How the tide turns

Reading in many internet site about "how it was" and how we are going backwards very rapidly it would not surprise me that another "Nimbin" style of life will start popping up very were.
I remember very well (back in Uruguay) during the 50's and 60's how we was happy to live with the food that were in season and how healthy we used to live. There was a life without plastic cards and the ones that need credit for the necessities of life used to have a book with the local grocer were a record of goods were written on it with the bill to be paid at the end of the month or when the salary was paid.
Here, in Oz, I remember the drivers license, it was a piece of paper without a photo and was sufficient as the main ID document to open a bank account or together with the pay sleep to get any type of credit.
A hand shake was enough to seal a deal.
Now all that it is gone, we eat rubbish food that we do not know what it is on , people leave on credit and a hand shake does not have any value.
Yes, I miss the old to tiemes indeed :(

I can remember bread being delivered in our street by Horse & Cart. - Can still smell the oven-fresh loaves !

The ice-man was also 'horse-powered'. So was the Butcher. - Coolgardie safe until I was 6 years old. The ice-works was just across the road from us in East Victoria Park (WA) and closed down around the same time.

Never saw the Milko, as he came around in the wee small hours.. Used to dig the yoghurt out with a knife.... But the milk was wonderful, cream floating and around 2 inches (5cm) thick. Used to take the foil cap off carefully... hold it between the tips of 1st and 2nd fingers and flick it to fly... Kids will never know what they missed....:p

For a while we even had the mobile green-grocer in his ancient truck. - But he was a yuppie...:p

Then the Supermarket came, along with the car-park...and Library.

The Ice man melted away... green-grocer went back to his shop and the baker rose to the occasion by baking more cakes... Butcher did well in his expanded shop.

-Some things don't change... The newsagency over the road and Photographic studio are both owned and run by their original families/descendents.

And yes, the supermarket and it's car park is still there...

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Originally Posted by superquag

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The ice-man was also 'horse-powered'. .............

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Yes! I remember that as well. The ice was in a big block, the delivery man used to wrap it with a hessian bag and carry it on his shoulder to the icebox inside the house.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...13/10/1019.jpg

I remember our house getting broken in to and a few things pinched - including my beloved bicycle. Within about an hour two Detectives arrived in a poo-brown XC Falcon, took the report and a fortnight later my bike turned up at home along with mum's cassette player.

Fast forward 35 years and so long as there's no witnesses to support it, you ring a stupid telephone number and are told, 'Don't worry, the insurance will cover it'. Same for a stolen car - doesn't get investigated by Police.

I guess that's customer service going the way of the corner store, honey cart, milko and paper boy.

Nice to reflect on what was Glen..... :)

Matt.

We lived at the river end of Brunswick St. opposite New Farm park. As soon as petrol rationing ended the only horse drawn deliveries left were the bottle-o and the clothes prop man. Up until the end of rationing lots of deliveries to and from the CSR refinery, the wharves, and the wool stores were being done by horse drawn wagons. There were two horse troughs, one on the footpath in James St outside Coca Cola Bottlers opposite the big Charles Hope factory, both long gone for yuppy boutiques, restaurants and grossly overpriced units, and one at the corner of Lamington St. and Merthyr Rd. opposite the disused CSR horse paddock, also all expensive units now. Home deliveries were done for milk, meat, groceries, bread, fruit and veg, and dry cleaning. I remember going to Stewart's grocer shop in Merthyr Rd. with mum or Nana and the sign in the shop saying deliveries 1/-, 10/- orders delivered free. The grocers weighed and bagged bulk stuff like sugar, rice, etc as required. Cheese cut from a big wheel with a wire device. Sides of bacon hanging up in the shop without refrigeration and sliced on request. Always someone in the street as people walked most short distances up to the local shops and to the ferry and trams. Lots of workers rode bicycles to and from. A horse drawn pie cart came to New Farm State School for "little lunch" and a guy in a 1929 Chev ute with wood fired oven on the back came at "big lunch". Ray Stewart, the grocer, was escorted off Breakfast Creek racecourse for having the effrontery to enter the Member's Enclosure in shorts and long socks.

Things aren't looking too shiny around here either :(
http://www.google.com.au/url'sa=t&rc...iC9hCLPuh7-WBg
Something like this,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=TgiNddQ1lSU

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19wAAyxZhUo]Ernie The Fastest Milkman In The West - Benny Hill - YouTube[/ame]

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Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Yeah, Gerry Harvey "poor bugger me".

A large Mitre Ten store in a local shopping centre shut the doors and had a clearing auction sale. The proprietors were wingeing about the nearby Bunnings sending them broke. I thought " Yeah, just what Mitre 10's did in the 60's and 70's to the mum and dad hardware stores."

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And these were the hardware stores where you would buy nails and screws(slotted not phillips head) by the pound.

Our baker used to come around to the back door with a large cane basket loaded with a variety of bread. As Mum was home (remember them, stay at home mums) she would select the bread(unsliced, no sliced available then) she wanted for the day.

This next one is possibly only for Victorians. As soft drink was not as cheap as it is now there were two mobs, one called Slades and the other Loys.

The used to home deliver unrefrigerated soft drinks at a much cheaper price than could be purchased in a milk bar.(remember them) We used to reckon that their drinks were inferior to Tarax, Schwepps etc.

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Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

It's always ironic when we hear Gerry Harvey bleating about how unfair the GST free value on imported goods is affecting his buisness.

This is the same guy who's stores sent many local electronics and furnature stores to the wall because they couldn't compete with his discounts. The same guy who complains about weekend penalty rates and gives his mostly casual workforce the lowest pay and hours he can get away with.

There has been nothing stopping him setting up an internet presence supplying out of Asia and reaping the GST exemption also. However IMHO he's very much missed the boat on that or would still be more expensive than other internet vendors. After there's all the race horses he has to support so he needs the money.

On the other part of the thread. Buying Arnott's bikkys from the bulk metal tin by the ounce or pound and lollies always bought by the penny that came out of large confectionary jars on the counter! Weston's Wagon Wheels that seemed about the same size as your head.

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Bought a windows surface pro recently gerry was the cheapest online option for me.

geeee paper drivers licence, I wish. I reluctantly got my new spiffo Australia Card, opps drivers licence yesterday. Now the government can follow me and know all thay want anytime of day I'd imagine. All in the name of security and convenience. For who I can only surmise. Not that I get up to much, just begrudge the Gov following me around.

I'm amazed how much we now pay in the name of convenience. I go to bunnings and buy a few bolts, $4.95 for a pack of 4 bolts and nuts and thats after the long walk and wait. If I go to the bolt shop with close parking, and a waiting staff member who knows there stuff, 8c.

There was a hardware/produce shop in Murwillumbah that I loved to go to as a kid. It had grains and those related smells down the back, baby chickens and ducks up the front, and every possible need in between. Kero lanterns, nails and bolts by the Kg or part, all delivered in a paper bag. Gee I loved that place.