I recently had occasion to go into Iceland to replenish my fridge and surprise, surprise they were selling boxes of broken biscuits.

What memories this brought back, because when I was young and I am thinking of the time when I was between 11 and 13 years old (1929 - 1931) you could go into a grocers shop and ask for a pennyworth of broken biscuits and then go into the greengrocers next door and get a couple of "specky" apples for a penny.

The biscuits used to be sold from tin boxes which were on a shelf in front of the counter and each tin had a glass lid so you could see what you wanted to buy. No fancy packaging in those days so, of course, because the grocer had to dive into the box each time a lot got broken, hence the bags of broken biscuits for a penny.

During the school holidays we would be off on our bikes and the broken biscuits became our midday meal and the bliss of finding a chocolate bis-cuit amongst them.

At this time I lives near the tram terminus at Parliament Fields neat Kentish Town so sometimes instead of going off on our bikes, we would get on a tram and purchase an all day ticket for sixpence (one shilling adults) and explore the whole of London within the area covered by the trams and this is where the biscuits and apples came in very handy.

Nowadays parents would be too frightened to allow this freedom to young children because things have changed, and not for the better.

Andy Noble

Godwin Road

Bromley

December 5, 2001 13:21