Effie Pitman: Shops 1930s

When I finished school, I had a week off then I started work the day the old king died, George V, in January 1936. I started work for 7/6 a week at the shop in the Square, where the Deli is now. It was a hairdresser one side and Kelsey’s confectioners and tobacconists the other.  Mr. Gobini was the barber. He was Italian. He charged 4d for a haircut, except for Dr. Drummond. He paid 6d and went into the back room to have his hair cut on his own. I used to work in the barbers in the morning and go into Kelsey’s confectioners if I was needed. Seven and a half years I worked there.

Mrs Walton from the Terrace used to come in to buy those little cigarillos she smoked. One day I remember when she was walking across the Square, the elastic must have ‘gone’ in her French Knickers and they fell down.  She just stooped down and picked them up, and carried on walking.
Effie Pitman b 1921