Peanuts In The 1950S

[bainbrig]

Older ABers - do you have any recollections of peanuts in the 50s?

I remember freshly-roasted peanuts for 6d a bag in Romford Market, and horrible peanuts & raisins covered in soapy chocolate.

B

[Jackdaw33]

I always remember similar items being sold from vending machines on railway stations back in the 60s. I think they were Payne's Poppets.

[bainbrig]

Oh yes, I’d forgotten those platform vending machines. Weren’t the contents always over-priced and a bit small?

[silliemillie]

Do any of you still live in the Romford / Elm Park area?
I live there.

[bainbrig]

Hello Millie. No more. I lived off North Street (behind the bus garage) but left over 40 years back.

All my early memories are of Romford, its market, and parks!

[waterboatman]

We used to be able to get the roasted peanuts hot. They cost 6d a bag. I wish we still could!

[Arrods]

They used to sell 6d bags of peanuts outside Upton Park on the way to watch West Ham.

NJ I believe they carry on the tradition of dropping the shells on the floor in the Raffles Hotel.

Don't live that near Romford anymore, but I still take my car to Collier Row for servicing and spend the day in Romford.

[Minkyme]

//the entire pub was two or three inches deep in ground up peanut shells. Happy days!//

Sounds like a potentially life threatening hell if you had a peanut allergy.

//Do any of you still live in the Romford / Elm Park area?
I live there.//

Yes when not in Belfast I have family there and unfortunately it’s not the rose tinted willywonkaesque memory that everyone remembers it as and is now overrun by criminals, cocaine and violence like most of East London now sadly.

[silliemillie]

It's nice to here from some Essex people.

I must be wearing those rose glasses Minky as I feel very safe in my area, don't know any drug dealers or criminals.

[bainbrig]

Minkyme: unlike you to be so unscientific, Min.

My mum lived there up until her death, my mate Tom (ladders) still lives in Collier Row, some of my family live in and around.

Gone downhill, sure, and not what it was, and Saturday night is kids and drinking, much like the rest of suburban London, but it's not the picture you paint, either.

There were always gangsters (some of the market families come to mind), and drugs weren't exactly unknown in the 60s, but to single out Romford is very unfair.



BB

[murraymints]

something quite nice about Peanuts on the floor..old days...unless you are overweight ? nice wee snack betweem drinks at the bar !

[murraymints]

just broke open a bag of peanuts... wombleybum and peanuts..very nice too

[Tilly2]

Don't eat too many peanuts minty, otherwise it will be Wobblybum!

[Canary42]

Perhaps the chocolate ones were a way of circumventing Sweet Rationing which of course was still in force in the Fifties.
Say, chocolates themselves were rationed, but nuts weren't so this got round it. Only guessing, I don't really remember.

[Jackdaw33]

Sweet rationing ended in 1953.

[murraymints]

lol Tilly..wobbly enough !

[Canary42]

///Sweet rationing ended in 1953.///

Yes, I remember that well, but was unaware of any prior work-rounds (scarcity of sugar was the source of the rationing, so the "soapy" chocolate covering may have been lacking in sugar).

[bainbrig]

Mrs B says maybe it was some sort of chocolate substitute, hence the soapy taste, which she too remembers.

[Tilly2]

Carob?

[bainbrig]

Could be Tilly.