Blogging from A to Z, S is for Staffey, sweet shop and stationery love.

I am loving all the reminiscing I have been doing through the A to Z challenge and today is the letter S and I have 2 particular memories I want to share with you.


My first S is for my granddad  Staffey.  Now we never called him grandad or grandpa he was always known as Staffey to everyone.  He was a wonderful man and was highly respected by all the family and family friends too.  He was a very smart man and always wore a  shirt, trousers and tie and it was only in the later years of his life that we ever saw him without a tie.  He always went out with a Trilby on, just like in the photo below.  This was for a wedding so he would normally of had a tie rather then a bow tie.

His love for Nan was so touching and that love never faded as they reached their later years, two little soul mates.  One of his favourite sayings he use to say was "I see said the blind man".  Him and my Nan looked after each of the grandchildren over the years which meant who developed a hatred from Mary Poppins as he had to endure the film countless times over the years as each grandchild discovered it.  He use to give us advice over the years but one thing he said to me I always stuck by to until more recently, never cut your toenails late at night!  I'm not sure why this was the case but I never have as I say until more recent years.  He died at the age of 91, years ago.

When I was 5 I was the a lucky girl and got to live out many children's dreams.  I lived in a Sweet shop.  Well I didn't actually live in the sweet show more above it.  My parents owned one.  It was fantastic and all my friends loved it as we would sneak down and get ourselves a slush puppy or nick the odd penny suite.  It was never destined to be a multi-million earning establishment with me living there.  Although I did try to set up my own little enterprise once and 'borrowed' a few little things like note pads etc and sold them to kids at school.  I was caught out though and promptly had to return the money and got in trouble for it all.  Below is a picture of my mum and I, looks like I'm scoffing some of the stock here to!

In letter R I mentioned collecting rubbers but another thing we also collected was stickers and kids still do.   I use to love getting the sticker books and slowly (too slowly, if my memory serves me, I use to get inpatient) we use to fill them up, swopping stickers we didn't want with ones we needed.  There were teh set albums like you get today but ours were My little pony and  The Carebears and such like.  We also use to put ones we loved in photo albums, to fawn over and compare with friends.

Here's a few examples of the types you could get;

Scratch and sniff

 

Fuzzy texture ones

Puffy ones which often had googly eyes.

Did you ever get Storyteller? I loved it listening to the stories and having the magazines to read too.  I really wish I had kept my collection.  It introduced me to such wonderful stories, like Gobbolino the witches Cat, Aldo in Arcadia and much much more.



Here's the link to the image.  These are being sold on Ebay now and the buy it now price is £95!  At this exact time bids are at £32!

Now my friends out there will know I along with all of them I have a love of stationery.  There are a bunch of us addicted to it and often share our finds on our blogs, Twitter and FB.  They are Sharon Goodwin, Donna Trinder, Anne Mackle and Suzie Tullet.  Shaz from Jera's Jamoboree has a regular feature on her blog of Stationery love.  So far fellow bloggers Donna and Anne and Suzie Tullet author of Going Underground, have featured on there amongst lots of other bloggers and authors.  On Jera's Jamboree you will find reviews, guest posts and interviews.  I am very excited as I will be doing a guest post for her as part of her stationery love feature in June!  When your done here click on the links to check out these lovely ladies, you won't regret it.  Donna and Anne are also doing the A to Z challenge.

Anyhow back to the point of my post.  My love of stationery started at a young age and I was so happy when a stationery shop opened up a couple of doors down from our sweet shop.  I use to save my pennies and then wonder to down to them seeing what stationery treats I could purchase!

Here's a picture of one of my recent  purchase, one I feel I would of adored as a little girl.

There are a few songs that always bring back good memories from my childhood

Hands up baby, Ottawan Ah listening to this song brings back so many memories of my childhood, especially of my granddad Staffey!

Boney M Brown girl in the ring This reminds me of my friend Nik and I dancing to it.

Black lace, Superman Played at many a kids party.

Another Black Lace classic Agadoo another party classic

The birdie song by the Tweets  I'm having a little party by myself listening to all these

I've got to finish the songs there or I'll be here all night, what wonderful memories though.

From the archives

I'm just leaving you with one programme for the 80's and that would be The Smurfs