JenniferEccles
This reminds me of the tale often told by the older generation when I was a child that in their day, 2/6d would pay for a trip to the pictures, fish and chips after and enough change for the bus home!
I used to put a 10-shilling note in the back pocket of my jeans on a Saturday night which paid the return fare from North London to Leicester Square; the entrance fee to my favourite jazz club - and a bottle of 'Fanta' Orange. And I think there were some pennies left over. 1962!
Fish and Chips were an occasional Friday night 'takeaway' - considered something of a luxury, like eating-out which occasions I could count on the fingers of one hand per year.
I do remember that at one time, you had to ask the staff in a fish and chip shop if you could "just have a bag of chips" - before it became commonplace to buy them without the fish.
In the late 40s as a 6/7 year old I was given a precise amount of silver and copper wrapped in a piece of paper on which was written my family's order for their fish-and-chip Friday 'tea'. They sent me on the errand because of the long queue (the fish and chip shop was only 2 doors away on a residential street, with no other commercial properties). I cannot remember the price - but I do remember that I was never given paper money, just a small fistful of a mixture of half-crowns, and shilling and sixpences to cover, usually, a family of 6 or 7. And the shop owner always gave me an extra small portion of chips for free to eat while I was waiting for the order!
