Thursday, August 8, 2013

The Corner Shop

Calling those with stories to share
Port Phillip Council is inviting contributions to the Seniors Writing Awards - due by 2 September. Successful pieces are included in a publication. Here is a small excerpt from a delightful longer poem from the 2010 competition. Its about a corner shop in the Wimmera but it sounds as though it would also describe some of Port's corner shops
"From the levelled drawers behind him would the grocer ladle spice,
With his fingers form a "poke" and tuck it in;
The same for sage or pepper. It was neat, it was precise,
It was never in a packet or a tin!
The paper "poke"!
And when we paid the weekly bill, a poke of peppermints
Or sugar drops or wine gums came our way!"
with permission from George Hall
Only the other day, a Port resident spoke of a 'poke' (and not in a facebook kind of way) and how everyone settled bills on a weekly basis - no matter how much money they had.
This shop was called Bulloughs. John May recalls: 'They sold small goods. I loved going there, thought it was wonderful. It had steps going up to the door, and the counters were all of scrubbed timber.'
Bulloughs, cnr Dow and Graham St
Any shop stories out there?
Sources and further information
Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society Calendar 2001
Port Phillip Writes: Tales and Stories 2010: City of Port Phillip (available from the Port Phillip Library Service)

6 comments:

  1. Good blog - thank you for pointing me to it!

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  2. It was through your forum post that I found yours!
    Thanks

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  3. Hi Janet,

    With the little nudge provided by Linda on the Forum, I have added an historical society blog list to the RHSV News blog, with the aim of encouraging more networking. Perhaps PMPS would consider having a similar blogroll?

    Best wishes

    Lenore Frost
    Royal Historical Society of Victoria

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Lenore - I saw! Its great to see what other Societies are up to and the way they go about their work. PMHPS is very particular about Port related content, but I will check.

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  4. Great project. I'm a little bit inspired now to take photographs of the remaining former corner shops.

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    Replies
    1. Some of ours are coming back to life - perhaps some of yours also?

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