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A Memory of Penge.

Somebody - I believe their Name was Wayne - had once some years ago sent in a memory about the overhead system of Sending the containers of money from the counters in certain shops to the cashiers Offices. At the time I sent in a memory in reply to that one I said that one shop that used this system was Rogers in Penge High Street, up on the right, just before Woolworths. At the same time I sent that memory I had forgotten to also add one more item to that memory from Wayne. It also concerned that overhead system of sending the money containers too.

There was another shop that used that system and it was the large shop next to the Odeon Cinema, but it was the South Suburban Co-operative Society, (commonly known as ''The Co-op'' in those days). Every Friday afternoon my mum would meet my Sister and I from St Johns School and we would go to the two ''co-op'' shops, across The High Street from the one next to ''The Odeon''. One shop was the Butchers and the one next door was the grocery shop. Our mum would wait in the queues at the counters of those shops. I also remember one Afternoon where there was a stand in that shop and they were giving away free cups of ''Bourne Vita'', it was a new bedtime drink similar to ''Ovaltine''. When you bought items from The Co-op in those days you had a dividend number which you stated each time you were served. The Co-op in Penge was quite well known in those days too. I hope that some people from Penge will also remember Penge and its ''co-op shops''.

Anthony Godly, Penge 1945 - 1969