There's Always Been A Chip Shop

A Memory of Crayford.

At leas,t for as long as I can remember - there's always been a chip shop on the Parade at Crayford. Just like there's always been on the corner of Station Road - a little way further through the town - if you can call Crayford a town. There was another that we used to call Greasy Lils - only ever went there once and for good reason. But it was many a time I went into the chip shop on the Parade first, on the way home from school, then on the way home from work or a night out. It was in the early 60's that chip shops began to branch into more exotic food, and suddenly you were able to buy pies and sausage rolls as well as the tradiitional cod or rock and chips. The suddenly it was lumps of chicken - something that in the 50's we only ever saw at Chirstmas Dinner. The chip shop is the only thing that has remained constant on the Parade - Lord knows how many times it has changed hands in the past 50 years - the menu on offer today with it's huge choice is a far cry from when I was a lad, much better if that's your thing, but perhaps no so wholesome. They used to do wet fish - something you never see in a chip shop today. There used to be a shoe shop on the Parade, where Andy's the Barbers is now. I was very young at the time but as I recall, It was the first place I ever saw pointed toe shoes and of course wanted a pair - not that my Mum would oblige. I'm sure there was a greengrocer and butcher there as well, but I couldn't swear to that.
All the other shops I cannot recall - bar one - that will forever stay in my memory. Much prior to 1965 and more like 1956?
It was when I bought a record for the first time in my life. I wasn't very old - maybe nine or so - and had just heard of this new fangled rock and roll. Somehow, I had wangled from my parents the princely sum of five shillings and sevenpence half penny. That's about 28 pence in today's money, but with a hell of a lot more purchasing power in the 50's. Don't forget that then 6d (3 new pence) would buy a huge bags of chips from that very Parade chippie.
There were two record shops in Crayford then, one on the Parade and the other roughly where Peacocks is now. The latter was where I headed first because it was bigger I think they sold record players as well) but popular music stocks then were not exactly the HMV mega store. Those days, there was hardly anything available especially in a hick town like Crayford and the rock era was in its infancy.
I wanted 'See You Later Alligator' by Bill Haley - they didn't have it. Neither did the shop on the Parade. In fact neither of them had much at all.
The shop on the Parade saved the day. Amongst all the Mario Lanza and Lita Rosa (or whatever) they had a tune called 'Heartbreak Hotel' by a new bloke called Elvis Presley. At the time it was probably years old, but I didn't know that. The shop had my 5s 7d and a half and I had my first 78 rpm.
All through this shopping trip it had been raining - and I mean raining - like the entire contents of the River Cray from the last 20 years were faling from the sky in one place. I got back home soaked but happy with a song I had never heard by a singer I had never heard of, all nicely contained in a rather damp sleeve within a very sodden paper bag. I played that record until it was almost worn out.