Are you old enough to remember “sipsis” coming to the door selling pegs or heather?

[Nailest]

Something I’ve just seen has brought back vivid memories of sipsis (think that might be the Welsh word for gypsies - it’s the word my grandma used at any rate) coming to her back door. As far as I recall, they only ever sold heather or pegs. I don’t remember my grandma buying any but I do remember her having long conversations at the back door.

Our scrap man still calls out (I think he does Facebook as well though), but last time he must have done the fastest 3 point turn ever on my road because I still missed him!

My friend's dad used to sell Esso Blue paraffin from his van (late 50's early 60's)
We used to have a Bettaware man call, (I actually became a Bettaware rep from 1992 finally finishing in 2004, I knew all the local gossip and met some really interesting characters)

We had a guy who used to sell fruit and vegetables from the back of his van. Another company called Mountstevens (in the Bristol area ) did a bread delivery.

Women still used to sell lucky heather in London tube stations as recently as the 1990s.

When I was little we lived in a rural area, and had a van that came round once a week selling groceries. I remember my mum would give me 5p to buys sweets, and once I made the mistake of spending my 5p on Tunes!

Who remembers green shield stamps?

The milkman with a horse and cart, he filled the jug my mother put out with milk.
The Salvation Army used to collect us kids off the street and showed us films in a hall and gave us a biscuit.
The Scout hut over the road, we had a party in there when the war was over, had to take own cutlery with coloured wool tied round it so we'd know which was ours to bring back home.
There was a man who went along the street lighting the street lights.

Cardboard boxes in shops, yes. Also in early supermarkets Kraft Kuts and Kwik Save the receipt only had the prices and not what you’d actually bought so it used to take ages whilst we helped mum pack the stuff into boxes and work through the receipt checking price against each item. She was buying for a family of seven so it was a very long list.

Oh green shield stamps! Something else I remember my grandma having - loads of books of them. Were they something to do with the Co-op?

Yes. The divi?

The used to be a man with a push-cart who swept the pavements and picked up litter. I think he emptied litter bins too. There used to be a lot more litter bins than now.

We used to have two post deliveries a day too. Morning and dinner time.

Oh, and Ration books. We had to take coupons to school to have a Christmas party.

We were allowed 2 ounces of sweets on a Monday because Mother was doing the washing that day so had to take the Ration book to the shop to have a coupon cut out. She used to practically cry when using the awful mangle.

@GeneLovesJezebel

We used to have two post deliveries a day too. Morning and dinner time.

Oh yes. Second post. I'd forgotten about that.

And I've just googled to see when it stopped.
Apparently it never existed 😮

So weird. I remember it vividly.

Apparently green shield stamps could be used in lots of shops. Different to the Co-op scheme.

What? There definitely was a second post!

I know.

But apparently not.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-1546626/The-second-post-It-never-existed.html

We still have a rag and bone man with a proper horse and cart!! We live in a normal medium size city. Comes about once a month and the cart always seems to fill up well.

The blue egg shaped money box was NSPCC.

Yes we had the scrap man and rag n bone. We also had kleeneasy selling washing lines and dishcloths etc.

The 'mortgage man' would pop in every so often and we got sent to bed early with milk and extra biscuits to stay out of the way.

My DM must've spent a fortune over the years with the bettaware and Avon reps.

Yes! My aunt always bought something as it was bad luck not to.

And she was one who believed that the crying boy painting set her house on fire ☺️

@GreenTeaPingPong

What? There definitely was a second post!

yes. I think it was if you lived in a town/city.

At the age of 3 or 4, I used to stand on the doorstep, when the coal man came round on his horse and cart, mimicking his ringing cry of ‘coal brick eggs, coal brick eggs!’ Not sure what I thought they were, but apparently he was actually shouting ‘coal briquettes!’

Was the Barnardo’s one like a little thatched cottage , made out of a sort of strong papier-mâché ?

I think that article saying there was no second post is just semantics.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1841961.stm

Cant believe I'm saying this but we used to have a milkman come round.

Rarely a mobile library.

I also remember a bus that was similar to a nursery that you could visit once in a while?

We also had a man from the bank he would come round weekly collecting premiums. He was really pally with my parents, I always used to think he seemed to have a easy job and I'd like a job like that when I grew up. He knew everyone on our street and would knock on most of the doors and stand there chatting.

We also used to have a rag and bone man- again a horse-drawn cart, and as soon as he would come mum would run out with a huge sack of clothes shes been keeping for his visit.

There also used to be a veg van, cheap good quality fruit and veg, that would come.once a week for a couple.of hours.

These days we sometimes get people knocking asking if you want the drive cleaned, and I think once they were selling carpets.