Thursday 23 March 2017

Who needs Coronation Street when you have Lowther Street

It's 22 years since we started the business, a civilised type of shop we thought. The type where a chap could send his butler in for a 50 year old Madeira or a case of Chablis but then we really didnt know how colourful life could be on the High Street!
Over the years we've heard some cracking conversations both inside and outside the shop, in fact it's almost as if some people dont see us at all. A group of ladies sheltering by the door on a wet day were talking about a friends daughter who had apparently done really well for herself with some recent achievement. Naturally our ears pricked up keen to hear what the young lady had succeeded in doing. Imagine our surprise to hear that her achievement was to get onto long term sick benefits!

Another couple, this time we assumed to be a man and wife were discussing whether we were a new shop (bear in mind this was only two years ago) and also what sort of shop we were. She said to hubby 'it looks like an off licence' to which he replied, 'looks more like a bloody junk shop'.

Then theres the folk who get carried away with our short history, telling their friends on the phone that 'we're in Jeffersons, you know the old ones, been in the town for hundreds of years'. Ive got so used to being called Mr Jefferson now that I dont even blink.

There was also the chap who kept coming in asking if he could have a wooden wine box. Eventually I asked him what he wanted it for and I wish I hadnt. He has a collection of nuts and bolts and wanted to display them better!

An old lady came in several years ago for a bottle of beer to catch slugs in her garden but realised she had forgotten her purse. Recognising her as a local, I said 'don't worry its only £2 just drop it in next time your passing the shop.' She came in three years later and said ' I dont get out much'!

Theres also the people who come in for job interviews that we havent organised. They are of course meant to be attending the off license up the road and have failed the first test. But what about the people who come in the shop in a rush and plonk a bunch of flowers on the counter with a tenner only to discover that the flower shop is next door! Most of them leave the flowers and stomp out muttering under their breath about how confusing it is. Durh our neighbour has flowers outside her flower shop and we have a barrel and an old delivery bike outside ours. On the subject of the barrel, I've had many questions over the years such as how old is it, what did it used to contain etc but the one that really stumped me was 'is that a barrel?'

I particularly love the people who come in and ask for tickets to get into the rum story attraction which is actually two doors down the road. Quite what they are seeing when they enter the shop and get to the counter is anyone's guess.

My all time favourite though has to be the chap who came in applying for a drivers job we were advertising years ago. He told me he was honest, hard working and had a clean license. Unfortunately he didnt recognise me as the Magistrate who had dealt with him on numerous occasions and knew him to be a layabout with a long criminal record and a driving disqualification for being drunk!

You dont need Coronation Street to get your soap opera fix, just a shop on Lowther Street in Whitehaven and an ability to smile regardless.


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