Off we would go and buy ourselves a lovely hot OXO drink
They always say the simple things in life are the best, so back in these good old times if we had been doing a bit of snow shovelling or something to make a penny or two we would splash out on a luxury thing now and again.
Off we would go to Inness’s drinks shop which was at the top of Borough Road in North Shields and buy ourselves a lovely hot OXO drink, which cost no more than 3d if I remember correctly. This to us was heaven sent, especially if we had been snow shovelling for a while and were frozen through. When you got the smell of it your mouth would start to water, knowing what was coming. You really enjoyed the moment.
When we’d finished we would pop outside and if the green bus was in (there was a stop just over the road) we would jump on and go for a return ride to Percy Main. The bus stopped just beside the Pedestrian Tunnel, so you could hop off and tackle the old ballast hill that stood there in those days. Then, when you’d had enough, you hopped back on the bus and returned to Shields, having had a great day for next to nowt.
If I remember right the return ticket was only 2d, or in today’s money (2008) about ½ a new pence. Tell the kids today to go for a bus ride and they’d think you are mad, but to us it was just another piece of good fun and happy carefree times.
Advert for Hot Oxo
Image from Internet Archives Book Images (flickr)