Something strange is happening...

I'm sat in my lounge and ive just seen/heard a van going down the road playing a message

"Any old iron"

Are we going back in time??

 

I think it just goes to show quite how skint we are becoming, that, or they have migrated from the North because here where I live we haven't ever lost them.

 

Reminds me of my fav sitcom.... steptoe and son!

 

Often see rag and bone men riding around with their horse and carts in Bradford.

See them most times I go!

 

Still got horses pulling the cart round these parts!

 

Its amazing there is such a difference between north and south these days, esp as were really only a small island.

 

Rag and bone men seem to be making a bit of a comeback these days. I think it is just one sign of a changing world. When I was growing up in the 80's it was 'uncool' to have any association with rubbish or cast-offs, now it is all trendy and called 'recycling'. It is now 'uncool' to be wasteful whereas a couple of decades ago (and not even that), the opposite was true.

I think other signs that the world is changing a bit (or the UK at least) are that herbal medicine is starting to be taken a bit more seriously again (I don't mean capsules from Holland and Barret - I mean common garden herbs and weeds being used for minor ailments). I saw a TV program last night where they got school kids to surrender all their 'bling' for a couple of weeks as an experiment, and found that it actually made them happier people. Growing veg in the back garden seems to be making a comeback, and whereas a few years ago people would laugh and ask why you bother when you can buy a hydroponically massed produced lettuce from half way round the world for 10p, now it is the in thing.

Personally I don't think it is anything to do with being skint (although that might be part of the reason for some people). I think we are starting to reach a point where people want to break free of the chains of modern society with all its mass marketing of stuff that is often utter rubbish. People are starting to wake up a bit and are starting to question and challenge the status quo.

 

We have a scrapman round our way but he uses a flat bed truck so not the same.

I think we need to go back to the old days although I wouldn't like to loose my phone or the internet.

 

Same here Adam, Ive heard the same thing a guy in a van with a load speaker asking for any old iron. It takes me back some also.:dh: 02

 

We regularly get one here although not a rag man as used to happen too, but a scrap man. Should I be telling you this, lol. Like you, sweetpeas, it's a flatbed truck and I have no idea what they are calling out, lol. They go really slowly around the road and even look into gardens to see what's there. There was a tv series years ago called 'where there's muck there's brass' - as far as I can tell, it's still true!

cheers