Eeya then!
As no one wants to start the thread.
Yes I remember clippies. My grandad drove a bus in Coventry when he came from Stourbridge. The buses had screw in lightbulbs and the bell was on a wire, you got on at the back. Sometimes the smell inside of fumes made me feel sick now its usually someones chips or sick. The conductor would help you on and make sure you stood up for a lady and stopped any aggro.Sometimes they shouted out the stops.
The clippie or conductor and the driver were a team. They had a code with the rings they did if there was any aggro and for reversing etc.
Grandad's clippie was Vera. She had Betty Boop waxed curls a bit like Poirot's Miss Lemon, and she came from Salthill in Galway. There used to be a thing going round with cards in 'digs' windows, no Irish need apply. So my nan put her up till she got a place. She had 2 other Irish bus conductors at different times. They were really nice to me with sweets etc and to my great gran.
Digs I think are a thing of the past too. With battle axe landladies another thing of the past.
As to commissionaires, when I started work in circa 76 we had them on the door, then they became, security men, then they worked through an agency. Then you had a swipe card and they were defunct. Except the gate kept jamming. I used to climb over it.
I have not seen or heard the comforting sound of a milk float in years. The small garages with little shops are going as are the post offices small schools and hospitals and local police stations.
I no longer see herbal shops dark inside with mysterious drawersm surgical appliance shops, mature ladies undergarments stores, we had Gladys Bryants where my grans got their stays and passion killers as they called them.
Pork batch shops, pram shops,pet shops (good thing I suppose) cobblers, hardware shops (rare) fishmongers, game, army surplus stores, music shops that sell instruments records and sheet music, philatelists, pen shops,. habidasheries, hatters, tailors, corsitiers (yow cor sit eer, nan's joke) Fishing tackle shops, gunsmiths, blacksmiths, horse drawn vendors, lamplighters, trolley buses, street cleaners with handcarts, night watchman outside with a brazier, .
Nico
What do you remember?