Touch of the Sweeney Todds! HOPE that Nora McGuire will excuse me for saying so, but I had half-formed thoughts of the Sweeney Todd kind in reading her delightful 'look-back' letter to this cobwebby page.

For Nora, at 85 as sharp as a tack, tells me that the wife of old-time Thatto Heath undertaker Tom Wilcock "used to make the most delicious pies which were sold in his shop."

But away with such levity, let's have a little peep into Nora's teen years and the local scene of seven decades ago.

Picking up on the earlier Thatto Heath reminscences of another pensioner reader, Nora, from Hollingsworth Court, Cansfield Street, St Helens, writes: "The lady remembered the Dromgooles business where I used to work."

Leaving school at 14, Nora was employed by that family firm of drapers for five years, working in both their Scholes Lane and Elephant Lane shops.

At the rear of each of these was the pawnshop section. "I can still remember the names of some of the regular customers though, of course, at that time we were not allowed to divulge any names."

For the princely wage of seven-and-six (35p in new money) Nora worked 57 hours a week. Weekends were hardest hit with an 8pm closing time on Friday and 9pm on Saturday.

This was the period from 1927 to 1932 when silk stockings cost a shilling (5p) a pair.

"Every Friday," Nora (nee Kerry) recalls, "we held a sale of goods that had not been redeemed from the pawnshop."

A SAD little echo to really hard-up times. And yet, folk somehow seemed to be happier then...

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.