Weird News

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

So your folks allowed you to dictate their path through the market?

I don't think mum saw any value in insisting I go past something that was freaking me out.

We didn't go to the market that often. I daresay had it been a weekly occurence she mayhave taken a different tack.


[eta] and if the next thing you have to say is in any way insinuating that my parents didn't 'do their job properly', you and I are going to fall out.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by DanaC

...was a butcher's stall that always had a pig's head prominently displayed. It gave me the heebie jeebies. I had nightmares about that head...

Pre-'Lord of the Flies', or, post-'Lord of the Flies'?

Originally Posted by DanaC

...and still can't eat fish if it arrives with the head still attached.

I eat nothing that's looking at me.

Well, almost nothing.

[Sundae]

But surely that's an argument for more butchers' shop windows, not less.
I grew up with them, and despite becoming extremely squeamish at about the age of ten (no idea what happened, but all of a sudden blood made me nauseous) they were just part of life.

Even when I felt ill when I saw Give Blood car stickers, I could still walk past a sawdust strewn butchers' shop, because that was where meat came from.
I'd never condone forcing a sensitive child into dissection of an animal or animal part, but I equally would not condone stopping a purveyor of dead animals from displaying their wares.

[Sundae]

I know exactly where that is...

Bill Bryson wrote that he went past a shop which advertised "We buy absolutely anything!"
So he went on and gobbed on the counter and asked "How much for that?"
Of course he didn't really.

They were closed.

[Carruthers]

I know exactly where that is...

And for those who don't....

[xoxoxoBruce]

Have some dead birds. I guess all the old timers in Wycombe are traumatized.

[glatt]

Seems like it would be more sanitary to keep them alive in a pen in back and slaughter them at time of sale. Those ones up high look like they may have turned.

[xoxoxoBruce]

They're ripening.

[Clodfobble]

That's a lot of damn birds. They had to expect to sell those by the end of the day, if they were put out like that, surely? Maybe it was Thanksgiving or Christmas and they knew every person in town would be coming to get one?

[glatt]

Wouldn't there be a kid on a giant step ladder ready to retrieve birds if they were selling that many in a day?

[footfootfoot]

Surely you've read Two Bad Mice? (Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca)
"It's as hard as the hams at the
cheesemonger's," said Hunca Munca.

The ham broke off the plate with a
jerk, and rolled under the table.

"Let it alone," said Tom Thumb;
"give me some fish, Hunca Munca!"

Hunca Munca tried every tin spoon
in turn; the fish was glued to the dish.

Then Tom Thumb lost his temper.
He put the ham in the middle of the
floor, and hit it with the tongs and
with the shovel--bang, bang, smash,
smash!

The ham flew all into pieces, for
underneath the shiny paint it was
made of nothing but plaster!

Then there was no end to the rage
and disappointment of Tom Thumb
and Hunca Munca. They broke up the
pudding, the lobsters, the pears and
the oranges.

Obviously those upper birds are plaster and not pining for the fjords

[glatt]

I just sauntered off to do a Google search on plaster birds hanging in butcher shops, and found this.

weird news indeed.

[Sundae]

Maybe. I can't tell from the photo, but you hang game. If they're game birds and it's Winter then they need to be hung anyway, may as well make a display of it.

[Carruthers]

I've saved, and magnified, the photo and the top seven rows on the gable end appear to be rabbits, with game birds and poultry below.
The wall on the left hand side appears to be mostly covered in pheasants with some poultry.

I can only speculate but here goes. I wonder if this is a Christmas display? As it would be the first Christmas of WW2 it was probably an effort to show that everything was running as normal.
There is still a shooting estate just outside High Wycombe and no doubt there were more in those days so supplies were unlikely to have been a problem at that stage of the war.

Just my two penn'orth.

ETA: OK, I've just found some more info. The letters 'POU' are just visible on the right hand side of the picture.
Using some inspired searching around the word 'Poulterer' I came up with a bit more info including another photo.
I'm not going to post the photo here as it is available from a commercial photo library and is watermarked. However, the information reads:

23rd December 1939: A poulterer's in High Wycombe with an elaborate Christmas display. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

The building is considerably larger than it appears in Bruce's post above and there doesn't seem to be a square inch of wall visible anywhere.

See for yourselves here: Getty Images.

[glatt]

Nice find.