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.

@KissedintheDark

And someone would always go out into the road with a shovel to collect the horse droppings to put on their roses or rhubarb.

Horse droppings were quite sought after and you had to be out there like a whippet if there were a few keen gardeners on the street.

My grandad did this. Straight out with a bucket.It went on the roses

The rag and bone man "ANY OL IYUUUUUUUN" is alive and well in Barry (yes Gavin and Stacey) and happily removes gates and barbeques and ironing boards for free.

Oh this thread really has brought back memories,

We had a rag and bone man who had a horse that pulled a cart with a small roundabout on it. If it was 'usual stuff' he gave you a goldfish - poor thing, but if it was something worthwhile, we got a ride on the roundabout.
We also had mr Gittins the rent man who rode the streets on a bicycle with his trousers tucked into his socks. All the rent money he collected was popped into a leather satchel slung across his shoulders for all to see.
Stan Brown came every week with his horse drawn fruit and veg van. Stan wore a brown overall and seemed very tall to small me. His horse was a clydesdale and me and my friends used to dare each other to go near it to see if it would eat us!!
We also had a mobile shop drive around the streets every day but mum would never use it as she said it was too expensive. I remember sneaking onto it one day when it stopped outside my friends house. It was like stepping into aladins cave.
The window cleaner wore the same black donkey jacket and flat cap every time he arrived carrying his big wooden ladder on his shoulder.

Such entertaining times for us children - and as we had no tv we made the most of it.

But no op - no'sipsis' ever at our door!!

We had:

milkman
coalman
paper boy
Alpine pop lorry every saturday
provident loans collector
rented our colour telly from rediffusion
Littlewoods catalogue lady
football pools collector (pretty sure we never won)
a woman who ran some sort of mobile clothes shop from her car, and turned out to be Jimmy Tarbuck's sister
a lady called Elvira who came to your house and read your tarot

other things I can't remember now, but the best was our Avon lady, a local legend; we had an old, painted upright piano in the hallway that none of us could play, but every time she called we would beg her to play either 'the Sting' or 'whispering grass' and she never refused. She played piano at our local Sunday school but was also known to occasionally do a bit of a strip tease with a feather boa at a nearby pub, after hours (and after plenty of gin) 😄

Oops, it was actually 'the entertainer' from the film 'the Sting'

There was a second post, even if they called it something else.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/royal-mail-brings-back-second-16185661

Who ever was talking in the other article also said that the post office only ever delivered once a day, but Victorians in cities would get several deliveries.

You also used to be able to hand letters to the delivery post man (or woman).

You must’ve had posh rag and bone men those of you who got goldfish or rides on roundabouts!

Thank you so much for contributing all the memories everyone, I’ve had a lovely wallow in times-gone-by tonight. My grandma brought me up and it’s been lovely remembering her and happy days.

I have a coal man and a nan delivering logs.

There’s a milk man available too,

I remember the frozen milk in the doorstep with the cream sticking out of the top

I used to help mum doing a pools round till a "strange man" invited me into his house.
A coach used to come to the estate to pick up women to go apple picking.
We used to go and help elderly neighbours lay up their coal fires ( with coal from the coal bunker we all had).
I remember bailiffs coming round in a big truck.
And everyone knew when the TV licence van was about.

Yes I do (also Welsh). Even now if you knock my mums door she will often shout "no pegs today thank you' as a joke (only if she knows it's me, not to randoms!)

@ShoesOnFirstThenCar

I thought it was sipsiwn (si in Welsh makes the sh sound for any non welshies😁) . We get the rag and bone guy quite regularly but he’s got a speaker on his van to shout “any ol’ rag ‘n’ bone”

Ooh yours is posh.The one that comes down my street (in his flat bed truck with big cage on the back) uses a traffic cone 😂

Yes, pegs and white heather. Can’t remember whether DM ever bought any, but she probably did, in case we were cursed.

Ditto coal man, rag and bone man, fizzy pop man (DPs never bought any🙁).
I’m (just) old enough to remember the milkman coming with a horse! No more than 6, since that’s when we moved from that house.
Dds always found it hilarious - mum born in the real ‘olden days’.

The rag and bone man gave me a balloon once.

A trip to the green shield stamps shop to convert to items was always very exciting and was an entire “day out”.

I used to be sat on the front step aged 3 so my Mother could get on with things. So used to chat to lots of people. The dustman gave me a doll that had been thrown away, it had been scribbled on and I used to play it had escaped from Vietnam as the war was going on then.

@SecretPineapple

"I remember having little books in first school (three tier system!) which were full of b&w pictures of cute babies smiling. You bought the ones you liked with a small donation, I'm sure it was raising money for NSPCC or Barnados. 'Smile' books rings a bell."

My god, this just set off the dimmest glimmer of a lightbulb in the furthest corner of my brain!! There's something vaguely familiar here but I can't remember what exactly.

Books were called Sunny Smiles...I can remember taking them home from school and hawking them round family and neighbours. All the attractive children went first...

The one I remember that I don't think has been mentioned is the Wall's Ice Cream man on his pedal tricycle with a big cool box and dry ice on the front.

Also, my Grandma, was a heavy smoker, and collected Embassy Coupons - which were similar to GreenShield stamps in that they could be exchanged for household items.

I remember the 'fizzy juice truck' coming round the houses in 1980s Glasgow (was it a brand called Alpine? I can't quite remember).

We weren't allowed fizzy juice (we were a squash / milk / water household, apart from high days and holidays), but very occasionally we were allowed a (glass) bottle of cream soda and orangeade, which was fluorescent (god knows what sort of colourings were in it, but I'd say they're probably illegal now).

You'd then take the bottles back when the truck next called, and either get money off what you bought, or get a 10p refund for each bottle.

As I say, it was a very occasional treat for us, but my mother used to get a bit sniffy about a family up the road who would buy a crate of 12 bottles every week.

We had a Co-Op van come once a week. A mobile shop that used to park up in the driveway. The man was really creepy and I tried to avoid him.

Mum used to buy heather from gypsies who knocked at the door. One told her the baby she was pregnant with would be born disabled. He was.

There’s a couple of stories on here where sipsis have made accurate prescriptions re pregnancies.

So what about nylon overalls then?! My grandma wore one every day over her clothes. They were usually loudly patterned and colourful, with zips up the front I think.

This sort of thing.

And my Aunties Annie and Doris wore this type

We did in the 90s. Older ladies. My mum always had a good natter with them she is quite superstitious/ spiritual and found them really interesting. Sad that people used to give them abuse.

One hot summer day, when I was about ten, I found a couple of gipsy ladies and a small girl sitting resting on our garden wall. I took them out glasses of squash & some biscuits.
When they were leaving, they told me I had a lucky face and would have happiness and good luck all my life.
I often wish that they had been right!

[quote IncompleteSenten]I know.

But apparently not.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-1546626/The-second-post-It-never-existed.html[/quote]
This is simply not true.
We had 2 deliveries per day Mon to Fri and one on Saturday when I was young.
I do remember businesses still had 2nd deliveries in the late 1970s as I used to cover Reception for the receptionist, and always saw the postie.

Nailest are we related? My Grandma Doris and Auntie Annie wore the same aprons/pinnies! If your Grandma was Dot, May or Joan, then we must be

We had a gypsy come to the door selling pegs and heather at my DGMs house. And a milk man, ice cream truck and pop man.

It was a long time ago and it feels even longer.