Cigarettes had anyway risen in cost and were somewhere around 30 pence a packet. By 1980 they have risen to the ridiculous heights of between 65 and 75 pence per packet of 20. That's four years to double in price. Blimey... They must be over five pounds a packet now!!! (and indeed...!)
My old favourite brand of Players No.6 can be found on the shelves still, accompanied by the king-sized version that I occasionally smoked.
Fran stands behind the ice cream counter. A favourite spot of her own Dad, Bob, when he was alive. It was, I have to admit, an intensely entertaining spot for a fella to stand as all the women and girls came in their low cut summer tops and bent over to search for their block of Walls Cornish or Neapolitan, affording a generous view of their tutti fruities... I made a point of staring at the ceiling of course...
A closer look at the confectionery shelves. At the bottom left a box of Tudor Crisps (remember them!!!) can be seen. Lots of still-familiar chocolate bars there but Snickers are still called Marathon and I'm not sure that Star-Bar and Take2 are still going.The biggest change has been in boxes of chocolates. Spartan hard centres and Contrast are no longer with us for instance.
It always amused us that people would leave buying Christmas presentation boxes and Easter Eggs until the very last minute on Christmas Eve or Easter Sunday and then complain if we had sold out. Why would we want to have some left?!?
Ah well... another slice of the past there.
Large versions of the photos: me, cigarettes, Fran, chocs!
I'm not sure which I'm more impressed with, an entertaining way of explaining a short sighted view project management, or the fact that you allowed a career in sweet shops, and the lovelies who once shopped in them, to escape your grasp.
ReplyDeleteIt was my parents' shop. We just helped out. At the time I was working as the Assistant Manager of a large Cash & Carry Wholesale Warehouse.
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents owned a similar shop in Whyteleafe during the 70's! These pictures are fantastic, I am trying to create a replica of their shop in dolls house form. These pictures and your memories have really helped me add some more detail!
ReplyDeleteThanks for getting in touch Vic and good luck with your model of your grandparents' shop!
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