Sew that’s why Mum had all those reels!

When I was a small boy in Maidstone in the late 1950s, I loved shopping in town with Mum. I would insist we went into Paines the drapers in the high Street. I was mesmerised by the wire system, resembling a cable car, which whizzed money for goods to the back of the shop. It would then disappear through a slit into the accounts department. A member of staff would undo the money container and fill it with change if needed and the receipt for the goods. By pulling a handle, they would send it back to the sales desk at high speed. Mum was a keen dressmaker so it was no surprise that each time I would ask her to go into the shop she would buy a little something, usually a reel of cotton. Years later, the subject of shopping at Paines came up in conversation. Mum disappeared and then returned with a shoebox full of unused cotton reels. I asked why she had them and she replied that she felt guilty going into the shop with me and not buying anything! Paines closed down in the 1970s. I can’t help thinking that if there were more shops with character around, perhaps our high Streets might be in a healthier state than they are now.

Lee Tucker, Truro, Cornwall.