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Jared 
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 06 2005
Location: Hereford, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 19874
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 Posted: November 26 2008 at 04:27 |
 Jim Garten wrote:
And have you noticed, Jared - most of the time, we're left to our own devices, we're rarely interrupted by children & if I want to say I think James LaBrie couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, or put forward the theory that if John Petrucci were to slow his playing down everyone would realise he's only hitting 3 out of every 10 notes correctly, I won't actually get hung drawn & quartered.
Me love shed! |
you know, the other great thing about the Shed is that you could be away for several weeks, yet return and find your 'place' without any problems, because nothing changes... same characters, same conversations...
In this way, the Shed kind of reminds me of 'The Archers'... you can miss it for about 6 weeks, but things move so slowly, that within less than two episodes, you can be brought right up to speed... 
now, which part has Rachel 'Linda Snell' Wilce cast me for, in this year's Shed Xmas panto??... 
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Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson
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progmetalhead
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 15 2007
Location: England
Status: Offline
Points: 2081
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 04:37 |
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Jared
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 06 2005
Location: Hereford, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 19874
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 04:39 |
Man Erg wrote:
Cromwell Tudor.Ecclesiastical Painter and Decorator.  |
Cromwell & Sons
(by special appointment to the Duke Of Northumberland)
Defilers of Cherubs, Virgins and Gargoyles.
No Iconoclasitism too small.
Candlesticks recycled while you wait.
Why let your Altars stand Idol??
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Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout
Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 04:50 |
Syzygy wrote:
There used to be a shop near us oop North where you could buy bike spares, DIY stuff (screws sold loose and not in blister packs - the kids today don't believe me), elements for electric kettles last manufactured in the 1930s, duck eggs, a 3/8" Gripley, and the shopkeeper wore one of those brown overalls with blue marks over the breast ;pocket where he'd tried to put his biro away and missed.
B & Q? Pah! |
I think they fell through a timewarp and landed in Medstead, Hampshire - we have TWO of those still (three if you count the builder's merchant where they sell screws by the pound and you have to specifically ask for a bag when buying sand or they'll shovel it straight into your boot) - one of the hardware shops doubles as the village post office, which they only bother opening when you ask. It actually reminds me of Arkwright's corner shop crossed with the 'four candles' shop (and it is on a corner and they sell fork handles) - the other week I went in there for a 3A terminal block: as I went to open the door, the owner opened it and gruffly asked me what I wanted, the shop is so crammed with stuff there isn't room for a counter, there is a small plinth just large enough fo the till, there's barely room for the owner, let alone a customer - in 6 years of going there I've never been allowed to browse, not that I could without risking my own health and saftey - you tell him what you want and he goes and fetches it - or a close approximation of what you asked for - this time it the nearest he could find was 10A one, which was close enough. He looked at it, then rummaged around on a shelf below the till and pulled out a wad of tatty well-thumbed price-lists, after much fumbling and mumbling, he looked up and said, somewhat hopefully, "50p" I nodded and paid-up as he placed the terminal block in a brown-paper bag.
When I got home, I took it out of the bag and saw a faded price sticker on it.... "3d"
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Jared
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 06 2005
Location: Hereford, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 19874
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 05:15 |
^^ we have one of those shops in Kington, Dean... mighty handy when you're trying to single handedly stop a large building from falling down, on a charity budget... 
he will sell you screws, nails, bolts and hooks individually in a brown paper bag, and if you need a 'receipt' for the accounts dept, he spends 5 minutes wrestling with the till roll and a pair of scissors, before handing you an indecipherable smudge the size of a postage stamp...
