Living out of a suitcase

A vintage snapshot of an old Co-operative Albion van delivering provisions while the snow was piled high in East Perthshire is proving a real source of conversation.

Craigie reader Jim Black says he knew the late Jimmy Robertson, the former Co-op man who was behind the wheel at the time.

Seventy years on from his own exchanges with Jimmy, who hailed from Blairgowrie, he has nothing but praise for the indomitable driver, and passes on his own observations of the lifeline service.

“I enjoyed seeing Willie MacFarlane’s photo of the Co-op van and mention of van man Jimmy Robertson,” Mr Black says.

“In the early 1950s we lived in a rural part of Perthshire beside a farm access road. Jimmy called twice weekly with the ‘travelling shop’. Sometimes my mother would be working on one of the local farms on the day the van was due.

“On these occasions she would leave an old suitcase on the doorstep with a note listing our requirements, being careful to insert her co-op ‘divi’ number. A purse was placed in a pre-disclosed crevice in the garden dyke.

“Jimmy would leave ‘the messages’ in the case, take the appropriate payment, leaving a receipt and any change in the purse before returning it to its hidey-hole in the dyke.

“Neither the shopping nor the money ever went missing. I suppose our order seldom varied very much for, if she was in a hurry, Mum would simply scribble a note, ‘Just the usual, Jimmy,’ and the items would be left. Great service!”

Many thanks to Mr Black for his revealing insights. If any other readers have stories about the days of the “travelling shops” we’d love to hear them.