Rina Rhiwgoch used to come on a little trap and pony and we used to go to the door with a jug ready, and she used to measure the pint. She always had a spotless white overall. That was how the milk was delivered
I remember a crew from a cargo boat going right across a plank to Red Lion, which is now the Harbourmaster and we children then ran on to the ship and ran around but didn’t do any harm! That all stopped, of course, when the railway came. Then railways stopped and the buses took over, but the worst thing that ever happened was the Beeching closure of the small stations because now it would have been such a money-spinner for the visitors to go down the Aeron Vale. My father thought that was the most beautiful in the world.
Owen the Van used to drive the big GWR horse wagon to deliver parcels and things like that. It was a big boxy affair with three steps at the back and children used to run behind and get a ride, you know. Well, quite honestly I don’t remember many motorised wagons and cars as a child. My father did have an AC, a very long pointed thing that he’d bought from my uncle, and a dicky seat at the back that we loved having a ride in. But what I was going to say now was that there weren’t many cars about. As children we used to play in Market Street from City House (now Jibinc) to the butcher’s shop where Costcutters is now and we used to play games …….in the street, and I never remember having to stop for any car. One of them was a chanting game which began like this
‘Three Jolly Welshmen looking for some work… ‘ and the people at the other side of the street said, ‘What work can you do sir?’ ‘Anything to please you’. ‘Well show me one or two’, and then we’d mime and, when they guessed correctly, we’d run back to the other side of the road and try to get there before them You couldn’t do that now could you?
(BASED ON EXTRACTS FROM A TRANSCRIPT OF A RECORDED INTERVIEW WITH MARGARET MAKIN, 2007)
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