Lost and found 1

I’m not sure how the subject came up, after dinner. Tim and I chat and one thing leads to another. It was something to do with pocket money and the buying of records and that I couldn’t because I didn’t receive pocket money.

My parents were quite well heeled when I was a child and they were generous and I certainly could have received pocket money, except for one wretched child called Bob the junior conman. My sister took the school bus from the age of five, which called at the bottom of the drive up to the hotel my parents ran. Our father took her down the drive on the back of his motorbike. Helmets were not involved in 1953. Once Wink was a schoolgirl, she was given pocket money, which was hers to spend without supervision – there was a little village shop and garage at the bottom of the drive where she could go and buy sweets or a comic while she waited for Daddy and the motorbike.

After a few weeks, it was noticed that she never had anything she might have spent her money on. She didn’t mention it until delicately questioned when, wide-eyed with anxiety, she told our parents all about *poor* Bob. He sat next to her on the bus and let her know all about the poverty of his family, they had nothing to eat and dressed in rags and…..kind, gullible Wink handed over her pocket money every week.

Once this deception had been uncovered, Wink was never entrusted with pocket money again. More importantly, non-gullible Z, who was taken to school by car as there wasn’t a bus, wasn’t given any either.

This is the preamble, darlings. I don’t seem to have touched on the substance of the post yet. I’ll add 1 to the title and come back to it tomorrow.

2 comments on “Lost and found 1

  1. allotmentqueen

    When I was about 10 and we lived in Lightwater in Surrey my sister and I used to catch the bus to school in Camberley. There was a shop by the bus stop and we were given (I think) a shilling each to buy a small bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk as that was a ‘good’ sweet. I must admit I can’t remember the exact amount of money. We discovered that you could buy loads more Black Jacks and Fruit Salads for the same amount of money. I have it in my head that they were maybe a halfpenny each. But obviously they would rot your teeth in no time. When my mother found out what we were doing, the money stopped instantly. Curiously another memory I have from my childhood is visiting the travelling dentist. He had a caravan for his surgery and after you had had your checkup (and maybe a filling) you could choose a treat from his bottom drawer. This was either a ribbon or a boiled sweet!!!

    Reply
    1. Z Post author

      A pint and a half in every bar, I seem to remember. Yes, the acceptable face of sweets. I also remember a very thin little bar of Cadbury’s chocolate that was very cheap. My mother would buy those for prizes at birthday parties. We never had a travelling dentist, ours was called Mick Watson or Watkin or some such and he was a real ‘drill and fill’ enthusiast. My parents knew that and still sent us, because they knew him socially. Totally bemusing. A caravan would have been more fun.

      Reply

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