Tick Tock – Tick Tock the clock struck twelve…
Can you sell me a stone of potatoes Mike. Mike lifted a sack of potatoes on to the chip shop counter. Only for a mouse to jump out of the sack. The following day a queue formed outside the chip shop. Mike was soon smiling as customer after customer smiled, and then asked for their usual order. The differing ways which a customer could ask after the health of a mouse was amazing.
I prided myself on running a tight shop. Always having enough coal to heat the dripping, plus a plentiful supply of clean newspaper to wrap up orders for customers who did not bring a pudding basin. Now I keep the potatoes in a nice large tin bin. Well I am not a welfare agency for mice, even if some think that my shop is like a museum
Footnote :A stone of potatoes equals 14lbs. 14lbs equates to 6.35 kilograms.
This Post Has 27 Comments
A stone! That takes me back
Me to, me to.
Dear Michael,
I had to laugh at customers asking after the health of the mouse. That would be the last thing on my mind if one jumped from my potatoes. 😉 Good one.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Just a wee snippet from my rustic past.
Evoked the time of days gone by with an engaging character and setting. Nice one Mike
Thank you Iain, it is a snippet from my distant past
Like many, the only time I use stones is when I jump on the bathroom scales, and I’m currently weighing far too many sacks of spuds! As they used to say; today’s news, tomorrows chip paper!
I know that angle, as I try hard to stay off the scales. In the far distant past, I had my own Lancashire fish and chip shop. I still fall for a dish of fish and chips with mushy peas and curry sauce
Mike’s a dependable merchant with a heart of stone. How much can one mouse eat anyway? 😉
They still love to nibble away at the potatoes in my garden. In fact this year they have also taken a liking to my beetroot.
I remember the days when there were special stores for potatoes.
Me to, I can still visualise long mounds of soil, which where ‘soil covered straw clamps‘ full of potatoes and or root vegetables.
Poor mouse to have to find a new home 🙂 Nice portrait of a merchant!
He did not have to go far. As my chip shop was part of a long rather rustic terrace
Lovely stuff Michael, I’m guessing the mouse became a bit of a celebrity!
He did indeed, but celebrity did not last long in those days. Unless one was George Formby or Gracie Fields
I’m glad the wee mouse didn’t lose business for the shop. A sense of humor is a valuable thing 🙂
A sense of humour can go a long way, and some of my customers had it in spades
Such a kindly bunch of customers. Glad he didn’t lose customers. Sweet story Michael.
In those days Lancashire people where quite relaxed. It was a victorian cottage, which had a run down grocery shop in one half and a nineteen fifty’s fish and chip range in the other downstairs room. After seeing the mouse I went out and purchased a large tin bin to store the potatoes in. One of my first jobs was to weight up five pound bags of potatoes for the retail area of the building.
I would never have thought that buying a sack of potatoes could lead to such an interesting story. Nicely mashed.
Or fried. Fifty years on the mice still occasionally nibble the potatoes growing in my garden
Good job one of the customers wasn’t from the council health department!
Love the photo of you in action 🙂
if the potatoes are good enough for the mouse to eat, it must be good enough for human consumption, too. 🙂
The customers seem very laid-back. A charming story.
Nice story, Mike. It’s good that the shop didn’t lose its business because of the furry intruder.
Great to read your feedback. Back in day most countryside shops had the occasional mouse that found a way in. Now we have more viruses!