Saturday 9 February 2013

A Penny For 'Um.....


Hello there ... just thought I would drop by and say Hi..
 
Hows your garden doing ... any signs of Spring yet?

I had a bit of a wander about this afternoon .. although it was wet and rather dark and dismal today.
 


 Cheery sights non the less ... 
the old boots ... a lifetime of work over ... 
but bursting with new life and vitality...
never give in .. never give up..



 And of course Snowdrops .... who doesn't just love Snowdrops..

Whilst I was faffing about outside Hubby P was sorting though stock he had picked up yesterday ... its always a surprise ... the things that turn up when clearing attics and the like.

There was a whole bagful of this.. 
 


 Who remembers this?

 ... its like ... real money ...
real heavy solid ...jingly jangly in yr pocket money!



 Oh ... how I so loved a thrupenny bit.... what a girl could do with it ...a solid little thing .... and the shape .. so tactile.

Sixpences of course went in the Christmas Pudding... and Grandads made them magically appear from behind your ear!



And what of these ... that darling little Wren .... its all so ...
British..? 
 I must admit I really don't remember the Farthing being used .. I think it had been phased out .. or whatever ... but they were still around .. I just loved that little Wren.
I was reading the other day that the Wren is now the most common of our garden birds ... and yet so shy ...

As a child I don't remember seeing many.. except the perfect one on the coin. 
 

This was a 'biggie' in my childhood days ... my Spending Money/ Pocket Money seemed to be fixed at a shilling for years. Given out on a Friday night ... providing all my jobs had been done during the week ...
Saturday saw us (my friends and I) haunting the market for the best buys .. the best value for our hard earned shilling.
We always treated ourselves to a fizzy pop ... something just not seen in the home ... except ... if you were very lucky .. and Mum was feeling rich ... at your Birthday party.

But once we were 'young ladies about town' with our shilling clutched in our sticky hand ... we could buy our own pop.

We would climb up on the high stools of the market cafe... and order creamsoda or shandy (very racy).. with a dollop of icecream in it ... it came in big tall glasses and we would eat with a long handled spoon and slurp with a straw! 

Think I would be sick nowadays....




So here we are..
 
... here's a big handful of pennies for you ..how did you spend yours ...
who remembers the sweetshop having a penny tray...
what was your favourite?

I liked the pink shrimps....  



And here's a few Snowdrops for you.. from the hedgerow .... they grow on top of and through the wall ...

.. everyone loves a snowdrop.

Take care x

8 comments:

  1. Mmmm, pink shrimps for me too! Back when pink shrimps were only a penny! I used to love looking at all of my Grandpa's old coins, he collects them, they were so much heavier. Lovely blog post!

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  2. Anything pre 1980 something you can put in your bird bath to keep the water from turning green.

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  3. I have a bunch of old coins that I inherited in an old sewing box.
    I loved pink shrimps too,although I used to think they were ears:)I also loved sherbet flying saucers and parma violets.Lovely post :)

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  4. I remember a thrupenny bit buying a big bag of 'penny rubbish' and a shilling was a fortune! Half a crown (12.5p) or even 5s were given in the form of postal orders for birthdays and Christmas and were a vast amount to spend ...

    Those were the days Victoria, thanks for a very interesting, nostalgic, post.

    Claire xxx

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  5. A lovely post! ... threepenny bits and sixpenses are my most favourtie ever coins - the shape, weight and feel of them are like no other. All the old money brings back memories ... (dinner money including a sixpence tied in the corner of your hanky on a Monday morning is one ...) My remembered sweetie buy was 8 blackjacks for a penny.

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  6. I remember counting all the 'old' money at the end of our church jumble sales. It was real and heavy and dirty money. I always had thrupence to spend at the sweet shop on my way home from school. I mostly bought penny sweets but some times I bought a knicker bocker glory. It was something you had to scrape out of a plastic cup with a very small plastic spoon. It was very small and so we took very small mouthfuls to make it last longer.
    Love from Mum
    xx

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  7. oh such lovely photos, I love the old boots and the snow drops and we have a few of those old coins, they must have come over to Canada with my grandmother, thankyou for sharing this with us,

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  8. Ah lovely snowdrops, Mr Twigs says he likes my thrupenny bits, but I think he's being rude ;)
    Are you going to soak the coins in vinegar to make them shiny, we used to do that with old pennies when we were kids.
    We only had fizzy pop at birthday parties too - my drink of choice was always Tizer, I found some a couple of weeks ago and bought some and can confirm it still tastes of tin!! We used to have a mix up from the shop next door once a week and get 4 Mojo sweets for a penny.
    Twiggy x

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