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highlander
03-Oct-08, 08:44
We have had a great thread about the shop's in caithness, but how could we forget the mobile vans that would come around the town or the country. I remember staying at my aunt's in Forss when they would get Horne's, i was amazed at all the things that were in it, and as been a peedie bairn and once you concored that enormous step to get into the van, i was never sure weither to look under the counter or try to teet over it as everything seemed too high up to see what sweeties there was. lol
Then there was the baker's, fish vans as well. One lesson i did learn as a bairn was never to stand in the corner of the door of the van, gawd when those wifie's would come into the vans you would be squashed in the corner fighting for air. lol
What other vans do u all remember?

golach
03-Oct-08, 08:48
Highlander, I may be wrong, but my memory plays tricks at times, but did David Hossack have a mobile Fish and Chip van at one time?

Metalattakk
03-Oct-08, 09:06
Not sure about Fish & Chips golach, but he certainly had an Ice Cream Van when he started out.

footie chick
03-Oct-08, 09:09
I remember a butcher's van that used to come round think he was called Bertie???

Fluff
03-Oct-08, 09:28
the van that you could rent videos from and the guy who you could buy the bottles of juice from, i used to love the barrs ice cream soda and irn-bru. when you were done you sold/gave him the bottles back.
If I remember right, the video van caught fire

Hibeechick
03-Oct-08, 09:35
Gibby's van on a sunday! Used to go round with papers and always had loads of sweets too!

Henrietta's chip van.

Also remember going onto a butchers van when i was at my grans.

Venture
03-Oct-08, 09:37
I remember a butcher's van that used to come round think he was called Bertie???

That would be Bertie Craigie the butcher and there used to be another one called Mortimers.

Grocery vans who visited mainly country customers in the 60's were Angie Rosie, Eck Rendall and Hughie Malcolm.

Anne x
03-Oct-08, 09:37
My favourite Vans that used to come round Spittal was the One on Thursday nights I cannot remember properly but was it called Barrack and of course the Sunday paper van as he had loads of goodies including Ice Cream & Sweets

highlander
03-Oct-08, 09:43
I remember as a bairn opening the front door on a saturday and always finding half dozen softies hing'in on the handle, as a bairn it was a bit like santa calling every week with nice soft softies, and bringing in the milk bottles, frozen in the winter and in the summer finding the blooming birds had pecked at the tops. Grrrrrrrr (do you remember that little triangle bags of milk)lol

Torvaig
03-Oct-08, 10:13
My favourite Vans that used to come round Spittal was the One on Thursday nights I cannot remember properly but was it called Barrack and of course the Sunday paper van as he had loads of goodies including Ice Cream & Sweets

Anne; we had the "Barrag" van or "Smith's" as it was also known, as well. They covered a good bit of Caithness especially the north centre and west. In Lyth we saw it on Tuesdays and Fridays and I'm trying to remember the drivers; Jimmy, Hughie, Allistair, Ron, Will and I think sometimes the owner Jimmy Robertson appeared. So long ago now, my memory fails me! They carried paraffin, a barrel o' salt herring, a big block of cheese, bread, biscuits, tobacco, fags, matches; all the staple goods we needed from week to week. They also carried all the news!

We were always warned when the van came not to "antle" for anything and we didn't! Mither bocht a packad o' pandrops on the Friday and shared them out over the night but they were mainly for her and Faither. We got our thruppence on a Saturday for Nicolson's shop at the crossroads once we were old enough to go ourselves but before that Faither took us home a bar o' coo toffee on pay day.

Boy but that toffee was hard to crack! We used to pummel it on one of the flagstones in the dyke (or dick as we called it) to break it into small enough pieces to eat. We couldn't crack it on the corner of the house as others did as we lived in a wooden hut similar to the Norwegian type (very cosy). The toffee lasted for ages between the slaughtering and the sooking of it!

I remember in the winter the vans always did their best to reach everyone. I remember a driver staying at my Grannies because the snow was drifting and piling up and we didn't see snow ploughs in those days. (Crikey, am I that old?)

There were no ice-cream vans that came as far as Alterwall but when we moved a few miles to Howe, one came from Wick on a Sunday and we sat in great anticipation until it arrived and woe betide if it was late! We jumped up and down looking for it like hens on a hot girdle!

