Mr Staines Shop

In the middle of my grandmas street was a corner shop....Mr Staines Corner Shop.

It was where you went to buy anything and everything.

Fancy that boys,a shop just literally one minute away from your house,I bet you would have liked that as you were growing up.

And you could walk to it all by yourselves!

Thinking about it I bet the whole shop was not much bigger than our lounge but it managed to fit everything in.

I can remember the counter and lots of items stacked up behind it and Mr Staines serving behind the counter,every day except Sundays because in those days shops didn't open on Sundays.

Can you imagine that,a day when you couldn't pop to a shop,no matter what.

If you had run out of something it was tough luck because apart from call on a neighbour to lend you it you just would have to make do until the shops opened on Monday....and guess what we all survived.... shock horror...we all absolutely survived!

Perhaps our mothers were better housekeepers back then and never ran out of anything or perhaps they had more time,I have my own views on that subject.

The shop had a big window and behind that window was my favourite things in the whole shop,the sweeties! 

There were tons of what I call duds or dudu's I guess a little bit like Haribos are now.

I can remember little pink candy sweets called shrimps and little jelly teddy bears and chews...fruit salads and black jacks ~ 6 for a penny and 3 for 1/2p,yep in those days we even had 1/2p! And it was worth something....you could buy sweets with it!The sweets were put in a white paper bag and it always seemed like you had loads when Mr Staines handed them over to you.

There were always big cardboard boxes of crisps stacked high on top of each other,you had to put your hand through the circle and reach into the box to get your pack of crisps out.
I think at that age I had never seen multi pack bags of crisps at all,you just brought what you needed for that day and when you needed more you just went back to the shop,it was a much simpler existence and thinking about it I bet you didn't need as much storage space either,no weekly shops in those days and a monthly shop would have been unheard of!

I have told my mum that I was writing about Mr Staines shop and she really grinned.

I bet Mr Staines has long since passed away but I for one will never forget his little corner shop (and it was actually on a corner) somethings you never forget,do you.

Anyone else have any memories of their corner shops,let me know,I would love to hear what other people can remember.

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