Early Memories

A Memory of South Benfleet.

I was thinking of my early days in Tarpots and I had one of those memory flashes, I'm not sure exactly how old I was but it concerned my first "pocket money" sixpence a week as it turned out, the first issue was a Saturday and with this coin in my pocket I went a got my friend Austin and we walked down to the main road and along the parade of shops and walked along to the Cafe, at that time not run by Ben Matthews but I don't know who it was, as you went in there was a glass cabinet and inside were shelves with CAKES, but been a bit canny we didn't buy cakes at first because sixpence would get you a bottle of Tizer, the one were the bottle was bulged at the top and bottom, having got that we retired somewhere to drink it, and then back to the cafe to get the twopence back on the bottle and then to buy a Nelson slice at a penny each, there sixpence gone in less than half an hour.

Some thing else that strikes me is that there are only two photos of Tarpots on the site, surely there must be some others tucked away in albums or in someones drawer, would be nice to get some additional ones to reminisce over.

Colin Mac

Now know that the cafe was probably the one owned by the Mendoza family who also had the hairdresser's shop on the High Road between Smiths the Ironmongers and Builders merchants and Horace Palmer s place which was the corn and feed merchants.

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