Hello List This is a 'just after the war' story. Those who live or lived in Sheffield may recall one or more of the fruit and florist shops that belonged to my parents. 'A.E. Bell, fruit and flowers'. By the 1970's, (as far as I can remember) they had shops on Surrey St. (now Lockwood's) at Broomhill, Ranmoor, Hangingwater Rd, Crosspool, Castle Market, Firth Park. Immediately the war was over my parents made the decision to buy their first shop on Langsett Rd, next to Hollidays Collectors Corner at the top of Bamforth St.and to go into business together. I was 4 and my brother was 2. It was 1946 and quite a risk I think as my father was really a fully qualified engineer working at Firth Browns. The story that has always stayed with me was the difficulties that they had in obtaining fresh produce. During the summer when food rationing was still in force my father used to take his car and trailer into Lincolnshire, the Wisbich area, chiefly to get hold of strawberries. These were not freely available and I believe he was indulging in the 'black market'. Apparently he would go to one or two farms on a regular basis and the farmer would send his children into the fields to gather strawberries and lettuce. The strawberries were put at the bottom of the trailer and then covered by lettuce and the bit of the story that always amazed me was that it was essential to be over the Lincolnshire Bridges by a certain time or the police would be on them checking for the kind of loads, my father was carrying.. The lettuce was legal but not the strawberries. He always made it and then of course the strawberries were 'rationed' to their regular customers or people were expected to buy other goods as well. Quite a weekly trip given the kind of roads and vehicles available then never mind the risks. I still wonder though why the police were only on the bridges after a certain time. Was it unofficial collusion? I also recall the evening when he first brought home brazil nuts and asked us what we thought they were. I thought they were small wooden bananas. It came back to mind when we heard in the news recently that many of to-day's children don't know for very different reasons the difference in appearance from a carrot and a parsnip. Pauline C.Bell Southwell, Notts Researching : Cooper Bell Bailey Froggatt Firth Barnsley Barber ----- Original Message ----- From: <ENG-SHEFFIELD-D-request@rootsweb.com> To: <ENG-SHEFFIELD-D@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 11:09 PM Subject: ENG-SHEFFIELD-D Digest V05 #205