Nostalgia - Co-op Dividend Number

[Bealman]

Bit of a smudge down the bottom. Finger, maybe? Better crack open the AI   

[Thorpe Parva]

My Mother's was 2217. In the 50s I was often sent to the Co-op in Burbage (Leics) so it's always stuck in my memory.

[joe cassidy]

When I was a teenager I worked for the Co-Op "on the milk" weekends and school holidays.

They paid me £5 for a weekend.

You could get a fair few pints for that in those days

[Bealman]

You could, too! 

[cmason]

Yeah, I remember those I think Binns in Sunderland or Newcastle had em.

Sad thing - the last Binns was in Darlo and indeed I took Mam shopping there not many years back however it seems it finally close its doors, after 100 year, at the end of 2024   

[The Q]

My main memory of our local Co-Op is not the divi number, but having to give your money to the counter staff who then put it into an overhead wire-powered container which "shot" it by spring power to the cashier sealed inside an office. You then waited for your change and receipt to be sent back.
Later, a large department store (Fairfax House) was opened in central Bristol which used pneumatic tubes to send the money instead.

I qualified to service the vacuum systems..
The biggest problems were foreign objects in the tubes.
Coffee grounds at one Tesco's, the tube entrance was next to the waste bin in one coffee shop.
And a tent support in another!! Yep they put up a permanent tent / gazebo by drilling a hole in a car park.. straight through the tube to the garage.

[GlenEglise]

Were the amount of digits on your Divi Number different across different CO-OPs?

I thought ours in Perth Scotland had five numbers although that may have been our shared line telephone number!

I remember the vacuum tubes but also the string pulley system of transferring cash and receipts to the cashier.

Goodness, how we have advanced in seventy years.

GE

[Trainfish]

It's threads like this which remind me how old some of you are as I don't remember Co-op dividends at all 

[Greygreaser]

It's threads like this which remind me how old some of you are as I don't remember Co-op dividends at all 

I've seen 3 monarchs, 2 coronations as well as steam trains! Oh and searchlights, sirens and air raid shelters but just missed National Service having deferred it by 3 years to get my Agric Eng qualification. Can remember Suez Cyprus and Korea having 'problems' which the UK got involved with as well as the Cuban crisis and the Iron curtain.
How we survived childhood without an NHS and got educated with rote learning I'll never know! Boy Scouts competed with Air cadets, Sea scouts and the Boys Brigade for our attention and time and paper rounds were sought like the Yukon gold fields as the means to wealth!
If you had a push bike you had 'wheels', a motorcycle was impressive and anything with 4 wheels and an engine the bee's knees! My first vehicle was an FX3 Austin cab ex-London with a thumping diesel engine which took a bit of starting. If we went anywhere above about 3 miles it was a bus, 20 miles it was train but then Leicester had 3 main stations linked by LMS LNER and GNR(M&GN) to just about every sizeable town and city.
You walked everywhere else and spoke to anyone you knew all without social media! (But my Mum always somehow knew who I'd seen before I got home!)
If you saw a policeman he was a local Bobby and probably knew who you were so it was not easy to get the wrong side of the law. Older people and wealthy people demanded respect and mostly got it although it often wasn't deserved. Post war we relied on cheaper food and passing down clothes which were not too worn. Treats were a tin of sliced peaches and evaporated milk as a topping after Sunday tea. The roast always lasted 3 days - hot Sunday, cold Monday and minced Tuesday and the fruitcake baked alongside on Sunday was still served until about Thursday - as hard as nails!
Winter of '46 the inside of the bedroom windows had a layer of ice where the moisture from our breath had frozen. There was only one fire in the living room and everywhere else in the house was cold, so to stop the outside toilet freezing there was a paraffin lamp alongside the lead water pipe going up to the cistern. It was a pleasure to get to school as there was a big coal-fired boiler which heated the classrooms through those huge cast radiators - but boy was it cold leaving to go home. The gas lamps were being phased out in the 50s But we still had fogs and smogs to contend with if it was dark on the way home from school or the paper round.
I hope I've triggered some others to recount a few memories as the current youngsters won't understand what changes we've experienced since the end of WW2. My current go to Facebook page is "Leicester Born and Bred" if you want a flavour of our memories.

[Bealman]

And we got to see the first moon landing!*

*Unless you're one of those oxygen thieves who believe it never happened 

[Trainfish]

And we got to see the first moon landing!*

*Unless you're one of those oxygen thieves who believe it never happened 

Oh, I've not been called one of those before. Not that I know of anyway 

[cmason]

*Unless you're one of those oxygen thieves.....

