We were talking about the ‘old days’ when I was young which prompted me to write about the subject a bit. As it’s also #throwbackThursday, today is the turn of the rag and bone man.
When I look back to what my childhood was like compared to today it’s such a world apart from my youth.
Pony Rides
When I was young I lived on a cul-de-sac and, when I was very young (about five or so) once in a while, a man used to come on the road with his pony and a sort of dray, shouting to ask if anyone wanted a ride on his cart.
I can see him and the pony now and I remember running excitedly into the house asking for a penny or so (old money) to have a go on his wonderful cart. I always loved animals even then and a horse, well that was the height of my ambition, even at five years old which I never really grew out of. Quite a few of the children on the street would gather at one end of the road and went into this handsome fairy tale coach, which is what it seemed like to me, and off we went. There were seats on either side of the cart and we sat there surveying our houses from the lofty heights, feeling as though we were prince and princesses as we clopped along surveying our kingdom. All too soon it was over until the next time!
Cider with Rosie
Speaking of horses, there were a lot of them in the good old days, as vans and all the things we take for granted today didn’t exist.
When I look back it was like looking at Cider with Rosie – if anyone has read the book or watched the play – where idyllic childhoods in the sun were the norm rather than not.
A local man, who had a small shop selling fruit and veg and all sorts of stuff, used to come round with his horse and cart piled high with fruit and vegetables of every kind you could think of. Don’t forget, supermarkets didn’t exist and if you wanted food you had to trail to your local shops and carry it all back home the hard way.
My mum used to buy potatoes and apples from him and all the heavy things she didn’t want to have carry up the hill back home. The highlight for me was running out and daring to stroke the beautiful shire horse he used to pull his cart, oh he was handsome. I was very quiet and shy in those days and always expected a telling off for touching his horse as the veg man was a bit of a cross patch with a stern face. So for me I was being very bold and daring!
Of course, being a horse it did giant poos and my dad always sent me out with a bucket and shovel to take it up so he could use it on his garden. Everyone used to do that when I was young. There was no nipping to a garden centre to buy fertiliser and put it in the boot of your car. As there were quite a lot of horse drawn carts about, there was always a dash to ‘bag’ the manure before some else did.
The Rag and Bone Man
Of course, then there was the rag and bone man. I’m sure that oldies like me will remember them, as they came round so often in those days. Not many a fortnight passed without them shouting ‘any old rag and bones’ at the tops of their voices. Although where the bones came into it I’m not sure. But anyway the children, more than anyone else, would love to pester their mums to have some old clothes so that they could get a balloon or sometimes a goldfish!
Of course again, it was always pulled by a horse, and with scrap iron and all the rest of the stuff they cadged from us it’s a wonder the poor horses weren’t walking bow legged. I always felt sorry for the poor things.
The crafty rag and bone man would come at dinner time and stand outside the school gates to catch children who were going home for lunch with the promise that if you brought something back you would get a goldfish, which I so desperately wanted. (Jane: yes, and I always wanted one from the hook-a-duck and you wouldn’t let me have one either!!)
Clothes in those days were a necessity not a luxury, not like today’s clothes where you have loads of them. So to get my mum to part with anything that wasn’t completely worn out was a miracle.
One day she took pity on me and gave me an old woollen sweater which I took back to school and handed in to the rag and bone man for my goldfish.
I was so thrilled it was untrue, as I loved anything in the animal world. With a mother who flatly refused to let me have any animal of any kind, be it bird or fish or furry, I did well to get it home and leave it swimming in one of my mum’s cut glass trifle dishes! Of course today, we all know it isn’t humane to treat the poor goldfish that way, but it was the norm those days.
I think it’s nice to look back on the ‘olden times’ when I must seem ancient to be able to remember lots of horse and carts on the roads, but it was a lot quieter then and the pace of life a lot slower. Bring those days back please!!!
Why don’t you Join In?
Our new-look Visit Fylde Coast websites now come complete with the facility to make comments on each article. So now you can all add your thoughts, comments, ideas, extra information etc right at the foot of the relevant article, rather than saying something on Facebook and it being lost to eternity!
Why don’t you join in? Just enter your email address (to stop spammers) and away you go. Comments are moderated (also to stop spammers, and we’ve already had a lot) but are quickly approved.
You might also be interested in:
- Easter Eggs from Long Ago
- Gas Mantles and Peggy Rugs
- Life as a Coal Miner
- Mining Museum
- Old pit communities
- Remembering Steam Trains
- Saturday Morning at the Pictures
- Streets from Long Ago
- The Games we Played in the Olden Days
- The Good Old Days – coal fires
- The Outside Toilet
- The Rag and Bone Man
- Very old picture of a mining community
While you’re here…
Go to the homepage of the Visit Fylde Coast website for the latest updates.
Love the Fylde Coast? Sign up for your email newsletter. Packed full of interesting things it arrives in your inbox all 52 weeks of the year.
Join us on Facebook at our Visit Fylde Coast Facebook Group Plus hundreds of videos to watch on our YouTube channel – from all over the Fylde Coast!
Booking a stay? Pick a safe, clean and legal place to stay, at the very best price. Book using the Visit Fylde Coast Accommodation guide.