See what you started Anne!

highlander
03-Oct-08, 10:22
Loved your story Torvaig, hecks i do remember that toffee and bang it on the edge of the hoose to break it up. lol

Torvaig
03-Oct-08, 10:45
That would be Bertie Craigie the butcher and there used to be another one called Mortimers.

Grocery vans who visited mainly country customers in the 60's were Angie Rosie, Eck Rendall and Hughie Malcolm.

Did Angie come to Lyth after the Barrock vans stopped? I'm sure I remember him on his van because he had the same surname as my grand parents! He was a family friend as well. We also got Jim Oag's van from Thrumster; I think he had a driver called Donald McKillop at one time ....
Then there were the butcher vans from Keiss. Christy Mackay and his sons John, Bill and George. Again, we looked on them as family friends but sadly Bill and John are no longer with us....

poppett
03-Oct-08, 11:12
Cliff Bakery shop van used to come to Thurso on a Thursday. Always had a "Cakie" from there on a Thursday afternoon when I worked in Thurso.

TBH
03-Oct-08, 11:13
That would be Bertie Craigie the butcher and there used to be another one called Mortimers.

Grocery vans who visited mainly country customers in the 60's were Angie Rosie, Eck Rendall and Hughie Malcolm.
Hughie use to shout, "VAaaaaN", those were the days.:D

silverfox57
03-Oct-08, 11:28
tom Ross from lybster was about the last of vans that went round east side of county,tom wont be on the go well past midnight,as chat for hours,

carlominno
03-Oct-08, 12:26
Tommy Ross used to come to my Granny's every Friday night (or early Sat morning depending on what time he arrived!!). She was last on his Calder run and they would sit for hours blethering and catching up on everyone else's news while we bairns were champin at the bit to get out to the van for our weekend sweeties!

fender
03-Oct-08, 12:50
I remember back in the mid to late 60's Jimmy Forbes the butcher from Lybster calling at my Grannies house in Golspie late on a Thursday night. Thats when it was 2 hours to Wick from Golspie so goodness knows what time he got home on a Friday morning.

Anne x
03-Oct-08, 13:49
I remember back in the mid to late 60's Jimmy Forbes the butcher from Lybster calling at my Grannies house in Golspie late on a Thursday night. Thats when it was 2 hours to Wick from Golspie so goodness knows what time he got home on a Friday morning.

I mind him he was a lovely Man

Tom Cornwall
03-Oct-08, 13:54
We used to have Jack Shearer from the Music Shop in Wick come round selling records when we were in Lybster in the 1950's. He used to have a great big St Bernard dog with him as well.

Anne x
03-Oct-08, 14:17
Also the man from Sloans came from Wick he had loads of stuff we called him Donnie Sloan also a man with clothes from Lybster not sure but think his name was George

balto
03-Oct-08, 14:42
Gibby's van on a sunday! Used to go round with papers and always had loads of sweets too!

Henrietta's chip van.

Also remember going onto a butchers van when i was at my grans.
oh i mind gibby's car it used to come round thurumster on a sunday with the papers, also mind the butcher van and elderly white haired gentleman but cant mind what his name was.

Venture
03-Oct-08, 14:48
We used to have Jack Shearer from the Music Shop in Wick come round selling records when we were in Lybster in the 1950's. He used to have a great big St Bernard dog with him as well.

I remember him too Tom. I think his name was Daniel.

curry
03-Oct-08, 19:29
As a young teen I worked for Tom Ross. He would be on the road till midnight most nights and we used to help him restock his van every Saturday morning. I also remember the barrels of salt herring as I often went home with a few salt herring for my mother. After a recent visit to Tom I was telling him that I had worked in ASDA a few years ago and I just told them "Tom Ross taught me everything I know!":)

Lavenderblue2
03-Oct-08, 19:44
I can remember one van coming to my granny's at Stirkoke in the 1950's early 60's - I think it was a Co-op van and I am sure the driver was called Swartie or something like that. I loved the smell in the van - if we had enough money us children would buy a tin of condensed milk and eat it out of the tin mmmm. I couldn't eat that now though - far too sweet.

ads
03-Oct-08, 21:28
I remember Lipton's Van coming to our house in John O' Groats on a friday night.

