Orange Juice and Cod Liver Oil. Felt tip pens.
Orange Juice and Cod Liver Oil
Being a child in the 1950s would probably seem very strange to those living today in the 21st century. However, there were some rather homely and quirky things we used to experience that made us happy. I used to think these belonged to the past, but in these strange pandemic times, perhaps not.
A simple pleasure was walking up to Molesey High Street with my mother to the local clinic. The clinic was just like the other shops in the parade except that it had corrugated glass windows, which made it seem quite special as you couldn’t see inside.
My mother had coupons, I think, to get bottles of orange juice and cod liver oil for me to take as nutrition of a kind. The bottles were rectangular and flat with corrugated sides, like the windows, which made them seem more like medicine. I didn’t mind and Mummy seemed happy.
Sometimes the baker would call at our door with a basket of bread and cakes… what a lovely smell…and Mummy would buy some loaves and cake for me. Then the greengrocer would come with his van and Mummy would buy fruit and vegetables. The butcher also came, I can’t remember what we bought from him, meat probably. And, every week, we had a delivery from Cullens, the grocery store in Hampton Court, they sold everything else Mummy might need. The delivery boy brought it to the back door in a cardboard box and set it on the kitchen table for Mummy to check. It was nice to see these people coming around with their wares for sale. Every morning the milkman came and left bottles of milk on the doorstep, and sometimes the birds would peck the foil lids to drink it. Mummy left out the empty bottles for the milkman to collect.
Every so often we would hear the cries of the Rag and Bone man riding by with his horse and cart, I couldn’t really hear what he was saying but I think he was calling out ‘Boones!’ Mummy never gave him anything but it was nice to hear him passing along the road.
I would sit in the window seat in my little bedroom and watch the world go by – it was quite idyllic.
