IT’S PROM FRIGHT
MARY’S 80-YEAR SHOPPING TREK
LOYAL shopper Mary Norton has visited the same supermarket every day for the past 80 years.
Mary, 90, has been popping to her local Co-op in Leicester since 1937, when she used to pick up her mum’s weekly shop aged 10.
She said: “I remember when my mum asked me to go for the first time to Hallam Crescent Co-op – mainly because it is such a different experience from what it is like today.
“I would head over with a list and go to each counter – ranging from butchery to grocery – and ask the attendant for the items on the list. “They would then pick it out for you, pack it up and take your money – how different from the present experience.”
The former dinner lady said her daily walk to the shop helps keep her healthy – and she brushes up on news about her favourite football team Leicester City.
She said: “The walk across to the store also keeps me fit and ISOBEL DICKINSON active and gets me out of the house.” Mary said the biggest changes she has witnessed during her eight decades shopping there are the types of products sold, as well as chip and pin replacing shillings and pennies.
Margaret Smith, the store manager, said: “All the staff here at Hallam Crescent look forward to seeing Mary during her daily visits to the store. “She is always so full of life, great to be around and always brightens up our day. “To think that she has been shopping in the Hallam Crescent Food Store all this time is amazing. “There can be no better advocate for all things Co-op, our store and our area than our remarkable Mary.” I WENT into our local newsagent’s shop and asked: “Do you keep stationery here?”
“No,” said the girl behind the counter, “I move around every now and then.” DAFT BOZ
via email WHAT did one bacteria say to the other? “Go away – I think I’ve got penicillin.” BIG TOM Bury, Lancs WHAT do you call an extinct volcano? A blast from the past. CHARLIE G via email WANNABE undertaker Meg Flaherty, 17, stole the show at her prom in New Jersey by arriving in an open coffin carried by a hearse.