Saturday 15 October 2016

Rags and Bones


Do any of you remember the old 'Rag and Bone man', I do for sure. 

He used to come round our streets when I was young, with his horse and cart shouting "rag and bone, any old rags".  Occasionally folk would pop out of their houses, catch up with him and hand him a arm full of old clothes (the rags) and household bits and bobs (the bones).  In the days we did it we would get a doff of his cap a gap toothed smile and "many thanks m'dear",  I used to be in awe of the tales the grown ups told of days when he used to handout goldfish and other such child loving treasures in return for your offerings, but sadly we never got to acquire a pet in return for Mum's old curtains.


All this came to mind when Ginger begged for a bone the other day when I was giving the dogs one each as a treat, he licked his for a while and then went back to eating his own food.  Although he loves doggy Gravy bones this chewy one was, seemingly, a step too far.


Just before that I had been sorting out clothes upstairs for the charity shop.  I decided not to store them over Winter for a car boot sale next year but to take them to somewhere they would do the most good, after all there were a lot of nice warm clothes in there and a couple of Winter jackets, and a boot full of bags out of the house is a nice boost to my ongoing decluttering..

So that was my 'rag and bone day'  :-)

Sue xx

10 comments:

  1. It feels good to get rid of some things, doesn't it? Was there ever a time that the 'rag and bone' man actually collected bones? I seem to have some memory that they were used for the war effort somehow. -Jenn

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  2. I no longer take my old clothes to the charity shop when I have a wardrobe clear-out - I take
    them to a Salvation Army bin in the corner of our car park. From there they are distributed to the poor and needy, especially the elderly. It seems a better way to me and it doesn't cost the recipients anything, which is good.

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  3. We give ours to Goodwill and donate directly to Salvation Army

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  4. I remember the rag and bone man from my childhood. He used to hand out coppers for an armful of old clothes (about tuppence, I believe) which my mum was glad of. He once handed out tiny yellow chicks instead but mum wouldn't let me have one as it was so cruel. I dread to think what happened to them afterwards and I'm glad that it only happened once. Poor little things.

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  5. I am busy cleaning out cupboards that haven't been touched in awhile. We don't have car boot sales here in my province. Since it takes so long to sell something online (garage sale sites), or collect enough to have a garage sale on my own I have taken to bringing all my useful treasures to the Salvation Army store here in my city.

    God bless.

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  6. Any old iron was another shout out from the street. As well as the 'pop' lorry, delivering bottles of Schofield and Corona fizzy drinks. Occasionally we were allowed to buy a bottle which was usually dandelion and burdock, or sarsaparilla.

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  7. We had one ten years ago in sheffield

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  8. You've reminded me it's time to work through the wardrobes in my house. My children seem to grow like weeds in the summer sunshine so all the summer dresses need to be passed along/down ready for next year.
    x

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  9. Aged about 9, I came out of school one day and found the Rag & Bone man there, offering tiny yellow chicks in return for 'a bag full of nice clothes'. So with that in mind, I raced home as fast as I could, filled a bag with nice clothes and raced back. I got my little yellow chick - but despite making him a cosy home in a cardboard box, it died during the night. Of course I was very upset - but maybe not as upset as my hard-working Mum when she discovered that I no longer possessed any of my 'Sunday best' clothes! I dread to think what would have happened to that particular Rag & Bone man if ever my Mum had caught up with him!

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  10. Funny, where i live in the Welsh valleys, we have someone once every two weeks drive by very slowly shouting - something along the lines of 'any old iron' I can't make out exactly what he's saying, but its metal stuff they want, even clear your old fridge and washing machine. So some things are not quite in the past.

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