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Bare wooden floors. Unpolished.
Unpainted. But wide and clean. Rows of goods for sale, with a
serving counter. Darkish inside. Musty, grainy smell - not
unpleasant. Rolls of cloth. Material goods. Bags of beans,
cornflower, staples, mielie meal...en alles wat nog.
Mrs. Elliott's Shop.
At the time, the only shop on the East Bank that had sweets for
sale. Doug Heny had a smaller shoppe nearby.
Back to Mrs. Elliott's Shop.
A haven for kids. Mrs. Elliott, a tall lady, always ready to help,
irrespective of race, colour or creed. A Pacifist maybe ? Dunno, I
think most of the world was, in those days.
Robbery ? No sir ! This would have been beneath the dignity of the
town residents, no matter
what brand they were. Take advantage of a lil' ole lady ? No Ma'am -
life wasn't like that. If you wanted something, you worked to get
money, then paid for it.
Ask Barry Reid. His Mom worked there. AND, so did Barry. Weighing
out sugar, rice, mielie meal, you name it. 4 chappies for a cent.
Rose Fox, nee Walser, who used to run the gauntlet of Mrs. Strauch's
geese on her way from their house called BENE. Remember Uncle Leo
Strauch who had a dingis - let's call it a vehicle
(bakkie/buggy/Cadillac) - which he used to go up the East Beach with
to fish for Jan Bruin and Galjoen. You could hear this vehicle from
20 miles away. It could have been a relative of today's bakkie,
except that it was unique. Today's bakkies do not have planks on the
back - which serve as a handy table and workbench when one is 15
miles up the beach and catching fish. Roadworthy ? Don't be silly !
There was a row of houses alongside Elliott's shoppe. Barry Reid and
his family lived there at one time. Then Geoff Elliott, a peer of
ours (older brother Winston) also lived there. I remember Boet Nel
with his two sons, Winston and Mickey (Twallas) also lived there.
Twallas had another nickname, stoutgat - which suited him pretty
well.
Pretty young lasses used to buy material offcuts at a lesser price -
and then make dresses of them. BUT there was a condition ! Once
made, the dresses had to be brought to the shoppe to show how basic
material could be made into a lovely dress. It would be very hard to
replicate how Mrs. Elliott's heart must have swelled at seeing her
rolls of cloth turned into proudly worn items. Bless her.
Rose
It was a very long veranda with two entrances, looking up at
the shop the entrance on the right was the groceries and
more importantly the sweet section, on the left was another
door which led to the haberdashery there was an interleading
door that the public didn’t use..
The Elliotts I knew was in Park Road. Coming around the
corner from York street, you had Strauchs on the corner,
then Burls? later Fox and a few more houses, I can’t recall
who lived where but didn’t Nadine? Live close to Elliots
too.
Opposite the Foxes was Mrs Duvenaghs shop, also a bit of all
sorts, but She wasn’t as friendly as Mrs Elliot, Jamie her
grandson was a friend of ours ( Barry Luckman, Ant and Midge
green, etc.)
I can’t recall any other shops around there, only remember
that it was a quick walk to ‘Town’ and a long walk back as
it was all uphill.
Martin remember how we had material flour sacks that we
kept spotless and a small note book with your name and
address and phone No’ if you had one, “Elliotts boy”
would collect your bag for bread and your shopping list
in the morning and deliver the order in the after noon,
using a bicycle with a cardboard box in front to hold
the order. (usually a sunlight soap box). At the end of
the week all the prices were tallied up and you paid in
full, you signed the bottom of the page and so did Mrs
Elliott. If we walked down to pay we were each given a
red lollipop to suck on the way home…we used to rub the
sucker over our lips and pretend that we had red lips
like the Movie Stars that we saw at Bioscope (black and
white movies) but those lips had to be red!
Eve
Facing from Park Road, the grocery shop (with
the sweets) was on the right hand side (?east).
On the left (?west) was Drapery - where we
bought material to make clothes - and ready made
clothes including dresses and under wear. Mrs
Elliott ran the Grocery - Roger was the delivery
man who came on his bicycle everyday. Mom wrote
the order in "the book" and returned later with
"the order". At the end of the month the account
came listing all the things in the book. Mrs
Killian (her husband taught high school maths at
QASS) ran the Drapery.
The "opposition" was Itzekowitz - I think where
Solly Kramers is now. They also had a Grocery
and a Drapery - but different travellers called
at each shop so the clothes were always
different.
and more from our friend Frank Penny - 27 Apr
'08:
Some more for page 193.
My Uncle Rupert Penny apparently owned the shop
you are referring to. The name Penny was painted
on the roof and was , I believe, visible for
some time through the new roof paint. This was
well before my time so I can't vouch for the
fact. Barry may have heard the story from my
sister Val Dansey.
I remember the shop very
well when Edwin and Florrie Elliott owned it.
When we had a bit of pocket money we would stop
in on the way home from school and buy a penny’s
worth of white bull’s eyes or n*censored*r
balls. If we had a bit more cash we would get a
few more in a cone shaped rolled piece of paper.
Another interesting piece
of information was the fact that my
sister-in-law Joyce (then Naude) worked for some
time in the drapery section.
The shop a bit closer to
the school was owned by the Heny’s and I recall
that James Heny ran it. James married Joyce
(Pearce?) who was a teacher a the school for
many years.
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