Kids being kids...

Local Lynne Douglas wrote of her childhood years...

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"Pocket money was scarce or non-existent for many children during the war years. One source of income was from returnable soft drink bottles which had a value of anywhere from 1d to 3d. These were searched for and scrounged from ny possible source. When bottles were found they were taken home nd washed to make presentable then it was off to the local grocers who lived on the premises in those days.

Desperate times demanded desperate measures and children are inventive.

Our local grocer had a shed at the side of his store where he kept the bottles in crates for collection by the soft drink factory. One day, kids being kids, a hole in the side of the shed was discovered. It was just big enough for some of the local kids to get in, which they inevitably did. They then checked out the bottles in the crates. it was too hard to resist and word went around that there were bottles that could be secreted out of the shed. It worked for a while as no more than a few bottles a week were taken and everything else was left alone.

One time it had been a hard week and money was really short so back to the shed we went. Lookouts were placed on the front and a couple of 7-10 year olds went into the shed and removed two bottles from the crate nearest the door. Then one went in and sold the bottles. We repeated the process later in the day, sending in a four year old. He was given the money and had hardly got out of the shop when there was a bellow from the grocer. Apparently he used to put the bottles under the counter as they were bought in and only took them out to the shed every now and then and had not noticed anything amiss until now, although his suspicions must have been aroused!"

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(from "Castlecliff The Community on the Coast" by Laraine Sole)