Sent to the Shops.....

I remember being maybe 9 or 10 years old in the early sixties and being sent over the shops,just across our road,with a list of things me Mum or Dad needed.....A typical list at the small grocer's shop would include:- 1 "Seven O'clock" razor blade. 2 eggs.5 Woodbines.1 Jeyes toilet roll (as a treat! compared to newspaper) 2 rashers of bacon (you had to choose the thickness you wanted).A little lump of cheese cut to the size you wanted (small!).Half a pound of broken biscuits. 2oz of cherries (sticky...out of a jar).Then sometimes to the garage to get a few .410 shotgun cartridges for me Dad.To the post-office to choose a Knife from the display board they had,everything from the "Tiny" to various sheaf-knives depending how flushed you were.Quite often to the paper-shop to get 20 "Guards" for me Dad and sometimes there'd be reps in there,trying to push a new brand, who'd give a few free fags out to take home and on a rare occasion I'd be sent to the Pub,where after knocking on the window,they'd serve you with Beer or anything you'd been asked to get..........If there were any age restrictions at that time then nobody ever enforced or worried about them and for my part I didn't start drinking or smoking,or trying to shoot someone with me Dad's shotgun,for which I could easily get the ammo and it never occurred to me to use the big sheaf knife I'd bought from the Post Office and sometimes took to School,for anything other than playing a game of splits!Maybe it was the way we were brought up......