Foxy
05-Oct-08, 00:56
I remember Tom Ross he used to come round Halkirk on a Thursday night.

Margaret M.
05-Oct-08, 03:04
Sutherland Brothers had a van. Allie Wares was on somebody's van. Mowat the Draper used to come around. Walter Taylor used to come on a Sunday and his brother before him but I have forgotten his name. I remember Eck Rendall from Milton -- he used to draw lovely pictures.

Lavenderblue2
05-Oct-08, 09:42
I remember Eck Rendall from Milton -- he used to draw lovely pictures.

Yes Margaret M, I remember Eck Rendall, he lived at Milton and would sell goods from his back door.
Whilst staying at Milton with my aunt and uncle it was a great novelty to be able to go there and buy some sweeties.

EDDIE
05-Oct-08, 11:41
Highlander, I may be wrong, but my memory plays tricks at times, but did David Hossack have a mobile Fish and Chip van at one time?

The owner of robins chipshop had a blue chip van that used to go round the doors in the evening that was back in the seventys early eightys and it was really fine chips thats when newspapers was used to wrap the supers up.
I always remember that chip van always had a lot of people going to it

Fran
04-Jan-09, 03:03
As a young teen I worked for Tom Ross. He would be on the road till midnight most nights and we used to help him restock his van every Saturday morning. I also remember the barrels of salt herring as I often went home with a few salt herring for my mother. After a recent visit to Tom I was telling him that I had worked in ASDA a few years ago and I just told them "Tom Ross taught me everything I know!":)



It was nice to read this, soon after tommys death, i miss him very much, he was such a joker and liked a laugh, right till the end. fran

hotrod4
04-Jan-09, 09:14
I remember Hughie coming around in his Red and white van. I believe he also had a "Simca (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simca_1100)" for the papers. Man now THAT was a car!!!

butterfly
05-Jan-09, 01:06
i remember hughie malcolms van,he had great patience with us bairns no being able to make our mind up on what we were wanting.his van always had problems starting so our neighbour would mend it while we deciding what to have!he knew all of us by name and would give us a free sweetie if we would just hurry up and make up our minds.:lol:

scorrie
05-Jan-09, 16:31
Also the man from Sloans came from Wick he had loads of stuff we called him Donnie Sloan also a man with clothes from Lybster not sure but think his name was George

I think the Sloan's guy was called Donnie Oman. There was another guy called Billy who sometimes came round instead. I remember him getting stuck in a snowdrift in the seventies and being on the news. Apparently he had wrapped himself in Ladies Tights to keep warm in the van while waiting to be rescued, although a guy I knew at the time insisted he was found with a pair of knickers on his head!!

Bertie Craigie sadly passed away recently, I can recall my Mum going out to his van in order to buy a single white pudding. I was a bit mystified by this meagre purchase until my Mum explained that a guy she worked with had been involved in a car accident and had hurt a VERY sensitive area of his anatomy. My Mum and one of her colleagues dressed the white pudding up in a sling, daubed it with fake blood and wrapped it in a fancy box with a card and sent it to the hospital. The pay off was even better when my Mum found out that the guy's Mother-In-Law to be was present when he opened the box!! What a waste of good food, the things you remember eh?

Hughie and Gibby were a regular calling point for me, and many others, at the North School during morning break in the 60's/70's. I can remember Gibby fielding one of the most inane questions ever one morning:-

"Here Gibby, how much are your two and a half pence Lucky Bags?"

"Errrr, two and a half pence" came the unsurprising reply.

I also remember Hughie selling chewing gum that contained facsimile banknotes from various Countries of the world. One young lad went up to Hughie and ordered a hill of sweeties before handing over a note in payment. Hughie picked up the note and saw that it was a replica Nicaraguan banknote. The sweeties were rapidly horsed back off the counter and, with it being a windy day, Hughie casually leaned out his arm and let the note fly off on the breeze, without a word of chastisement to the laddie. I can still picture the boy chasing the note across the playground as if it were worth a fortune.