Marlene Tolley – Boxing up the expensive items

I wanted to tell you about the boxes ‘cos I thought that was quite important for a quality shop like that, to cover boxes. I don’t know how much the boxes were, and if somebody bought a baby coat or something like that, you laid it in this box with tissue paper, and the tissue never had to be creased.

You put it on the box, and you folded it in the middle until it fitted the right size. You didn’t cut it, you had to make it so that it was smooth and … just those sorts of things that you were taught to do properly. I mean sometimes now you, well, people put things in a box. It still looks nice but to me, it should be folded properly.

You know when people went out with a big carrier bag with H Pack & Co on it, you walked down the street, my God you were somebody. ‘Cos there was another shop at the top of the High Street called Hill’s Stores. I don’t know whether they sold clothes. I can’t really remember.

I know they sold household, sheets and carpets and all that sort of thing, but I think Packs and Fowler’s were the two top shops in Ryde. There was other obviously smaller shops but they were the two what you would say quality shops in those days.