Do you remember shopping at Dimon’s store?

Our reader Peter Sales has sent us in this photograph.

It shows his grandfather Alfred Sales who was a builder and undertaker in East Malling in the 1930s.

He lived at The Hollies, next to the Ship Inn, though his builders’ yard was in Stickens Lane.

Peter Sales was also brought up in East Malling, and worked as a fork-lift truck driver at the Exit chemical factory in Mill Street, for a short time, before moving out to Maidstone.

He suggests the shop in the background might spark memories for other readers - it is Dimon’s grocery store in the High Street at East Malling, one of three grocery stores in the village at the time.

Mr Sales said: “I remember when I was living in Mill Street with my mum and dad, Ron and Doris Sales, and my two brothers David and Michael.

“I used to go into this shop about 20 years after the photo was taken, in the 1950s, with my grandmother Nellie Sales.

“We were always served by an elderly lady - Mrs Dimon.

“I was always fascinated to watch her slice the bacon and cut the cheese off a large block.

“In those days, when you bought sugar or flour, it was weighed out and put into a brown or blue paper bag for you.

“There was also a Donald Larkins who worked in the shop. He drove to our house once a week in a blue Austin van and collected our grocery order.

“In the afternoon he would return with the groceries. He did this all over the village as lots of people did not have phones in those days - or cars.

“Mr Larkins had two daughters who went to Maidstone Technical School.

“They used to travel home on the same bus as me, though they were a bit older. One later joined the police force.

“Mr Larkins was still running Dimon’s shop in 1973, when I left left East Malling.