Nineteen-thirty-five was a time when the knife grinder and onion seller cycled the roads; the milk collected in churns - to be delivered by horse and cart, the coal brought by the coalman wearing his sacking hood and apron and the bread delivered by horse-drawn van. Gypsies sold pegs and posies of heather, the Rag–a-bone man sang, and the scrap man called ‘any-old-iron’. Biscuits and sugar sold loose… salt and soap by the block and flour and split peas by the bag, all obtained at Lipton’s or the Home & Colonial. The butcher sold fat – to melt down for lard and ‘skewered’ meat bore a tag that declared part and price. Greengrocers sold vegetables their beetroot boiled in a bucket. Large blocks of chocolate and toffee were broken with a brass hammer and sold in Woolworths, whose goods were displayed on open counters. Meanwhile, my birth, upbringing, and schooling, continued apace.