Any old iron

diable

do you get a Gold Fish?

vivatifosi

I've noticed them again over the past couple of years but didn't see them for a good fifteen to twenty years before then. They still have the hand bell Gen, but mine had a flatbed truck now rather than a horse and cart.

treliac

vivatifosi wrote: »

I've noticed them again over the past couple of years but didn't see them for a good fifteen to twenty years before then. They still have the hand bell Gen, but mine had a flatbed truck now rather than a horse and cart.

Same here. Until recently they were a dim and distant memory, but are now revived and apparently a regular feature of life once a again. I also see them rake through rubbish skips people have on their drives.

I understand they make a tidy sum from scrap metal, which makes me wonder why they seemed to have stopped collecting for so many years.

...

Ian_W

Around here it used to be a Donkey Stone they gave out for scrap or clothing.

Can't say I've noticed any recently. The recyclers around here mostly go for church roof lead or war memorial plaques (callous barstewards!).

Loughton_Monkey

diable wrote: »

do you get a Gold Fish?

Or a cheap plastic water pistol......

Those were the days!

Today, they take the form of white open-backed trucks. They drive around digging into the hundreds of skips around here [so many skips - house improvements - it's becoming hazardous around these parts]

They don't offer any goldfish, though. Health & Safety. Child abuse. Animal Rights. Environment. Recession. Ban on plastic bags. Water shortages. Greenhouse gases......

1984ReturnsForReal_2

I could do with a ton of copper

shaggydoo

dogfish12 wrote: »

In my area the rag and bone man did seem to finish. But now he's back with a vengeance. Price of metals, I imagine, with China taking over the world.

What the heck is a rag and bone man?

Davesnave

The ones I remember had a shout, rather than ringing a bell. I suppose it was based on shouting "Rags and bones!" but it was totally unintelligible regardless of which one was doing the round.:)

And yes, it was the way to a free pet, though the goldfish lasted less than week, probably because of the stress and conditions we kept them in.

While we're on the subject, does anyone remember getting 1/- for taking a mole skin to a police station? I remember it was reputed that one could do that under scheme run by the Ministry of Agriculture, but I never had a chance to test it.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I've never seen or heard one in my life. Are they dressed like Victorian street urchins?

Pete111

We have the modern equivilent.

Basically a slightly grubby duo comprising of the older one who drives a small flatbed lorry and the younger one who leaps out as they drive down the road and grabs and stuff/junk you leave outside for them.

I daresay the odd unintended item has 'accidentally' been picked up however and my wife did once have to stop them when she spotted them eyeing up the hedge trimmer that I had left out front unattended whilst sorting out the garden! Still, a useful sort of service as it saves trips to the tip.