I love taking in a washer of an unusual thickness/ diameter, 'cos then he spends the next 15 minutes up ladders, foraging around in dust laden old boxes which once conatined a DIY phrenology kit, and the wooden draws of what used to be a Victorian ladies dressing table, scratching his head and making 'thoughful' noises... irespective of the sizeable queue building up behind me, most of whom are interested in spending more than the 10p he'll charge me for the washer... I think he just loves the challenge... |
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Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout
Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 05:24 |
^ They must be related 
I bought a petrol lawnmower from them when we first moved into "the village", which he delivered after he'd shut-up shop that evening. He assembled it on our drive and then proceeded to show us how it worked, where to put the petrol, how to prime it, start it and then finally demonstrated how to use it by cutting a neat stripe down the length of the front lawn and back again. "Okay?" he asks. I shakes my head, "Could you just run through that again?" Which he gladly does... it wasn't until he was half way back up the garden when he finally twigged what I was up to... |
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mystic fred
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: March 13 2006
Location: Londinium
Status: Offline
Points: 4252
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 05:59 |
Across the road from my house many years ago we had an Off -Licence, a newspaper/sweet shop (where i worked as a paper boy), a Butcher's shop, an Art shop where they let me display my plasticine dinosaurs in the window, an Ironmongers where they sold everything including paraffin and fireworks, a Greengrocer and a Grocers store where a huge ham slicer sat on the counter (i loved watching this) and everything was in jars and tins.
The Greengrocer was filmed in an episode of "On the Buses" with late Reg Varney and Bob Grant, the one where Bob bought the bunch of flowers and threw them down when Reg drove off in the Bus with his "bird" - they took a whole afternoon doing that sequence!
..now we just have a Polish supermarket, an Asian mini market, a Driving Test Centre and a Turkish kebab shop - how times have changed...
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 Prog Archives Tour Van 
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Man Erg
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: August 26 2004
Location: Isle of Lucy
Status: Offline
Points: 7456
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 06:15 |
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In the 1960s there was a 'shop' near us that sold almost anything.
I say 'shop' because it didn't have any windows or door as such.I was just a shell within a terrace of Victorian shops.
The 'shop' front consisted of a metal shutter within which was an opening.Inside,the floor was dirt and all that you could see in the gloom,which was slightly illuminated by a hurricane lamp as there was no electricity or gas,was piles and piles of er...stuff.No shelves or racks.Everything was just in piles!
People would go in and say have you got this,that or the other and somehow he could put his hand to it immediately.
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Do 'The Stanley' otherwise I'll thrash you with some rhubarb.
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Jim Garten
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin & Razor Guru
Joined: February 02 2004
Location: South England
Status: Offline
Points: 14693
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 06:23 |
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I think I could cry with nostalgia here (or is that the neuralgia); all those stories remind me so much of those halcyon days of childhood spent with my dad in (what he referred to as) the ironmongers in Potters Bar High Street - don't remember what it was called, but everyone always called it 'Taylors'... because it was run by Mr Taylor - waiting whilst the overalled, bespectacled shopkeeper (think of a very very skinny & elderly Arkwright) bustled round for something for dad, whilst I spent the time looking at all these weird & wonderful tools & boxes of arcane fixings...
...and if you asked him for a "wossname to fix the thingummy", he knew what you meant and had one in stock.
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Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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Syzygy
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: December 16 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 7003
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 06:36 |
mystic fred wrote:
Across the road from my house many years ago we had an Off -Licence, a newspaper/sweet shop (where i worked as a paper boy), a Butcher's shop, an Art shop where they let me display my plasticine dinosaurs in the window, an Ironmongers where they sold everything including paraffin and fireworks, a Greengrocer and a Grocers store where a huge ham slicer sat on the counter (i loved watching this) and everything was in jars and tins.
The Greengrocer was filmed in an episode of "On the Buses" with late Reg Varney and Bob Grant, the one where Bob bought the bunch of flowers and threw them down when Reg drove off in the Bus with his "bird" - they took a whole afternoon doing that sequence!
..now we just have a Polish supermarket, an Asian mini market, a Driving Test Centre and a Turkish kebab shop - how times have changed...
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The destination of Reg Varney's bus in 'On The Buses' was 'Cemetery Gates'. Almost a self fulfilling prophecy when yopu think about it.
