Things that you just don't see now!

[climaxchick]

We have Ragbone come round weekly!! Even 2 or 3 a week sometimes. It's funny. I'd never heard of it before until i came up here. I just remember waking up one morning and hearing someone shouting out what seemed to be in deep pain... when i woke Goo up, and asked him what on earth it was, he laughed at me and explained. He seemed more surprised that i'd never heard of it before. How strange.

[artisan]

That was probably the bloke shouting 'bring out your dead' dont mix him up with the ragman, or you will put the old folk on the wrong cart and you will look a right birk then wont you?

[skippy]

Donkey stone for old rags was the cry, if a kid took rags to them they would receive a ballon, if an adult did it they would get a stone to rub on their steps. Ragmen hired horse and carts from some bloke who's name I can't remember,and they supplimented their dole payments by doing this.

You also found people at railway sidings when the coal trains came in wanting to help the coalmen to fill the bags for a small fee paid cash in hand, I worked for a coalman for a time and we used to pay these people to give us a hand, suprising what people did in the old days to get extra betting and beer money.

[artisan]

Skippy ithink you are only afew years older than me but I can only remember tose tings vaguely. The ragmen i can remember they used to take the stuff to a place at the end of Broadfield Road as I remember. Sometimes as kids we would go round all our relatives and neighbours collecting the stuff and get the money ourselves, better than a balloon.

The donkey stoning of the step was very important wasnt it. Any womans step that was not immacullate was sneered upon.

It was a completely different way of thinking, a completely different way of life. Change has never come so quickly in the history of mankind

[Falls]

While you are remembering the Donkey Stone for the front steps, don't forget to Black Lead the old coal fireplace.

 

Then you will need to put up some new lace curtains - bought by the yard from the funny little man in the "Cloth and Insect" (Rag'n Tag) market.

 

You will all remember that the lace curtains had to be taken down and washed every week - without fail. With the wonderful atmosphere we had in Sheffield in those days, the curtains would start to go yellow by the second or third wash and be in shreds by the tenth week and need replacing. That is, if you lived in the Wicker or down "The Cliffe"

 

Yes, the old place has come along way.

[climaxchick]

Gosh - Sheffield has history...... You guys show your age. The oldest thing i can remember is the man who used to drive around in his van and sell bread and cake.

[docmel]

Sunday lunchtime memories

 

Steamed windows on all the houses in the street as Mum's boiled the cabbage to death.

Theme tune to "Family Favourites" on the radio

All the men in suits waiting for the pub to open at 12:00

 

Other memories (rambling actually!)

 

1/3 pint milk bottles served with a square of newspaper halfway through the morning to all kids under 11:00 (stopped by Maggie, if I remember)

 

Kids just 'playing' in the street

 

Carpets being taken up and beaten on the washing line to get all the dirt and dust out (before we got a hoover!!)

 

Match striker plates on the back of bus seats

 

Window Cleaners with 'triangular' ladders over their shoulder

 

Dogs being let out in a morning to roam the streets - they always came home at dinner time

 

Rope swings on the arms of the Gas Lamps

 

'Big Lads' in your street coming home in uniform on their first leave after joining the army for national service

[skippy]

Why did we go around collecting jamjars ?

I remember collecting old beer bottles and taking them back to the pub, I'm not sure whether we got 3d or a penny per bottle, our neighbours were real

P pots so I made heaps of money taking theirs back.

Geez, I wa reel prowd wen mi brutha's cumome in their army & airforce suits,

& big bags an guns ont shoulders.

[flyer]

White button on shirt collars ,had to be scrubed every night, to wash away Sheffield grime

[sophiec1979]

im really intrigued, and i dont want this to seem seem rude or anything....

 

but im just wondering what the average age is of the people who are contributing to this thread?

 

im only a youngster (born '79- as you might have guessed! lol) and all the things youre talking i have no experience of- but i still think its really interesting.

 

thank you,

 

sophie

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