I did'st smile at that. A proper choice phrase to deploy in various circumstances.

Made me think of an element in my current work where we provide a tool to encourage self reflection by trainees through an "Adult Learning Experience".

This is because instructors can no longer explain to them using terminology such as that they are "a waste of oxygen that some poor tree gave up energy for so that you can breathe..". Unfortunately nowadays with such and other similarly choice phrases applied they will go crying home to mummy...

Not that it would make a difference if such could still be used. There is a generation that basically deny mistakes they make during their training, and try to blame it on others rather than putting their big boy pants on and taking responsibility - unless objective evidence is provided using the mirror effect. Not sure they learn any quicker or any better than they would with a good old fashioned proper telling off...

And fwiw I do recall being up late to watch the moon landing on the old Baird B&W . 8 year old's were supposed to be in bed by 8 on a Sunday night in those days, however there was special allowance that evening (I looked it up just now - it was 21:17 BST (20:17 Zulu) that the Eagle landed).

[Newportnobby]

Pasta had not been invented. "Kebab" was not even a word, never mind a food. Curry was an unknown entity. Indian restaurants were only found in India.
The only vegetables were spuds, peas, carrots, turnip, cauliflower and cabbage. Mange tout and Pak choi were made up words. Chilli was in South America and scotch bonnets were worn by old ladies in Aberdeen.
A take-away was a mathematical problem. A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower. Oil was for lubricating your bike chain not for cooking. Olive oil was kept in the medicine cabinet. Spice went in Christmas cakes
Herbs were used to make medicine I think. All crisps were plain. All soft drinks were called pop. Coke was something that we put on the fire, we never drunk it and we certainly didn't sniff it. Ginger beer burnt your lips off when you stopped drinking.
Rice was a milk pudding, and never, ever part of our dinner. A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining. A microwave was science fiction
Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves. The tea-cosy was the forerunner of all energy saving devices. Tea had only one flavour, it was tea flavoured
Figs and dates appeared every Christmas, but rarely eaten. Coconuts only appeared when the fair came to town. Hors d'oeuvre was a spelling mistake. Dinner consisted of what we were given, and not negotiable.
Mayonnaise was called Salad cream. Only Heinz made baked beans. Leftovers went in the dog. Sauce was either brown or red. Eating raw fish was called madness,not sushi. The only ready meals came from the fish and chip shop.
Frozen food was called ice cream. Nothing ever went off in the fridge because we never had one. None of us had ever heard of yoghurt. Brunch was not a meal.
Cheese only ever came in a hard lump. If we had eaten bacon, lettuce and tomato in the same sandwich we would have been certified insane. Eating outside was called a picnic not Al Fresco. Seaweed was not a recognised food.
Eggs were not called "free range" they just were, and the shells were white. Pancakes were only eaten on Pancake Tuesday - it was compulsory. The phrase "boil in the bag" would have been beyond our realms of comprehension.
The term "oven chips" would not have made any sense at all. We bought milk and cream at the same time, in the same bottle, before you gave it a shake. Prunes were purely medicinal. Pineapples only came in chunks in a tin.
We didn't eat Croissants because we couldn't pronounce them, we couldn't spell them, and we didn't know what they were. For Baguettes (see Croissants).
Garlic was used to ward off vampires in films, but never to be eaten. Water came out of the tap; if someone had suggested bottling it and charging for it they would have been locked up.

[EtchedPixels]

There is a generation that basically deny mistakes they make during their training, and try to blame it on others rather than putting their big boy pants on and taking responsibility - unless objective evidence is provided using the mirror effect. Not sure they learn any quicker or any better than they would with a good old fashioned proper telling off...

They learned that from their employers, companies, schools and their colleges all of whom do the same to them all the time.

They are just copying how everything else in their environment operates.

[EtchedPixels]

I don't remember all crisps being plain. I do remember when they tasted good enough without salt that the salt came in a little add on bag, rather than being necessary to hide the other nasty burned oily tastes they acquired.

Fancy in sandwiches was salad cheese and ham in one go. Although if you go to the Netherlands you can still enjoy that experience of ham, cheese or both and not much else

Not sure coke was only put on the fire, you just had to be posh to sniff it back then. Pop also got delivered (like milk).

I didn't half get a funny look last time I talked about tinned grapefruit  though it still exists.