204th forum

[rob_everitt]

I have just returned from my very last visit to the small local Woolies just round the corner from the school. It is a bit sad to see it now but for me the real Woolies was killed off a few years back when they took the girls from behind the counters.

One of my fond memories was in the late sixties, I may even have been at Halton at the time. I was browsing the hardware counter, a habit I still retain, when I accidentally brushed against an item displayed on a pegboard attached to a pillar. It was a cardboard box containing a plastic toilet seat (Airfix would you believe) and it fell across the counter. In the process it knocked over a metal folding fireguard. This slid down the counter scattering as it did so a load of sundry items, including a large number of small circular tins of dye. These fell to floor and randomly rolled across the shop in all directions. At this I seemed to have attracted a small crowd of onlookers and the attentions of a distraught looking counter girl. I attempted to help restore some order to the counter, but my efforts did not seem to help and the girl told me, rather curtly I thought, to leave it to her. I stood back and looked on for a while before deciding to go next door to W H Smiths. It was a while before I went back but the girl always looked a little wary after that.