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'Like so many of you
I've got my doubts about how much to contribute
to the already rich among us...'
Robert Wyatt, Gloria Gloom
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Jim Garten
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin & Razor Guru
Joined: February 02 2004
Location: South England
Status: Offline
Points: 14693
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 06:41 |
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It's like watching an old episode of Dad's Army:
"he's dead, he's dead, he's dead, he's dead... etc"
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Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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Jared
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 06 2005
Location: Hereford, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 19874
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 06:44 |
Jim Garten wrote:
It's like watching an old episode of Dad's Army:
"he's dead, he's dead, he's dead, he's dead... etc" |
we're all dooooooooooooooomed... 
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Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson
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Vicky Garten
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 13 2005
Status: Offline
Points: 211
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 06:46 |
Those were the days
I think we should have a Shed campaign to bring back PROPER SHOPS not corporate wastelands of mediocrity.
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Confusion will be my epitaph
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Syzygy
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: December 16 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 7003
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 06:51 |
Vicky Garten wrote:
Those were the days
I think we should have a Shed campaign to bring back PROPER SHOPS not corporate wastelands of mediocrity. |
And proper caffs as well instead of all those bloody Starbucks/Cafe Nero franchise monstrosities.
When was the last time you saw a ketchup bottle in the shape of a tomato with all old ketchup congealed around the lid?
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'Like so many of you
I've got my doubts about how much to contribute
to the already rich among us...'
Robert Wyatt, Gloria Gloom
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Jim Garten
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin & Razor Guru
Joined: February 02 2004
Location: South England
Status: Offline
Points: 14693
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 06:52 |
Absolutely - if I wanted a corporate wasteland of mediocrity, I'd have gone to a U2 gig 
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Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout
Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 06:56 |
Syzygy wrote:
Vicky Garten wrote:
Those were the days
I think we should have a Shed campaign to bring back PROPER SHOPS not corporate wastelands of mediocrity. |
And proper caffs as well instead of all those bloody Starbucks/Cafe Nero franchise monstrosities.
When was the last time you saw a ketchup bottle in the shape of a tomato with all old ketchup congealed around the lid? |
...and these...
cleverly designed to dispense one spoonful of sugar
....a tablespoonful
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What?
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Jared
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 06 2005
Location: Hereford, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 19874
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 06:59 |
Vicky Garten wrote:
Those were the days
I think we should have a Shed campaign to bring back PROPER SHOPS not corporate wastelands of mediocrity. |
quite.
what I object to most, are the way these Stores are often 'staffed' (and I use that expression in the very broadest sense of the term) by spotty, disinterested, inarticulate, unqualified youths (2008's version of Saturday girls, although sadly, they are 'employed' all week long) who are a) evasive to track down b) tell you that's not their department and c) use the stock expression 'If its not on the shelf, then we won't have any in', primarily because they can't be bothered to go and look in the stock room. Likewise, they never have an idea of when they will next be in stock, because they don't do the ordering...
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Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson
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Wilcey
Forum Senior Member
VIP Member
Joined: August 11 2005
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 2696
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 07:01 |
I had a Saturday job in Woolies.............. back in the days of wind up tills!  When the cash drawer used to 'bite' your finger tips and there was space for £1 notes  . My favourite shop in the whole wide world is Cawthornes in Braunton, Devon. FABULOUS shop, and a great example of how a shop should be!
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Jim Garten
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin & Razor Guru
Joined: February 02 2004
Location: South England
Status: Offline
Points: 14693
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 07:05 |
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The closest we have is one in Stevenage Old Town, where the people know what they're talking about, will look to find something you can't, still run a service to sharpen lawn-mowers, and buy/sell old mowers.
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Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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Jared
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 06 2005
Location: Hereford, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 19874
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Posted: November 26 2008 at 07:05 |
^^oh, my favourite is Yarborough House....1/3 books, 1/3 music and 1/3 tea room with latte & homemeade carrot cake...pure heaven...
I just really really want to take Lee there some time... |
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Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson
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